A child up to one year old can be easily taught to eat from a spoon, and no special effort is needed, it is enough to give the baby this cutlery at the same time as introducing complementary foods and show how to use it.
When is the best time to start spoon teaching?
If you want your baby to quickly become independent and learn to eat with a spoon, you can start teaching your baby to use this cutlery simultaneously with the introduction of complementary foods. Of course, a six-month-old baby controls his movements with great difficulty and cannot feed himself, but it will be very interesting for him to hold a spoon in his hands.
Often you can observe the following picture: a mother feeds a baby, he grabs a spoon with his hands, but the woman hastily empties the cutlery and says that this is not necessary. After several such twitches, the baby will lose interest in this subject, or even remember that there is no need to touch him. As a result, when parents begin to teach the child to be independent, he may refuse to feed himself. It will take a long time to teach such a baby to eat with a spoon. That is why it is necessary to accustom to a spoon when interest arises in it. When giving your baby food on her own, try to minimize the potential "damage" in advance. If it is warm at home, it is better to undress the child, but if it is cool, put on clothes that you do not mind getting dirty. Do not place your child over a carpet, near wallpaper, curtains, etc. - it is rather difficult to predict the flight path of mashed potatoes or porridge.
How to teach a child to eat from a spoon?
To begin with, the child should have individual cutlery. A baby spoon should be comfortable, lightweight and cute. It is better to immediately buy two identical spoons, so that one to give to the crumbs in the pen, and the second to feed. In the first year of life, most children have a good appetite, and the feeling of hunger forces them to try their best to master the management of cutlery. Given this, you need to give a spoon to the baby at the very beginning of feeding, and not when he is already full. At first, help the baby by holding and guiding his hand. Mastering a new skill is hard work, and the baby may get tired without having eaten, then you just need to feed him yourself.
It is good if the baby learns to eat independently in the company of the rest of the family. Looking at how adults eat, the child will begin to learn this skill faster. Never swear when food falls on the floor or smears on the table, be patient. Think about the fact that everyone was once small and did not know how to eat themselves, but this does not prevent anyone from building houses and piloting airplanes now. In just a few months, the baby's movements will become more precise and confident. Not wanting to put up with dirty floors and clothes, some parents leave spoon training for later, thinking that at an older age, the child will learn to eat faster. However, in this case, the baby can get so used to being fed that he simply does not want to bother himself.
