Tommy's favorite flatware

Self-feeding is a very important skill to master for toddlers because it's the express way to independence. For kids with Hypotonia (low muscle tone), self-feeding is a process that requires a lot of patient and perseverance from parents and kids. In my personal experience, it has been one of the most hardest skills for me and my son to master. I have struggled with it because of the mess and my cultural background. In Panama, we don't let babies to eat with their hands and toddlers don't eat with utensil until they are about 3 years old. So, Panamanian moms don't go through a training process because the kids at age of 3 are mature enough with the gross motor skills necessaries to naturally eat with utensils. But in my son's case I had to chose the American way because self-feeding is a good way to strength the fine muscles and get wrist control, which are important pre-skills for hand-writing.

In the process, it has been tears. Tommy used to try so hard to get the food on the spoon and he used to make sure he was doing it right, but when he raised the spoon the food felt, so he used to get so frustrated that he badly cried . Of course, I couldn't resist and I cried, too. Because I knew how hard he was trying and he knew what to do, but his muscle didn't respond in the way they should.

I tried the best I could to help him to accomplish this milestone. I read the book Feeding and Nutrition for the Child with Special Needs by Marsha Dunn Klein and Tracy A. Delaney. It was very helpful in the process. I got many spoons I could to find the one he could feel comfortable with. I spent money finding the right spoon for him, but I always had the right spoons with me without knowing it. It was the spoon that my mom used with my sister and me when we where little. He was giving up in the process because of the frustration until I gave him this spoon to eat this weekend. Then, it happened; he is eating all his meals with spoon. After seeing he is eating comfortable with spoon, I offered him a medium size spoon from our Oneida flatware following the advise of my sister-in-law and he is eating even better with it. I have learned a lesson, before going crazy buying too many things I should look around the house and work with sources I already have.




During the process of eating with utensils, I noticed Tommy has done two things different of what I read. First, mastering self-feeding with a fork is harder than with the spoon, but for Tommy was the opposite. He is doing really good with fork feeding, he just need little help; so, by the coming weeks he may be eating with the fork without help, too. Second, the spoon with short handles are easy to start; but, for Tommy medium size spoons work better and he holds the spoon at the end of the handle and not close to the bowl. So, I have learned there are always exceptions and I shouldn't rule out any possibility to help my son; even although, it goes against the experts.

Enjoy the video of my big boy
eating with spoon