9 Best Baby Spoons

There's no need for babies to know how to properly scoop with this flat baby spoon — a baby can just jab it into their food and the ridges hold enough food for your baby to take a lovely taste. The short, fat handle can be held pretty much any which way, providing a young baby with a fast track to some independent eating. It's got more than 36,000 five-star Amazon reviews!

"We tried a different kind of spoon first and my daughter would manage to shake all the food off it before putting it in her mouth," said a tester whose daughter is now 7 months old. "Gootensils manage to keep some food on there so she actually gets some of it!"

A winner in one of our past Parenting Awards, this exceptionally flexible spoon is fun for babies to bite and chew on, and the tiny scoop holds just enough for an appropriate taste. Our Lab pros note that it's effective at scooping up food from different angles, so babies employing their own weird techniques will still likely have success.

In testing, parents said they felt this spoon was intuitive for infants to use. All the baby spoons on this list are technically dishwasher-safe, but since Olababy Training Spoons are silicone we recommend hand-washing them. Testers tell us they're super easy to rinse clean with dish soap and water.

As the name implies, all your baby really has to do is dip one of these into their food and then get it to their mouth for a taste. One side is a spoon, the other is a pre-spoon paddle, and either works. There's no wrong answer for how your baby uses these, and the grippy textures lend themselves well to a baby who has just learned to grasp a utensil and maneuver it.

Some online reviewers, however, say these work better as their baby's favorite teether rather than as a baby spoon, because of all the textures. We recommend hand-washing though these are dishwasher-safe.

After your baby crosses their first birthday, the introductory period of feeding solids is over and you're going to want them to gradually eat more and, let's face it, wear less.

They can get their first "real" utensil set with these, a favorite of our Nutrition Lab Director Stefani Sassos, mom to a 1-year-old. "You get the best of both worlds with these utensils," she said. "A stainless steel tip allows my toddler to effectively pick up her food and mimics the real thing, but the comfort of a silicone handle is easy for her to grab and ergonomically shaped to minimize misses. They have kept up great after months and months of continued use!"

Many online reviewers say their kids use these through toddlerhood and into the preschool years. They do well in the dishwasher, and since only the handle is silicone you don't have to worry about it picking up soap tastes from dishwasher detergent.

If you're on a long outing, going to a restaurant or taking a family vacation you still want to serve your baby, and it helps to have a spoon that comes with its own travel case to make everything cleaner and easier. Many online users rave about the size of the silicone-tipped spoon being perfect and some say they end up using this as their favorite at home, too. Most online reviewers use this for bringing purees to their child's mouth and not so much for baby-lead weaning — the handle is ergonomic for an adult who is introducing tastes.

When your baby is really starting to chow down you'll want at least four spoons and four forks to get through a day, because some are likely to hit the floor. This set includes even more spoons than that, a half dozen altogether, and is for the second stage of feeding when you're serving up fewer purees and letting your baby dig into chunkier foods.

You'll also appreciate a set of 10 if you have two young kids 5 or under. This plastic cutlery holds up well in the dishwasher, and the brand's Babycook Express baby food maker won one of our most recent Parenting Awards.

If you're looking for a baby spoon with a looped handle that is easy for you and your baby to hold, this set with the matching "spork" starter fork is a really cute choice. Some kids can hold the loop better than a straight handle, and your child might be one of them.

That big loop also stops your baby from pushing a utensil too far into their mouth, though some online reviewers say that the spoon head itself is a little big on these and not always easy for a small baby to eat from. As with other all-silicone choices we recommend hand-washing these in the sink.