How to get 1yo to use a fork

[Onelittleprincess]

DD uses her hands to feed herself dinner. But we'd like her to start using a fork to feed herself. If I give her one I end up picking it up more then I do the food. She has no intrest in it. Any suggestions??

[HotI]

Do you have kid sized cutlery? You could try different types to find ones that your little one likes.

I kinda think you just keep offering the cutlery and showing her that you use it and one day she will get it.

[Tan2705]

I honestly wouldn't worry just have it there for her and when she is interested in usinG it she will...

[beansbeans!]

With both girls, I would give them the kid sized forks and let them explore with them. I would show them, help them and encourage them but only if they were interested in me helping them. At first they would still eat using their fingers, then they would spread and fling the food round, then eventually they got the idea. DD2 is ok at using one now, but she persists because she wants to be like her big sis.
good luck, and eventually she will get the hang of it.

[butterfly_warrior]

My nearly two and a half year old still struggles with using a fork. The fork to mouth part is fine, but the food on fork (or spoon) part of things is a bit more difficult for him. We often have him eating with the fork in one hand and the other hand picking up the food and going straight to his mouth.

If the cutlery is there, they will eventually start using it. At this age, food is more than just eating - they need to explore all aspects of it, including the texture and I honestly think that insisting that she only use a fork at this age is going to lead to a lot more issues down the track than dealing with eating with her hands and making a mess will for now.

BW

[Catastrophic]

I just started giving them the fork/spoons and help them if they needed it. It's much more fun an natural to use our hands, she will get it eventually


Love MN ;-)

[~Stoked~]

My 17 month old is an absolute pro at using cutlery! I made sure I got similar looking mini cutlery to ours and just started giving them to him to use about 3 months ago. He wasn't really interested at first but the last 6 weeks or so he has been using them more than his hands. I can't believe the accuracy now.. He eats everything with very little mess.. Yoghurt, curry and rice, omelette, pasta etc. He is actually a neater eater than my 11 year old!

Keep offering them to your DD to use. She will eventually want to copy the adults and will get the hang of it.

[Floweryfields]

I would be getting her to master the spoon before a fork - forks require much more fine motor control - usually 2-3 year olds master the fork.

[starangelk]

We've just started using a fork with DD but only because she showed so much enthusiasm when she saw mine. She's been using a spoon for a little while now but mostly I am still loading it and then leaving it in the bowl and she picks it up and puts it to her mouth. We're just doing the same thing with the fork, loading it up and leaving it in her bowl. Sometimes she puts it to her mouth and eats and sometimes she uses her other hand to remove the food from the fork and then eats it that way. I'm just happy she is getting used to them - we use kiddy sized cutlery.

[Onelittleprincess]

We have kids cutlery. Spoon or fork she has no intrest in it. We dint eat with her tho. She has dinner at 5 while I get ready for work. Sometimes we eat together but that's probably once or twice in the past month.

[starangelk]

Us too - we don't eat with Dd either, she eats at 5:30/6pmish while I am cooking dinner for us. She just saw me eat lunch on the weekend with it and got really excited. Then my Dad fed her some coleslaw with it and I was surprised she took it because we do BLS and she's not a fan of us feeding her at all.