High chair feeding really needs tips and tricks? Well not so much, BUT there are tips and tricks that can make certain aspects of high chair feeding a little easier on everyone. These are some of the tricks that have worked for my three kiddo's!
1) Patience! - Okay this is more of a tip, but it's something any mom needs when facing the chair and a spoon. A lot of people will assume that their child isn't hungry or just won't ever eat a certain food because they spit it strait back out. Sometimes that might be the case, but most of the time it's your baby learning about textures, taste, and how far he can push mommy to the limits.
2) Toys are great when your child is waiting, but you should remove them before feeding time. Though keeping at least one (easy to clean) teether isn't a terrible thing. Toys are a distraction, so if you have a child that's just not into their banana's that day, they're going to go strait to the toys. Personally, I don't mind at least one teether though. For me it works great because my boys couldn't get their food fast enough. Before they were old enough for cheerio's they could chomp on their teether while I ever so slowly prepared another spoon for them.
3) Speaking of spoons - let your child hold onto hers! A lot of parents are control freaks (MY HUSBAND) when it comes to spoons. However, your baby see's you eat with a spoon or fork and most likely wants to attempt to mimic the action. Obviously, do not leave your child unattended while sitting with his plastic spoon, but when feeding, if she tries to grasp it, let her!
My middle son actually had me double spooning! No, I wasn't shoving two spoons in his mouth, but because he always had to hold a spoon, I would spoon some food, hand it off, then be prepared to switch off! He wouldn't give up the grasp of spoon number one if there wasn't something yummy in spoon number two!
4) When finger foods come into play, wow it's such a relief! You don't have to be hovering, however the learning baby needs some help. Plain cheerios (or snack of your choice) are great, but for a learning baby they are hard to grasp. Chopped banana's (very small of course) are great, but again hard to eat. Mix something mushy (bananas) with something hard (cereal), and bam, perfect combo! Your childs sticky fingers will grab onto that cereal and go to town!
5) Introduce the sippy at high chair time. So many parents that bottle feed wait until they're child is older before making the switch. By then, the child could be really attached. My kids were all drinking from their sippy cup (in moderation) with their high chairs. Either water or milk (I didn't introduce juice until they were a year), and after the feeding I'd offer it. If they didn't want it, no sweat off my back, but before I knew it, I had a baby not dependant on me (since I didn't use bottles).
6) High chair time is an excellent time to incorporate baby sign language! Depending on how many signs you plan on teaching your child, you may have already started. I primarily wanted my children to be able to sign the basics, mommy, daddy, more, food, drink, etc. Sure I taught them more than that, but I wanted to try to limit the tantrums.
When bringing the food or drink to the plate, say the word clearly along with the sign. Between bites, show them "more" with a question in your voice, or "all done" and see how they react. Of course, in the beginning they will probably just look at you like it's a new game, but it won't take long before understanding sinks right in. Even if they don't use the signs themselves, you'll be able to tell if they understand you.
7) Clean up time! If your kids are anything like mine, the entire area of the high chair is going to be smeared with sweet potatoes. If you're lucky it won't be all over you. I give my baby a warm wash cloth to play with while rinsing out his bowl and spoon to help start the ease of prep time. Once I have that all cleaned up, I finish the job and remove him. One of my favorite tips for cleaning out the high chair though (primarily for kiddo's eating solids instead of mush) is using the vacuum!
All those crumbs add up, and can take forever to scrub out of the cracks. Grab your vacuum hose and suck it all up! Then it's a (mostly) quick wipe down and you're good to go. I'll admit, it's part of my normal vacuum routine just in case I was too lazy to do it the night before!
I hope these help someone out there, and be sure to suggest your own tricks of the trade if you have them!
Once upon a time I was proud of a clean house. It was work, but it was awesome. I got up every morning, cleaned, then got ready for work.
This was obviously before children.
I know there are some moms out there (my sister in law), that seem to always have everything in place. When they see their kids are done with their toys they don't just groan at the pile, they go, nip it in the bud, and move on.
I see the pile of toys, groan, and leave the room to avoid having to see it!
The only time that I've been diligent with keeping things off the floor was when I had crawlers. Recently we also added a dog to our 'pack'. My littlest guy who is 6 months finally decided he's waited long enough on not being mobile. He now scoots and crawls around. If he can't properly crawl, he circles around himself.
This means my friends, that it is once again time for me to roll up my sleeves and be diligent. Holy cow, how does my short haired lab lose so much hair during winter! Sure it's California and not all that cold but oh man! I sweep and sweep, and vacuum what I missed while sweeping, then sit down, breathe in and out and look and see that somehow a massive amount of hair has formed in the corner of the room. When did that happen?! I only just sat down!
Thankfully I can keep up enough that my child is choking on doggy hair balls, but I'd be lying if I'd said he's never had dog hair cling to his sweaters.
Really, it's his fault for crawling at 6 months. Kid should have stayed immobile for another month or two!
First and foremost, if you've seen a lot of me, it's because it's the holidays and I don't want to try to hassle people to take time away from their families to fill in the blank!
That being said, my littest guy is now a grand 6 months old (and 18.9 pounds!).
We've just been doing the basics, rice cereal, mashed banana's, avacado, and sweet potato. For those of you that don't know though, once a kiddo hits 6 months a lot more doors open - and obviously every month after that even more!
Chowing down on those sweet potatoes!
My favorite thing about this milestone though is yogurt! Whole plain yogurt has been one of the basics in my children's diets since, well my daughter was 6 months. I've intended on buying a yogurt maker since she was the baby, but now the goal is before 2010!
My little guy isn't the biggest fan of banana's, and his first taste of plain yogurt was filled with grimacing, glares, and crying. Mix the two together? Instant 5 star mommy restaurant!
You know what's better than that though? I don't mind eating the left overs!
Probably not the best of habits, but I won't beat myself up over a couple bites of banana yogurt :)
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