Anyone Else's Little One Have Trouble Learning to Use a Spoon?

She's only 6 months old, so don't push the spoon! Who cares? By the time they graduate from high school, they are all potty-trained, using spoons, and brushing their teeth. Is she a thumb-sucker? My son was, and it totally affected his tongue-thrusting movements and ability to move food back into his throat. His problem wasn't solved until orthodontics kicked in. Look into other ways to get the nutrition in. Don't compette with other kids/parents on spoon mechanics - it doesn't matter in the long run!

hi
My advice is to let her sip from the spoon at first. when she realizes how good the food is she'll start opening her mouth when she sees the spoon comming. that's when you can actually get the spoon in there!. also make sure she really is hungery when you sit her in the high chair. another tip (from my father no less!) is to try and get the tip of the spoon under her tongue to help lift it into swallowing position.

Tammy D gave the best advice you could possibly get here - your baby is WAY too young to have developed the motor skills to use a spoon at six months. If she hasn't been eating regularly for awhile already, she may not have developed the tongue-thrust mechanism yet. If she doesn't have this reflex, you should keep trying a bit or two of runny rice cereal every couple of nights until she gets the hang of it. When she's able to, she'll start swallowing on her own. When she does, gradually go up in textures and then introduce finger foods (like cheerios) when she can use her pincer-grasp reflexes and pick things up herself with her thumb and index finger. Spoon feeding herself will come much, much later. When my baby was six months old, she'd fuss to hold the spoon, so I gave her one to hold and play with and used another to actually feed her. Don't worry about this at all - it's very normal.

First, I would like to reassure you that your little one is NOT having trouble learning to use a spoon. I am a pediatric physical therapist and 6 months of age is when children are just learning to explore with their hands. They use primitive hand grasp for the most part and are just starting to develop individual finger skills at this age. Using a spoon is considered a "fine motor skill" which requires the coordinated use of multiple groups of muscles in the shoulder, arm, hand, fingers and the related use of muscles in the face head and neck. That is alot of work. The mean (average) age for functional spoon use in children is actually 13-15 months (and usually with much mess and practice) and finger foods usually come first. Relax, enjoy feeding your little one, engage her in the process as much as she's willing and don't make it a stressful experience for either of you. She's doing fine! As for not latching on, my son did the same thing and after months of trying we gave up and switched to a bottle, he is a healthy, happy, strong 12 year old now. My daughter did alot of gagging when textured food was introduced, but with practice and experience, it gradually subsided. Don't alter the texture of the food too much from meal to meal, keep it fairly consistent so that her body can adapt and "learn" to handle that texture. You may have to go a bit slower introducing new things and give her a chance to adapt to the new foods. If you are really still concerned, ask to consult with a feeding specialist, usually an occupational or speech therapist who specializes in evaluating feeding difficulties.

I had the same experience with spoon feeding my youngest (now 16 months). We also had a lot of trouble with latching. When you do get the food in her mouth does she seem to almost choke on it? We also noticed, with our baby, that he seemed to struggle to mimic us. Like with the D sound in dada. Anyhow, we asked our pediatrician if he could be tongue tied. He sent us to a specialist at Children's and we had a simple 1 minute day surgery to correct it. My oldest son, who is now 18 was tongue tied, but it was much more obvious. That is the only reason I really thought to ask. Good luck.

Hi A.-
I definitely wouldn't worry about it! I'm pretty sure that comes a little later... after the whole pincer grasp/fine motor thing. My son is 9 months old, loves to eat finger foods and play with the spoon. :) He'll put the spoon in his mouth, but mostly just to chew on it. His cousin is a year old and doesn't spoon feed herself either. Just let your little one practice feeding herself with her fingers... the spoon will come later. Good luck!

We started cereal about 6mo old also. My oldest child never had any problems and took to the spoon and table foods quick. My 2nd child had a very hard time with the spoon at 6mo old, and it really took a couple of months for her to get use to it. Once she had more textured foods she would often gag. She was just sensitive to this kind of stuff, but now she is 19mo old and eats fantastic!! I'd say to make sure the cereal isnt too thick, and dont think at first she will really get a full meal out of the cereal, it is really just practice at first. They are use to sucking nothing but liquid for 6months, it is a big adjustment. Just be patient and keep trying small amounts for your baby. Best of Luck

well i have a now about 20 month old daughter.. she NEVER had trouble eating or any trouble with her appetite.. she did however gag sometimes but i just thinned her food.. as for her trying to feed herself with a spoon.. adrianna didnt do that for awhile.. BUT what i used to do was give her own spoon while i fed her with the one i was using.. then she started putting just the spoon in her mouth.. after awhile i would help her get some food on there and she would turn the spoon while getting it to her mouth aand drop everything.. so i just got the food on there and handed he the spoon and helped her guide it to her mouth.. she eventually got the hang of it.. maybe that will help you and emma.. also i would give her things i could eat with her ( yo baby yougurt) and e would shar a spoon she would watch how i did it.. then she would get the spoon and i would help her get some on there and guide it to er mouth.. she seemed to good learning by watching.. i just exaggerated the movements for her and did it slowly. hope it helps!
i have a 19 month old ( addy) and a 3 1/2 month old (louis)

she's still very young! just let her play with it, it'll come.

Hi A.,

My son didn't get over his chunky-food gag reflex (i.e. "pea readiness") until he'd had spoonfed mushy solids for almost two months, and I didn't even start him on solids 'til he was about 7 months old, so it may just take time and getting-used-to. I just gradually upped the chunkiness and eventually he got the concept of letting stuff dissolve/mush around in his mouth. (Before, if I fed him a mostly-mushy food with some chunks, like cottage cheese, he'd swallow the liquid and spit out the curds!) :)

Cheers,
C.

A.,
Just be prepared to allow for a mess for a while (plastic bibs help). it took my son a good 6 months to really get it right and be proud of himself. Until then he just tried and tried and got about half of the food in there, but it was important to let him figure it out. They take pride in things like that. You're way ahead of the game starting at 6 months..

There is a place in Framingham called Therapro and they sell these great angled spoons with a thick rubber handle...they are great! Check it out...they may have a website.