Baby Spoon and Fork Introduction

 In this tutorial article, we’re going to teach you how to do baby spoon and fork introduction. You can use any kind of baby spoon and fork that you want. The great thing is that you have lots of options in the market today that are cheap, safe, and can be delivered right into your homes. Make sure to buy a toddler set as well. In this article, you’ll learn about baby spoon and fork introduction

Metal Cutlery vs. Plastic Cutlery

Before anything else, one of the first things you need to keep in mind is that, it doesn’t matter what kind of color or design you use; just make sure that the tip are made of metal. Plastic silverware tends to be a lot more slippery for babies in general.  This is particularly true if your baby is just starting to learn how to use a fork. They will try to stab pieces of foods, and with plastic forks, the food tends to fall off. Babies are usually frustrated when this happens.

If you provide them with metal spoon and fork that’s right for their size then they will definitely have a lot more success with it, and they would want to keep trying this activity on their own; until eventually they learn how to do it properly.

When to Introduce

As far as when do baby spoon and fork introduction, You’re going to be able to introduce a spoon from as soon as you start solid foods which is around when your baby is 6 months old. For the fork, you have to wait until your baby is roughly 9 to 10 months old. When your baby starts developing their pinching or grasping abilities; that’s usually a good time to start giving them the fork. You can certainly introduce the fork before 9 months and see how they do. However, for most moms out there, they feel like their toddler was going through this process, some of them don’t have a good command of how to use the fork and they don’t know what to do with it until they’re around 9 months old.

Keep in mind that every baby has their own unique learning pace so it’s really up to you on how you’ll use judgment as a parent. If this is your baby’s first time of using the spoon and fork, you’ll really never know how it’s going to go but with this tutorial guide, you can somehow learn the steps on how to do it. Expect that every baby is different, and just always be patient if your baby will try to throw the spoon or fork away at first. Let’s get started!

Step #1:

Pre – load the spoon for your baby. Keep in mind that the scooping motion will happen after lots of practices. For now, you really have to start spoon – feeding your toddler.

Step #2:

Once you have pre – load the spoon, what your baby should do is to take the spoon or grasp it in his/ her hand. Expect your kid to start tasting the food. This is the start of self – feeding for them. When it comes to the kind of food that you need to introduce to your baby using a spoon for the very first time, it’s up to you on what kind of nutrition you prefer. You can start feeding them Greek yogurt, or baby oatmeal or other homemade baby food. What you want is to feed them with thick and something that will stay on the spoon so that your baby will get a hold of the food well.

Step #3:

For the first spoonful of oatmeal, make sure to pre – load it with your chosen baby food but don’t load too much. Just 2 small scoops of food will do. Make sure to put a little bit on the tip of the spoon as well. The way for you to know that the food is thick enough is that even if you turn it upside down, it doesn’t fall off, or it doesn’t go to the side. In this way, your toddler will find it easier to get the food into his/ her mouth if it’s able to stick to the spoon.

Step #4:

You don’t want to anticipate a lot of food going down or being swallowed by your child. Your baby might spit a whole lot of food right back but that’s normal in the beginning stage.

Step #5:

The next thing you need to do is to give the spoon to your baby, he/ she should get interested by it. Once the spoon is near her, he/ she might start to grab it from you, and eventually put it in her mouth. Once your baby does that, just let him/ her hold the spoon for a while and see if he/ she eats the food. Don’t forget the bib!

Step #6:

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What your child should eventually learn is the “give and take” process. Once the spoon is empty, you need to take it back from your baby. Then reload it with your food and then give it right back. Your baby might get a little bit frustrated because your taking the spoon from them, but once the baby has learned that it’s coming back with more food, then they will start to become patient.

Step #7:

You can expect your baby to stick the spoon quite far back but and they sort of gag on it but that’s normal. Your baby will eventually learn how to use the spoon and how far they need to put it in their mouth. It’s best to expect a huge mess when you start doing this, so make sure to cover your baby with his/ her bib outfit.

Step #8:

When you start introducing fork to your baby (keep in mind that it should be done at 9 months old or when your baby already learned to grasp), it’s highly recommended to start out with foods that are easy to stab. Make sure to cut the food into bite – size pieces. You can try little pieces of toast or foods that can easily be stabbed and stay on the fork. You don’t want to give them pieces of avocado or other fruits that can easily slip because if they successfully stab the fruit but it slip away or falls right, your baby will get frustrated.

Step #9:

Once your baby has a better mastery at how to use the fork, then it’s okay to start giving them some of those more slippery foods. At some point, you have to let them experience a little bit of frustration as they are trying to learn. Eventually your kid will learn how to manoeuvre the fork in the right way.

Step #10:

The process of baby spoon and fork introduction can be quite challenging at first especially when you’re starting out but with patience and practice, your baby will eventually learn how to do it. The goal is for them to be able to independently scoop the food using the spoon or stab it using the fork all by themselves.