self-feeding

[sharlan]

At what age do you expect a toddler to self-feed finger foods - pieces of fruit, cooked veggies, eggs, noodles, etc?

I've always expected them to start at about 9 mos to a year.

[craftymissbeth]

8-10 months... I'm honestly afraid I'll get a child that can't self feed at 12 months mostly because at that age they're eating what the older kids eat and there's no way I'm going to hand feed a 1 year old unless there's a medical reason.

[daycare]

depends on their culture and age. My husband is Asian. His parents feed my niece who lives with them still like a little baby. She is almost 8.

I have kids that are almost 3 that come from the same culture and they can't self feed.


My DCKs all have to self feed by hand or spoon, or I will not enroll...

But I only take youngest at 16months if I really really need to.

[Heidi]

8-10 months here, too.

My last one to join the group was 9 months old and completely adult fed baby food when she started. By the end of the second week, she was completely self-feeding. She still needed help with a sippy-cup, but she figured out how to get food from her plate to her face dang quick.

[Heidi]

depends on their culture and age. My husband is Asian. His parents feed my niece who lives with them still like a little baby. She is almost 8.

I have kids that are almost 3 that come from the same culture and they can't self feed.


My DCKs all have to self feed by hand or spoon, or I will not enroll...

But I only take youngest at 16months if I really really need to.

I've noticed this, too.

[LysesKids]

depends on their culture and age. My husband is Asian. His parents feed my niece who lives with them still like a little baby. She is almost 8.

I have kids that are almost 3 that come from the same culture and they can't self feed.

My DCKs all have to self feed by hand or spoon, or I will not enroll...

But I only take youngest at 16months if I really really need to.

Not all Asians do this; my Japanese parents always wanted their kids independent and most of mine could hand feed themselves between 10 months & a year old... the Chinese moms, yeah they pamper excessively; I had one kid carried everywhere and was still fed by mom & dad at 18 months old because she got too messy otherwise ( their words). I proved to them she could do it by snapping a pic one day at lunch.

They were still planning on feeding her at home... she aged out 3 months later

[AmyKidsCo]

It definitely can be cultural, but it could also be a family preference. As much as most Americans value independence, not all do, and people with different backgrounds don't always either.

That said, unless a child has been taught to rely on others to feed him, I expect them to start self-feeding somewhere between 10-12 months.

[renodeb]

I would say 8-12 mos. but I have had a few that have been slow starters. By 12 mos they are mostly eating what the others eat.
Deb

[Rachel]

Also 8-12 months, depends on the kid. It also depends how much formula / breastmilk they are drinking. I've had some kids as old as 15 months still pretty exclusively on milk, and others at 6 months feed themselves everything with maybe 1 bottle a day.

[BrooklynM]

For me, it's not necessarily their age, but if they have met certain criteria- they can sit up on their own, they are introduced to foods, and they have teeth, although, if they are late to get teeth, they can certainly gum some things. I think certainly by about 9 or 10 months they should be able to feed themselves some things and by a year, they should pretty much be able to eat everything the other kids are, just cut up smaller. However, no 2 babies are alike so you have to make sure that you go along with their capabilities. Some babies will be a lot sooner, some a little later if they have some coordination issues.