The Journey of Parenthood…

Big Boy Spoon/Fork

Back at Kye’s 1 year pediatrician visit the doctor said that we should start introducing silverware and let Kye get accustomed to using it. After that visit we just started to give Kye a fork or spoon (whichever was appropriate) with his meals. Typically, he would just ignore them but he is at an age where he likes to copy whatever Mommy and Daddy do so he did start picking them up pretty quickly!

Here’s a couple pictures of the first time we gave him “silverware”

If he uses it (even if nothing is on it) I always sing a little song: “big boy eating with your forky fork” (catchy I know). 

I quickly realized that the little plastic forks that come with the Take and Toss sets are a JOKE. How can you pick up any food with those things?!? The plastic spoons are semi-useless as well and we graduated to metal ones early on. When Nana passed away I actually found some children’s sized Disney character silverware at her house and I kept them to use once Kye was ready. They really are the perfect size and the fork can actually stab food! I’ve also bought some Gerber forks and really like them as well.

practicing stabbing with an adult salad fork

Now Kye will whine if we forget to give him silverware with his meal. Sometimes I have actually given him adult sized silverware and it works fine too! He still typically needs me to put the food on the spoon or fork but he is getting better and better with it every day. He still uses his hands majority of the time but when he sees us use our silverware he will pick up his to use and he is able now to scoop with the spoon or stab with the fork and eat off of it! 

using his “big boy” spoon!

I have no clue what the “normal” age for this stuff is so I don’t really know if it’s “normal” for a 15 month old to be using silverware or not…he could be mega behind on this I’m not sure! I don’t like to put ANY pressure on him to “achieve” things. I may have shown some annoyance on here with how long he took to walk but I never once tried to coax him to walk before he was ready. I believe that a child will do things when they are ready to do them and that putting pressure on them only makes them feel stressed or feel the need to be perfect or that they are some how letting us down. I congratulate Kye when he chooses to use the fork or spoon but I don’t get on to him for using his hands. With time I’m sure he’ll be using silverware to eat just like the rest of us do! You don’t really see any 13 year olds eating applesauce with their hands ya know? I guess maybe at some point I should correct him when he goes to use his hands??? What do some of you more experienced mommies do??? I still think he’s much to young to be using silverware 100% of the time but maybe I’m just still stuck on the idea that he’s my little baby 🙂

I was pretty impressed when Mom showed me the video she took of Kye using his spoon while we were in Playa Del Carmen and for the past month he’s really made advances with this. Here’s a recent video of Kye using his big boy spoon all by himself and another video too!

I know y’all love seeing pictures of him eating his “Magic Breakfast” haha

Emily Parker
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