At what age did you give your LO's cutlery?
Charlies becoming more and more insistant that he wants the spoon i am feeding him with, i know he's gonna make a huge mess and probably wont actually get any in his mouth! should i just let him do it?

mmmm ive been wondering the same with Cerys so will watch this for replies x

Taylas had a spoon since about 8months, it was the only way i could feed her at the same time.
I gave her a fork at about 13months and shes just getting the hang of it now, she fed herself pasta with her fork today and shes been able to feed herself yoghurts with a spoon for quite a while now.

Hi ladies..Oliver has been having his own spoon for months now, He went through a fussy stage where he refused to eat anything but I found by giving him his own spoon it distracted him enough for me to get the sly mouthful in.

At about 12mth I started offering a 'big boys' cutlery set and I would have to pre-load his fork for him to feed himself with as he wouldn't let me feed him at all. Its only been the past month or so he's been feeding himself full time. Don't get me wrong, they makes a huge mess..but just get them kitted out with them rubber "catchy food type" bibs and roll the sleeves up and off you go. Just sit near them and help them along, its all great fun lol

Wil has the cutlery with plastic handles and metal on the eating bit. I do exactly what Zee said and let him have his own spoon/ fork and then use another one to get a sly mouthful in.

Most of the time he holds the fork and uses his hands to shovel the food into his mouth. Sometimes he manages to get food on the fork but will then pull it off and put it in his mouth by hand.

I have a plastic table cloth on the floor under his chair, a rubber bib and a non-slip mat on the highchair tray and generally some food gets in his mouth.

I praise him a lot when he does feed himself with cutlery on the basis that it will encourage him to do it more. I also give him a cloth when he has finished to clean up the table (just smears it more but it is a start)

My niece is 27 months old and makes virtually no mess now and has been fairly competent with cutlery since she was about 20 months.

Izzy very rarely has the spoon, occasionally I let her use one for a yoghurt buts its very messy!

She has been using a fork though for while, I don't recall since when though! She is really good at stabbing things and gets them in her mouth!