Dinner Together

What you need

• their own spoon and bowl
• the family meal, with something mashed or soft for them

How to do it

1. Sit your toddler at the table with everyone else rather than eating separately.
2. Give them their own bowl and spoon with something soft from the same meal.
3. Eat your own food with a spoon where you can, so they can see you do it.
4. Leave them to get on with it, and chat rather than supervise every mouthful.

Why it matters

Toddlers copy the people they eat with, so a meal shared at the same table does more teaching than any amount of showing.

What they're learning

Copying

Watching everyone else use cutlery is how they learn what it's for.

Spoon to mouth

A whole meal is a lot of spoonfuls, and every one of them is practice.

Eating together

Sitting at the table with the family is most of what mealtimes are for.

What to look for

Watch for them copying the way you hold your spoon.

A tip

Sit them upright and stay with them the whole time they're eating. This is about the spoon, not about how much gets eaten. Let them stop when they've had enough.

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