A few days ago, Caleb decided he didn’t want to eat from his spoon anymore.
…
That was awesome.
He had been doing great while we were on vacation, and was eating a ton. And then, a couple days after getting back, he just started crying, fussing and really not wanting to eat any of the fresh, organic puréed foods that Sarah made for him. So annoying.
So, Sarah had an idea.
Let’s just let Caleb feed himself. You know – with his hands.
Now, the photos above and below don’t really do the whole scene justice. It was a mess. Caleb was gross. Slimy. Gross. Banana and others foods all over Caleb, all over the high chair, all over the floor…to say that I was not a fan is an understatement.
Sarah was enjoying the whole thing. Watching Caleb enjoy himself…watching Caleb feed himself…watching me freak out…watching me get crazy annoyed with all the food that was dropping on the floor.
These photos are cute. The situation…it was anything but cute.
Now…I know that this is just the first kind of transition we’re going to have related to eating. I know that.
We’re going to have way more messes to deal with than this.
But still, any suggestions for what to do with not being able to handle these kinds of messes? Other than just getting over myself?
Update: I will say that since this day, he did go back to enjoying eating from the spoon for awhile, and then Sarah found some foods that he could feed himself but aren’t too messy…so we’re working our way through it…good times, right?
Adam…our Eve is (I think) about a month younger than Caleb. We’ve done mostly self-feeding from the beginning of solids for her (http://www.babyledweaning.com/). Easy, less messy options for self-feeding: toast fingers, big broccoli florets (they hold the stem and gnaw on the “tree” part, could do the same with cauliflower), and cheese (unless you have reasons to be worried about a dairy allergy). Basically, just cut stuff into pieces the size of your finger and let him go to town. Bonus: the dog will probably eat the toast and cheese that drop.
There’s lots of stuff on the Baby-Led Weaning site about self-feeding in general. And there are plenty of messy options, though they’d probably all be cleaner than mopping up puree that’s splattered everywhere.
Thanks for the information. The dog does LOVE feeding time now…I’ll pass that link on to Sarah…thanks.
I’m a huge fan of the pouches they suck on or you can squeeze right into their mouth. They didn’t have those when my first three were learning to eat. Some may argue that if I continually feed Eve out of the pouches she will never learn to use a spoon. I counter that with, “Oh yeah, like by the time she goes to kindergarten she’ll ONLY know how to suck food out of pouches.” I’m not worried. She’ll figure a spoon out at some point – or she won’t. Whatever. She’s happy with her food and I’m happy with my clean floor because like you, I HATE the food going everywhere but the mouth.
And we do let her self-feed things like Cheerios and other non-slimy food. However, I still have to clean up Cheerios from ALL OVER so I still prefer the pouches.
Try cutting the slimier (is that even a word?!) such as bananas into pieces. Then use some thing to coat them like mashed up cheerios or rice cereal. It makes it much easier for babies to pick up which might mean less in Caleb’s hair. We’ve started to enjoy Jonathan feeding himself because it means all three of us can eat at the same time.
Many more messes to be made…I’d just embrace/accept it.