Feeding is so messy!

[Beauchamp]

What do you do? Just a bib? Do you give your LO a spoon and say "have at it!"? My LO loves to smush her food in her fingers and palms, and often waves her hands over her ears and gets food in her hair. It's like we would need a bath or a hose-down after each "meal".

I find myself giving her brown rice puffs a lot, probably because they are dry and easy for me. I give her black beans and banana, but I usually pop them into her mouth while she self-feeds the rice puffs. My ped says she should be eating meat now.

My DH is really paranoid about the mess and wipes up every little bit on her face as she eats. I am not *that* bad, but I wonder if DD is missing out on some BLW and exposure to different foods because I don't want a giant mess.

Anyone?

In Mothering there is a yogurt ad that shows a little baby boy sitting in a car, holding a container of yogurt and a spoon, with just a little schmear on his face. Seriously? This is *not* how it goes for us!!

[lotus.blossom]

I try to do one messy meal and one "neat" meal per day. It depends on what our day is like. If we have a free afternoon I let him get up to his eyeballs in food, or if we're going out I feed him purees and a dry type finger food and then let him get into his meal at night (and then bathe him)

Its just part of development. FWIW my hubby canNOT deal with it. Asking him to get him out of his highchair after a meal is an immediate no. No biggie. i always take care of it. But we do like to laugh and say "today's hairstyle is brought to you by avocado!"

[newmothermary]

Tell me about it!

I put down a plastic spread on the floor, get the food ready and after the song and dance, there is no guarantee of that much eating. It gets in the hair, in his ears, the side of the highchair and his clothes.

I know its part of development but uggggghhhh.

OK. I'm done venting.

[strangeflower]

happy baby (one of the organic baby food companies) and gerber make yogurt melts. there are also cereal bars and even these packages that are like capri sun with organic babyfood purees in it. I use those more for on the go. I've gotten used to messes, for the most part. Just learned how to stain treat....

mine won't even wear a bib. I put used to pin a clothes pin to hold the velcro. Except he just undoes the clothespin and proceeds to rip off his bib. I have one older bib that doesn't velcro, there's just a stretchy hole. One day, I knew he was paying attention to how it went on. so he could pull it off.

spoons go on the floor repetitively. Sometimes he eats with his hands. Or even "drinks" his babyfood. I've been giving him frozen blueberries, which is one of the only things he seems to eat when teething. I've just been leary lately since he won't wear a bib. I love how clever he is though. It does get old esp when I'm not in the best mood. I loved Naomi Aldort's Raising our children, raising ourselves. Except the most I can do, as a single parent anymore, is think 'wow, i really need to put these things into practice.'

mine isn't even just learning. he just loves making messes...i need to get back into the habit of saying, 'i love you just the way you are.' when i'm a little annoyed... the whole learning bit can be somewhat enjoyable though like those first steps. it's watching them grow and develop. hehe...

[lifeguard]

Yeah, it's super messy - but I've just let ds have at it & now he is much neater than many of his peers & more competent with the utensils 'cause he's had so much more practice. If they're happy & having fun & learning then where's the harm? They clean up fabulously!

[starlein26]

I allow all the mess...

It's an experience all around (excites all the senses), but one they benefit from I think

[Anastasiya]

I allow the mess, too.

I just know that after meals it's time for a thorough cleanup (possibly a dip in the tub) and a new outfit. No biggie.

[starlein26]

Originally Posted by lifeguard

Yeah, it's super messy - but I've just let ds have at it & now he is much neater than many of his peers & more competent with the utensils 'cause he's had so much more practice. If they're happy & having fun & learning then where's the harm? They clean up fabulously!

My little dd made HUGE messes and now at newly turned 1 year, she's learning to use spoons and forks all.by.herself and the messes are so much smaller (all on her own timetable).

[chel]

i'll stand up for the "no mess mommy"

my first didn't want anything to do with anything but momma's milk till 10m and I think that helped to keep the mess down.
i'm hoping dd2 is the same.
for the most part we just didn't do messy foods
now as a 9yr old, dd1 is very neat and not into messes.

[texmati]

Can you feed him in just a diaper? Or what about in the backyard?

[MissMommyNiceNice]

nekkie or outside! fyi yhis is also our approach to fingerpainting!

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink

[ktmama]

I guess I'm in the minority, not giving my baby the sensory experience of getting himself dirty eating :....but I just feed him. Some things (like cut up grapes, cubes of sweet potato, bits of pear) he can pick up and get into his mouth (and I give him one at a time). Other things like banana I hold and let him take bites of. He had beef stew for lunch and I just fed him from a spoon.

FWIW, I fed my girls this way too and they turned out fine and both love to eat!

[blumooned]

Yes, it is so very messy!! Last night, after dinner, I looked at my DS and could only laugh. He had tomato sauce everywhere - in his hair, on his arms/sleeves up to his elbows, and all over the tray!! I had to take a picture. I was actually thinking to myself . . . Oh my, I wonder if anyone else's child is as messy as mine!?! I guess there are more messy LOs out there!!

For awhile, this bib was doing wonders to contain the mess. But, DS learned how to remove it, so now we have new messes!

I pretty much let him go at it, make his mess, have fun exploring textures & gravity. It usually cleans up pretty quickly, I guess.

[linds]

What age are your little ones? I am wondering when to offer my daughter the spoon... she's 12 months old and she plays with it when I give it to her but I don't put a bowl down for her to have at it yet... in fear of a big mess But I saw this thread so I thought I better ask since it might be time for her to dig in??? Thanks mommies!

[batsister]

Originally Posted by linds

What age are your little ones? I am wondering when to offer my daughter the spoon... she's 12 months old and she plays with it when I give it to her but I don't put a bowl down for her to have at it yet... in fear of a big mess But I saw this thread so I thought I better ask since it might be time for her to dig in??? Thanks mommies!

My son is 8 months old, and I guess we are doing sort of a combined BLW/feeding approach (no purees so far, but we do mash things up). We let him taste things starting around 5.5 months, and I offered him a spoon pretty much right away (~6 months). I preload the spoon with mushed up banana or sweet potato, for example, then hand it to him. He usually puts the appropriate end in his mouth, and he may eat the food off or just suck on it.

If I try to feed him anything with a spoon, he almost always grabs the spoon away from me anyway, so it doesn't really work. He will eat things off my fingers. And we put a lot of things on his highchair tray so he can self-feed (or at least try.) He is pretty good at getting bits of veggies, fruit, etc. to his mouth on his own now (still not so interested in Cheerios, though, even though he can pick them up).

Back to the spoon: it does end up on the floor a lot... I think we need one that has a hole in the end so I can tie it to his highchair or something (and not have to wash it off every 1.5 minutes)... anyone know of a baby/plastic spoon like that I could buy? Sometimes he seems more interested in the colorful plastic objects (spoon, cup, etc.) than the food, but that's okay at this point.

[Mamabeakley]

I think letting baby make a glorious mess sounds lovely.

And I don't have the time, energy, or patience to do it. Honestly, do you think our ancient ancestors let babies 'waste' precious resources by playing with food in this way?

I work ~24 hours/wk. DH works close to full time. We have one day of childcare for 2 of our 3 kids per week. We home/unschool our oldest. We live in a tiny house and are rich only in interests, work with meaning, and people to love who love us. Cleaning up a disastrously (or gloriously!) messy baby regularly is not something I feel is a high priority. She nurses, eats non-messy things by herself, and occasionally I spoon feed her messy things. While DS1 & 2 are not the best eaters in the world, I don't think it has much (if anything) to do with having done the same with them as infants.