When and how can you tell if your toddler is left or right handed?

I have a 14 month old son. He has been eating with a spoon for a while now, and is proficient enough with his right hand, but very messy, which I expect anyway. I have always encouraged and taught eating with his right hand and putting the spoon in his right hand, so I guess that is just the way he learned to do it.





This afternoon, when I gave him a bowl of yogurt to eat, I set the spoon on the left side without thinking about it, which I normally put the spoon on the right, and he just picks it up with his right hand and eats. Well today, he grabbed the spoon with his left hand, and began eating very skillfully, without getting a speck of food on his face and dropping none along his shirt.





I wonder if he may be left handed. My husband and I are both right handed, but my FIL is left handed. My mother was ambidextrous, could write equally as well with left or right hand, but preferred her right. My mother also always played pool and other sports left handed.





Do you think my son may be left handed. Opinions or any knowledge to share would be great. Thanks!When and how can you tell if your toddler is left or right handed?
Children are pretty amidexterous until 2-3 years of age, so you won't know until then. Some kids don't pick a hand unitl later, but that is more unusual. See here for more info:


http://www.babycenter.com/404_when-will-…When and how can you tell if your toddler is left or right handed?
You probably won't know for sure until he's 2 or 3.





(My FIL is left-handed too and my oldest son used to favor his left hand a lot. But, at age 4, he's definitely right handed.)
Chances are you won't have to try and figure out whether your baby will be left handed or right. The baby will let you know as soon as he's old enough to reach, touch and hold onto things. I'd say by the age of six months you should know for sure whether your baby is right or left handed. Still, some parents tend to worry about things they can't and should never try to change and when a baby ends up being, ';a lefty,'; they become so concerned about the issues being left handed might create that they deny the child's favored side.





I'm left handed and when in the Philippines they tried to force me to write with my right hand and it started to cause problems. I started writing backwards until here in Canada the teachers told me it's fine to use my left hand so I did and all is well. You use certain sides of the brain to write either left or right so it's not good to try changing it...you'll do more bad than good. With todays technology a left handed person gets along just fine.
my little girl is 4 and she still switches her pen from hand to hand, my husband is ambidestrous and i am left handed
Too soon to tell at 14 months. My daughter is righthanded and son ended up a southpaw. We are both righties. My son used to do everything right handed until 3 and then the left hand became dominant and now does everything lefty.
What i would do on your case is tis. Instead of put everything on his hands, let him pick it. Just place the spoon on the table and tell him to grab it, also give him crayons and things like that, let him pick everything!!
My 14 month old is also ambidextrous still........he throws things at an equal rate with either hand. .. :o\





He does favor his right hand more, but has equal skill with his left. So we'll see........Dad says he's gonna be a Switch HItter...or Pitcher.
I'm not to sure since I only have a 7 month old. But, I was reading a book or magazine or seen it on the web the other day that you shouldn't encourage one hand over the other because babies choose what hand is dominant while in the womb. I'm not sure if there is any truth to that. It's just what I seen the other day. My daughter is always using her right hand to do everything. So I encourage her to pick up things with that hand.