Introducing utensils and keeping them from flying

A question from my local twins group:

What are good foods to use when introducing forks and spoons? My 16-month-olds love the concept of utensils, but are not yet good at actually getting any food into their mouths using them (it mostly ends up on them, the chair, the floor, etc.). We've had moderate success with pieces of French toast with forks and yogurt with spoons, but that is about it. Any tips on how to reduce the mess? What to do when they drop/throw their forks?

One thing you can try is to have a few forks on hand for each child. Load up some forks with whatever you're serving. Even things that don't require a fork, like pizza, nuggets, and grilled cheese, can be great practice foods. Let the kids take the pre-forked food and just practice getting it in their mouths. This can also be done with spoons, lined up on a plate.

Yogurt is always a disaster in the beginning. All I can say is put them in big bibs and take lots of photos. (The latter will seem much funnier in retrospect.) Lentils and other small beans make decent spoon foods. You do have to sweep afterwards, but it's not the whole yogurt scene.

Your kids will repeatedly get to see how you load up the forks and spoons. They'll want to try. With time, your help, and some luck, they'll learn. In the meantime, my husband got me a new dust buster for my birthday. This may not sound like a romantic present to you yet, but I trust it will.

Having several forks/spoons on hand helps keep accidentally dropped utensils from interrupting the meal. This is not only convenient, but it also makes dropped utensils less of a big deal for you, which (hopefully) will make throwing utensils seem less appealing to them. If one of my girls threw something, I gave a warning the first time, and the next time I turned the offender's chair away from the table. I made sure to ham it up with the other child, laughing, having a great time, and talking about how delicious the food was. As soon as the offender expressed dissatisfaction with being left out, I let it go 10-15 seconds, and turned the chair around again. I would say something like, "If you throw food again, I'm going to turn your chair around again." As they got older, I stopped the warnings and a second infraction meant the meal would end. It still happened (ok, happens!), but it has helped keep it somewhat manageable. Good luck!