Hellobee Boards

@meadow: we use ikea stuff for our kids. There are smaller metal forks (dessert ones I guess?) and teaspoons that are the perfect size for them. Our regular cutlery is monstrous and much too big for a child mouth. We already had a set of ikea cutlery before we bought a different set and I’m glad we did. I think they’re pretty cheap.

Agree with ikea! I bought a couple sets for my oldest to take with her lunch a year or so ago - she’s pretty responsible but didn’t want her throwing away our main silverware by accident. It’s big enough that I can use it without feeling silly but still small scale (and so affordable).

We bought this OXO set around age 3/4 and our 6.5 year old still uses it sometimes (especially the knife). She is just now getting to the point where she does not want “kids” utensils, but it was a good transition when she wasn’t able to properly hold the adult size. Some kids have the hand development earlier on and don’t have any issues with the adult utensils though.

We also sent them in school lunches instead of our nice adult silverware!

OXO Tot Cutlery Set for Big Kids - Navy https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079K4W9YL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_fabt1_frOUFbNHVXCE2

My 2yo uses the small forks from our cutlery but still baby spoons and plastic dishes.

I just picked up some cutlery from ikea last week that seems to be perfect toddler size. It must be the dessert size🤷‍♀️ So far the 2yo & 7yo have liked using it.

My six and eight year old use dessert forks and teaspoons from our regular cutlery (it’s just normal size, not over size like some current sets). My four year old CAN use these, but she’s quite small and does better with some of the kiddie character sets with plastic handles/metal heads from Target, which they sell by the kitchenware/water bottles. We also have a Nuk (I think) set that originally looked nicer. It’s in sad shape now, probably because it got used the most. This type is in the baby section.

We have a lot of the Nuk type posted above, with the stainless steel top and plastic handles, and now my kids mainly use teaspoons and salad forks. But when I was growing up, my mom bought a kid-sizes flatware set AND a kid sized real silverware set for each of us, in our own pattern. Like there was a cute pattern stamped into the handle that we picked, and it was so fun to have our own sets, and I still have mine.
Obviously the real silver is overkill—and it requires polishing. But the stainless sets don’t require any maintenance.

Sort of like this: https://www.macys.com/shop/product/zwilling-j.a.-henckels-twin-kids-grimms-fairytales-18-10-4-piece-place-setting?ID=8170728&tdp=cm_app~zMCOM-MMEW~xcm_zone~zPDP_ZONE_A~xcm_choiceId~zcidM11MOB-442c8788-004b-4ac7-8e47-262ca6d5e830%40H7%40customers%2Balso%2Bshopped%247919%248170728~xcm_pos~zPos3~xcm_srcCatID~z7919

My two year old uses the dessert spoons and forks from our adult silverware, since probably 18 months or so. Haven’t had any problems!