Utensils

Eddie is typically a good eater. He likes to self feed. He especially likes to grab the spoon and wave it around, flinging food everywhere and then maybe stick the spoon in his mouth. Sometimes he will stick the spoon straight in his mouth, as a sort of trick. When I let go, then he flings the food, the spoon, and everything to the floor. He is also fond of taking a hold of the spoon, and trying to dip it into whatever I'm feeding him. If I let him, he'll do this over and over, each time, spreading more food around. I can't decide if he is really trying to get something on the spoon, or just playing.

I want to encourage him to learn how to feed himself. It's a fine line between how much mess I am willing to take that day and how much I want to encourage his development in this area. What I would really like to encourage is for him to completely self feed. (Dennis, as you may recall taught him to hold a bottle himself around 5 months--I had no idea how liberating that was until I learned that other kids his age were not holding their bottles).

So, I've gotten a variety of spoons (and a fork) pictured here. For those with no interest in infant implements, you can skip ahead two paragraphs. On the package, each yells "pick me, pick me" for a different reason. I fell for them, described from left to right. The first one is a "dipper" with the idea that your child can dip into something and not worry about the difficulty in getting the food onto a spoon, because it is somehow supposed to be easier to get on the Dipper, an infant spork (fork/spoon in one). But in my mind, unless there is a magnet that sucks the food onto the spork, thus far, this has been a waste of money, it's actually easier for him to get food onto a regualr spoon. The next one, with the holes in it "guarentees" that the food will stay on the spoon better. While this does so far seem accurate, what they don't tell you (and I wasn't thinking clearly enough to realize) is that the spoon is too big to fit in the baby's mouth. It's the size of an adult spoon!

The next set, the fork and spoon set is cute, but again, the spoon is a little big for him, and I do like the tines of the fork, but he's got a little while before he will be able to self feed with a fork. The yellow polka dotted one, has a wavy-curved handle for ease of grip. Don't really use it much, but it's fun to look at. Next we have the workhorses of our kitchen. The "take and toss" spoons we've been using from the beginning. These things are great. They fit into our travel case we bought to hold the spoons and we don't care if they get lost. The last spoon pictured has a nice rubber coating and a comfortable arm. Eddie loves to gnaw on the "spoon" part. This comes in handy when trying to feed him medicine. Oh and the spoon part is temperature sensitive, so it turns white if it gets too hot--or in this case, is run through the dishwasher numerous times.

So there you have it. In case you are in the market for baby spoons. It's not comprehensive, but a representative sample of our inventory. The picture of Eddie cracks me up. "what you talkin' 'bout?"

Thanks by the way for all your encouragement on the sick front in terms of my compentence as a mother. He's feeling much better and we learn a bit more with each experience.