Mealtimes are an important aspect of family life. Children begin to develop self-feeding skills from birth. Self-feeding is a very complex task and it is common for children to have difficulty using cutlery to feed themselves. It usually takes until a child is 7 years old before they can successfully use cutlery to feed themselves without being too messy. There are a variety of tools that can be used to support children with mealtimes if they continue to find these skills challenging. Many of these are readily available and are not seen as specialist equipment:
Plates with rims can be helpful in stopping food slipping off the plate:
Placemats keep the plate in place:
Non-slip mats (such as Dycem) can be used to help keep plates still:
You also get suction bowls so they cannot be thrown:
