Help with Tips on Eating Soup

I used to either thicken my boys' soup w/instant mashed potato flakes (you could use powdered milk too) or drain the broth from theirs. Maybe you could just take his shirt off before mealtime & let him have at it for a while to learn the trick of soup eating & then thicken it up so he can actually get some into his mouth.

I have this same problem with my daughter, she insists on feeding herself. I finally just started giving her the chunks of veggies and such and hardly any broth. If it is a soup that does not have many chunks and mostly smooth and creamy, I give her pieces of bread and a small amount of soup at a time and she tries to use her spoon and also dips her bread. I just keep adding to the bowl, little bits at a time to help her out.

Good luck, they do get it eventually.

Hi!
I'd try a Chinese soup spoon or serve it to him in a cup/small mug and keep refilling it.

My 20 mo old is learning too. If you are okay with the mess, let him try it - just part of the process. You could also put crackers in it to thicken it up for him.
Good luck - it's such a fun age!!!

I give my kids a straw (still) to drink the broth and then a spoon for the rest. I use flex straws and usually cut it so that it fits in the bowl better.

My first thought was a straw, but that certainly won't work with chunky or thick soups!

My second thought was to get one of these bibs:
http://www.amazon.com/Baby-Bjorn-Bib-Blue/dp/B00081Q6LI

They are AWESOME! We bought one two years ago. You only need one, because you just pop it in the dishwasher with your dinner dishes, so it's always clean when you need it. (unlike the laundry hamper full of soggy disgusting cloth bibs I used to have!) My son is now 3 1/2 and still wears it.

THE BEST PART is that it catches and holds large quantities of food, especially liquids, without soaking through to the clothes. Seriously, it's so amazing! The only thing you have to be careful about is not to forget that there's liquid in there when you go to take it off. I've accidentally dumped out what the bib so carefully caught for me after dinner. Ooops!

I had a hard time finding them in stores, so i bought mine online. My sister said she found some knock-offs at Children's Orchard, but I never saw them. I don't think we have one of those near us, either. Baby #3 is coming next week. They're no good for newborns, I'm sure, but I think I may have to buy one more just because I can't bear to not have one for my 3 1/2 year old!

Hi J.,

At Wal-Mart they have plastic bowls with straws on one side. They are great for soup and cereal. Teach your child to drink all the liquid then eat the rest with a spoon. My kids love these bowls and they are super cheap.

are you opposed to letting him drink from the bowl? this is so much easier for a toddler. we just encouraged our kids to try the spoon, but when they got frustrated, allowed them to drink from the bowl. eventually they got better at the spoon and didn't need to drink from the bowl. we didn't have to discourage the bowl drinking later, it just happened because they wanted to be "big" and use spoons. good luck!

When my daughter was younger, I would cover her in linen napkins and a plastic bib to catch the mess. I would also give her a deep-set tablespoon to eat with. It seemed that the bigger the spoon, the better when it goes to soup. I would also scoot her chair really close to the table to try to eliminate any space between her, the table, and the bowl. Its great that your little man wants to eat on his own and soup is so healthy. I think it takes a little letting go on our part with such messy food. Hope this helps!

We give the little ones all the goodies out of the soup without so much broth. As they get older, I give just enough broth to cover the goodies. Bread and crackers make good thickeners. You can also put the little ones serving into a small pan and add about 1/2 tsp. of cornstarch and cook until think enough to stick to a spoon. We've done that and the kids love eating what everyone else has. Have fun!

You could try an asian soup spoon...they are like mini bowls with a flat bottom. I think they sell them at Cost Plus World Market...

Get one of those big plastic bibs with the pocket, and a "drop cloth" to put under his chair. This will help contain the mess to fairly easy clean up. Then just let him eat how he wants. Most 20 month olds use their fingers a lot still. It's okay for him to do that, it might even be easier to get the food to his mouth.

Serve soup with a spoon and a straw, your child can "drink" the broth and then use the spoon to eat the chunks from the soup.

I put some bread at the bottom of the soup bowl. The bread absorbs the soup, so that it has a thicker consistency like a bread pudding.

Just off the top of my head here are a couple of ideas: a larger-sized spoon, if he can handle it, or a straw! The straw would be for the liquid, of course, and if you can find any of the larger-diameter plastic straws they might work well. The only reservation I would have is that it might be too much fun and he might want to use a straw for his soup forever after!

I add a little rice cereal to cream type soups because it's not as noticeable as crackers or bread (which I still add sometimes). I also loved my bib which was similar to the Baby Bjorn bib mentioned earlier; I found it at Babies-r-Us under the brand name Kiddopotamus http://www.kiddopotamus.com/p_bib.php (my cousin liked to call it his pig trough, but she didn't have to clean up after him).