AD | Mealtime Milestones with the doddl Cutlery Set

[This post is sponsored by doddl]

One of the few positives to the COVID-19 lockdown is the fact that it gives us parents a whole lot of extra time to work on developing our children’s skills.

One of the bad things about the lockdown, meanwhile is … well, that there’s really NO excuse to put off potty training any longer is there? Like, I can tell myself all I want that I “Just don’t have the mental energy for it,” or that it’s OK, because we can always start next week, but the fact is, there’s probably never going to be a better time to start checking all of those developmental milestones off the list, really: especially the ones which make leaving the house tricky, even at the best of times. Which is why we really will get round to the potty training next week, pinky promise.

In the meantime, however, the doddl #MealtimeMilestones challenge seemed like a much more fun option – not least because it involves food – so when the brand got in touch recently and asked if Max would like to try out a doddl cutlery set , we were happy to agree.

Here’s the set in question:

As you can see, it consists of a fork, spoon and knife, all designed to make them easy for little hands to grab. To encourage children to learn how to use them, doddl have put together a #MealtimeMilestones Checklist , which gives you a series of different challenges to work through, from simply holding the spoon firmly, all the way up to using the knife and fork together. Here’s Max, ready to start his challenge:

He was very excited about all of this, mostly because there was a knife involved, and while he has a selection of different toddler forks and spoons, he’s never had his very own knife before, so this was a real landmark moment. I’m surprised he didn’t try to insist on taking it to bed with him, in fact.

We started off slowly, however, with the spoon and some yogurt:

Max has been able to use a spoon quite confidently for a while now, so he was able to check off the first three challenges on the list without any problem (Although not, alas, without getting yogurt all over his face: that’s going to be another challenge for another time…). The design of the spoon did seem to make it easier for him to handle, though, and having initially declared that he didn’t want any yogurt, he polished off the lot, and then asked for more. Standard.

Next up came the fork:

For the next challenge – skewering food – we gave him a plate of sliced grapes and strawberries, plus a handful of blueberries: three of his very favourite things. His instinct, of course, was just to pick everything up with his hands and shovel it straight into his mouth – and, I mean, who could blame him, really? – but he soon decided that using the little fork was even more fun. He spent a bit of time chasing blueberries around the plate, but found it pretty easy to stab the strawberries and grapes (Which he refers to as a “munch of grapes”, rather than a bunch. As do we ALL now…), which allowed him to check the box next to challenge number four.

Finally, it was time for the moment Max had been waiting for: THE KNIFE.

Max doesn’t quite have the dexterity – or patience, rather – to be able to use the knife and fork together yet, so he needed a little bit of help from me on that one. He did, however, find it really easy – and very satisfying, if the look of concentration on his face is anything to go by here – to chop into his strawberries. This knife has a serrated blade, and is designed to chop rather than to slice, so while I obviously wouldn’t allow him to use it unsupervised, it’s definitely safer than a regular knife, and, as with the other items, seemed really easy for him to grip: most of the time when Max attempts to use toddler cutlery, it’ll end up on the floor at some point, but that didn’t actually happen here, so I think I was as impressed as he was.

So, I think he did pretty well, all things considered, AND this challenge had the added benefit of killing some extra time for Terry and I, which is always appreciated during lockdown! Since then, Max has been very much enjoying having his VERY OWN KNIFE (Which has to be brought out at every mealtime, even if he’s having porridge or something…) If you’d like to try the challenge for yourself (Or for your CHILD rather: I’m going to assume you all know how to use cutlery, right?), you’ll find the full list here, and if you’re looking to buy the cutlery itself, you’ll find a full list of suppliers on the doddl website. Enjoy!