HOW TO TEACH YOUR BABY TO USE A SPOON

It is best to teach your child to eat independently with a spoon or fork when he\she is ready for it.

Usually, in kids, interest in self-feeding develops cyclically.

- The child is actively interested in forks/spoons and trying to use them for their intended purpose)
- The child is interested mainly in pieces, often large

If you catch the cycle of interest in the spoon, then the learning process will be as simple as possible, quick and not stressful for the mom and baby.

It is easiest to teach to eat with a spoon or fork in two stages:

1. The first stage is an acquaintance with the mechanics of the process. That is, how to bring a spoon to the mouth, open the mouth and eat the food off the spoon.

Instead of bringing the spoon to the child’s mouth, put a small amount of food on the spoon and offer the baby not at the level of his\her mouth but at the level of their hands. But as close as possible to the baby, even if they are absolutely not used to this movement reflexively, they will pull the spoon.
At this point, you simply let go of the spoon and, thus, the child understands that he\she can take a spoon and carry it to the mouth.
Offer your child to eat this way for several days until you realize that this movement is sufficiently fulfilled. 
Your child no longer opens his\her mouth to the spoon, but takes it from you.
Often at this stage, the child begins to signal that he wants to scoop himself with a spoon.
As a rule, it does not look exactly the way we would like it to be. The child is just trying to "strike" the plate with a spoon, or move it with a spoon because he\she still does not know how to do it right.
If you do not observe such a signal, this is also within the normal range. Not all children are initiative, you can gently push the baby if you see that the first stage has been passed.

2. The second stage is to help your child scoop the food with a spoon. When we give a spoon to the child with food, he eats it and gives it to you or tries to put it in the plate, we help him.
You hold his fist, in which the spoon lies, with your hand (if the child is hypersensitive and does not like open help, then we take the tip of the spoon with our fingers) and gently direct the spoon to the plate. From the edge of the plate, we scoop some food on the spoon and let go of the babies hand. It is convenient to start teaching your baby to scoop porridge from a flat plate and not deep.

Important!
- In order for the child to understand what to do with the spoon, he\she has to understand that people feed themselves, and not each other, he needs an example of an "independent consumer" i.e you. Therefore, it is important to eat with your child, especially if you want to teach your child a new skill.
- It is advisable to choose a convenient plate, teaspoons. But choose from the dishes you have and see if it is convenient for your child to use it.
- Do not demand too much at once. For a child, this is a complicated and incomprehensible action. He needs experience to get well started. Therefore, be prepared to wash the kitchen for the first time, and it is better to strip your child to their diaper.