The adventure of first solid foods is definitely a fun one. Then there is the next challenge. Teaching your child how to eat all by themselves, WITH utensils such as a toddler spoon. (Unless of course you’ve gotten to the point where it’s just easier to let them eat with their hands!)
Forks are easy. Stabbing the food seems to be a fun activity for kids and they usually grasp it really quickly. The spoon on the other hand is a whole other ball game. Not only do they have to scoop food onto it, but then there comes the challenge of keeping the food on the spoon the whole way to their mouths! I’ve noticed that my son likes to dip his spoon, and after asking a few other moms, “dipping” is a thing. It must be a stage because my son is definitely learning how to scoop now. However, we’ve tried all sorts of toddler travel spoons for “dippers” and these were our favorite ones!
Num Num Dips Now these are awesome. Awesome awesome awesome, however…I didn’t really feel like this helped him NOT dip. While it really does work (as long as you have a form of puree that is deep enough), it encouraged him to dip, so while I think these are AMAZING for kids who dip or younger babies it’s not exactly the stage that we are at. We are looking for more of a spoon that can be used to scoop up things like Cheerios or cut up veggies.
Munchkin Multi Forks and Spoons Okay really, I love Munchkin brand anything so maybe I’m a bit biased on these but I love the curve that they have. They really seem to help my son scoop while he dips, though depending on what he’s eating the food still slides a bit.
Sassy Less Mess Toddler Spoons With the promise of “less mess” right in the name, I was sold. While these spoons work as intended with keeping certain foods (i.e. yogurt) on the spoon, the bowl of the spoon is pretty shallow and they are a pain in the behind to clean if you don’t do it right away! The angle that these spoons have in their handle made it difficult for my son to try to eat with his left hand (he’s mainly a righty, but sometimes experiments with his left) so if you have a lefty, these may not work for you.
Baby Bjorn Spoons I don’t know if it’s the wideness of the spoons or the deeper bowl of these spoons that helps, but either way these were definitely one of our favorites. He still makes a bit of a mess trying to eat on his own, but he does a good job scooping with these! (These are the newest ones we’ve found so that might also be why he scoops better with them!)
For now, I have a ton of spoons that my youngest will be able to use, and we are still on the search for the perfect utensil for our oldest son. I have a feeling that by the time we find the “one,” it’ll be because he’s perfected the art of eating like a big boy!
Do you have a “dipper” at home? What are your favorite spoons for your little ones? Let us know!