How does your child eat meals?

How does your 18 month old eat?

Do you put it on their highchair and they feed themselves? Do you feed them? Do they use a spoon or fork?

Megan likes me to give her breakfast. I break it into little pieces and put it in her mouth, if I dont do this, she throws it on the floor. I have to sit right next to her.

For lunch, she does a little better. She will feed herself.

Dinner is like breakfast though, I have to give it to her.

SHould they be feeding themselves by this point? She eats cookies, crackers and fruit by herself but she still LOVES to throw things.

Can you tell 18 months is throwing me for a loop?!?!

Re: How does your child eat meals?

At 15 months she will feed herself, but lately when she's had enough, which is sometimes after one bite...she shoves everything off the plate or highchair onto the floor.

Also - she won't wear a bib and eating gets VERY messy. When she is tired after her hands are all messy she rubs them in her hair.

I find she eats the most when she is able to feed herself and I can't even talk to her. She's pretty independent like that. And I have to cut things up in little pieces because she will shove the whole thing in her mouth - she's not good at holding a sandwich and taking bites...she feels the need to shove it all in at once.

Re: How does your child eat meals?

I think he started feeding himself close to 2 years. yes he was a food thrower also...luckily for me that stage has passed.

I would feed him ...now he feeds himself. I still keep him in a high chair. Sometimes I let him eat of our ottoman bench in front of the tv.

Re: How does your child eat meals?

I put Ali in the highchair (occasionally - she won't go in the highchair, so I will put the food on a plate on the coffee table - but this is not often)

She feeds herself, usually with her hands, but she is starting to get a couple of things with the fork and spoon.
I do feed her yogurt too - she can sometimes, but there are just days I don't feel like washing her hair in the middle of the day

Hope that helped

Re: How does your child eat meals?

Bryan will be 13 months next week.
All 3 meals are given to him in his high chair. He loves to feed himself cookies, crackers, waffles and sometimes cheerios.
The rest of the food (he's not a big fan of chicken or meat) I hide it in veggies and feed it to him.
Hopefully he'll continue to "Get it" and do more on his own.
Ooh...he gets some puffs in his mouth, and the rest go on the floor for the cat to play with. According to Bryan, it's pretty funny. LOL

Re: How does your child eat meals?

most of the time in a high-chair.
MUST have a fork and he's a pro with the fork. (wont take the spoon seriously though )
he LOVES to feed himself so I let him. meatballs, pasta, cheerios, you name it, he "forks" it.
I also break up wheat bread/cheese, waffles, etc. and let him eat on his own.

I do feed him yogurts, jarred fruits, etc.

Re: How does your child eat meals?

My kid eats sometimes waking around, sometimes in his chair, sometimes watching tv. Somenights he wants to be fed, others he feeds himself Depends what night of the week it is and if the moon is full on a Tuesday when the wind is blowing to the NE!

Re: How does your child eat meals?

Lauren eats every meal in the highchair. She needs to be or she's be running all over.

She gets all her meals on a plate and gets a fork and spoon. She can use both equally well, but a good meal she'll use her fork 60% of the time and her hands 40% of the time.

I don't have to feed her, she eats very well. She is 21 months now.

Re: How does your child eat meals?

This is what I have done in the past...keep in mind please that the twins are 9 and Ariel is 14..all kids are different. Once they can finger feed themselves I stop feeding them foods that they can fee themselves..Lunch might be a grilled cheese sandwich and noodle soup. I give them the sandwich to eat themselves and then feed them to soup. Breakfast might be a banana and yogurt..they feed themselves the banana and I give them the yogurt. It usually saves me from having to sit right next to them at every feeding...I still get some things done in the kitchen this way...I'll just have to see how my method works on DS.

Re: How does your child eat meals?

My DS is 20m and he feeds himself. Sometimes with a fork or spoon and sometimes with his fingers. I don't interfere except to show him how to scoop up rice and other small stuff.

ETA: He has a booster seat at the table and is strapped in. otherwise he'd be standing up or getting out of the chair.

Message edited 2/10/2008 12:30:02 AM.

Re: How does your child eat meals?

I stopped the highchair at about 15ish months. We had a little table where he would eat his meals. the spoon was mastered by that time - otherwise everything was just cut up into bite sized pieces.

the fork wasnt mastered until about 2 years.

Re: How does your child eat meals?

in a highchair... always has a fork, uses it when she feels like it...won't let me feed her anything...

Re: How does your child eat meals?

DS will be 17 months on the 22nd, he feeds himself and wil either use his hands or a fork. He does really well with a fork, so cute!

ETA: he eats in his highchair

Message edited 2/10/2008 8:04:38 AM.

Re: How does your child eat meals?

Andy is stubborn and only wants to feed himself. He's in a booster seat at our dining room table for meals.

Message edited 2/10/2008 8:09:57 AM.

Re: How does your child eat meals?

My 16 month old isn't a big eater so if I don't feed her....she'd rather not eat. She also takes forever to eat. Often, it's half of the meal sitting the highchair and the other half on the run.

Really eating has been such a big issue for us. She gained 1/2 lb in 4 months.

Re: How does your child eat meals?

My boys are almost 17 months and feed themselves finger foods, they try to feed themself with a spoon or fork, but we do that on bath nights because it sure is messy

Message edited 2/10/2008 9:51:14 AM.