When our daughter was around a year old, she wanted to have the same tools as daddy and mommy had at the table. We let her use a tiny baby fork and spoon my mother gave us, and then later as she grew, a baby/toddler size fork and spoon that matched our wedding silver. She's two and a half now, and uses a fork and spoon almost as well as an adult, except where strength is an issue. I bought these two pieces as part of a three piece set Reed & Barton Children's Giftware MASTER 3PC BABY MASTER 3 PC BABY SET 4771 18/10 because it's a bit of a pain to be washing the same fork between each meal, and I didn't really want to spring for sterling for pieces that will only be used for a year or two.The fork and spoon are the same overall size as the ones that match our wedding silver, 4.5 inches long for the fork and 4.25 inches long for the spoon. These lengths are excellent for a toddler's first fork and spoon.
However, there are some issues. The bowl of the toddler spoon is a bit large for her mouth, and would have been considerably large for her when she started using a spoon; a bowl the same size as on the infant feeding spoon would be better. More importantly, the tines on the fork are blunter than on an adult fork, or on our silver toddler fork. For softer foods that are scooped up with a fork rather than speared, this isn't a problem. However, it does means that our daughter has difficulty dealing with foods that need to be speared with the fork fish or a ground steak will often fall apart, while a toddler simply isn't strong enough to push these blunter tines into a piece of regular steak or a roast.
Unfortunately, choices are limited. Sterling is rather expensive for baby ware. For older children, the Oneida children's flatware Oneida Chateau 3-Piece Child Set has a sharper fork, similar to adult forks, but that set is a bit large for a toddler. Overall this set may still be the best choice available for a toddler's first flatware, and it does make an excellent new baby gift.
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