Questions for those who BLW or messy finger foods

[KimE]

Hi guys, I have a couple of questions that aren't important but have made me scratch my head

I am weaning Pops the traditional way plus finger foods (which she loves). She has something spoon fed each meal plus 2 or 3 finger foods which she grabs and eats quite a lot of. She also will take the spoon off me and feed herself very well. I have tried just finger foods but she gets upset if I don't feed her something and she quite enjoys being fed (breaks off from shovelling whatever finger foods in her mouth to "ask" for a spoon full) and this way is working well for us My (silly) questions are:

- slimy foods such as kiwi (which she loves), bananna, pear etc (fruit I suppose) she has problems picking up and keeping in her hands. How do others get round this? She has very small hands so I can't make chunks too big. She gets sooooo fustrated chasing them around the tray to finally pick one up and it "pop" out of her hand!!

- Today she had pasta twirls with bolognese sauce (lumpy) which I spoon fed some of the sauce to her, she then spoon fed some to herself and I then poured the rest over the pasta on her tray and she mixed it and finger fed. (she finger fed the dry pasta too). What do people dress their baby's in for messy food and how the hell do you get them clean afterwards!! I feel like I'm fighting a loosing battle as it goes everywhere!! He nose at the moment is stained orange and she has it in her hair and thats after getting wiped with baby wipes!! I want her to enjoy food and I don't mind her making a mess of the highchair/floor but I just didn't know where to start with cleaning her without a bath!! (which she can't have 3 a day!!!) She won't wear plastic bibs by the way - she HATES them!!

TIA xx

 

[Lu28]

For the slimy food, it is quite difficult but maybe cutting them a little smaller? My LO doesn't like the texture of that kind of thing so I don't offer it too often. Someone else might be able to help more!

For the messy stuff, I use either a long sleeved bib or otherwise I just set aside a couple of old baby gros and put them over her normal clothes. We have messy stuff usually at dinner time and she goes straight in the bath after so it doesn't matter how dirty she gets

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

With slimy food, it took Ruby about a month to work out how tightly she had to hold pieces of things like pear and kiwi, for it to stay in her hand. I just gave her loads of practice and now she has pretty much no problem with slippery food. Or you could try rolling the fruit in dry crushed rice krispies, or baby rice, to make them less slimy.

For the messy stuff I just make the house nice and warm so she can just wear a vest. We buy cheap ones anyway so I don't care if they get stained. Ruby hates plastic bibs too, in fact she isn't very keen on wearing a bib full stop, and often takes it off during a meal...

 

[topcat]

Ruby hates plastic bibs too, in fact she isn't very keen on wearing a bib full stop, and often takes it off during a meal...

Ah yes, sounds familiar! Lucy loves to pull her bibs off then eat them. And then smudge food into them. Then drop them onto the floor.
I'm quite glad to read i'm not the only one struggling with the mess. Think i'll probably start to do something similar and strip her down to a vest. Washing all her clothes all the time is too expensive! I try to keep it to only 3 washes a week if possible.

 

[faille]

For slimey food, we done what Claire said - give plenty of practice but also offer something you know LO can manage so if they get frustrated, they can move onto the "easy" food.

As for the mess, I don't find it too bad tbh. Either Violets pretty tidy or I'm very tolerant of dirty things
I always make sure she has sleeves out of the way, a bib on and if it's something I know is gonna be messy, then I'll wrap an old tea towel over her lap and legs.
As for the floor, we have 2 splash mats which cover the area under the highchair and the highchair gets a good wipe after each meal and the tray washed with the washing up and then sprayed with antibacterial spray.
We use baby wipes to clean her hands and face and the only thing we do find that stains her skin is bolognese and pasta bake sauce. But we make sure those are offered when she's having a bath and it comes off in the bath

 

[Lisa1302]

Hi guys, I have a couple of questions that aren't important but have made me scratch my head

I am weaning Pops the traditional way plus finger foods (which she loves). She has something spoon fed each meal plus 2 or 3 finger foods which she grabs and eats quite a lot of. She also will take the spoon off me and feed herself very well. I have tried just finger foods but she gets upset if I don't feed her something and she quite enjoys being fed (breaks off from shovelling whatever finger foods in her mouth to "ask" for a spoon full) and this way is working well for us My (silly) questions are:

- slimy foods such as kiwi (which she loves), bananna, pear etc (fruit I suppose) she has problems picking up and keeping in her hands. How do others get round this? She has very small hands so I can't make chunks too big. She gets sooooo fustrated chasing them around the tray to finally pick one up and it "pop" out of her hand!!

- Today she had pasta twirls with bolognese sauce (lumpy) which I spoon fed some of the sauce to her, she then spoon fed some to herself and I then poured the rest over the pasta on her tray and she mixed it and finger fed. (she finger fed the dry pasta too). What do people dress their baby's in for messy food and how the hell do you get them clean afterwards!! I feel like I'm fighting a loosing battle as it goes everywhere!! He nose at the moment is stained orange and she has it in her hair and thats after getting wiped with baby wipes!! I want her to enjoy food and I don't mind her making a mess of the highchair/floor but I just didn't know where to start with cleaning her without a bath!! (which she can't have 3 a day!!!) She won't wear plastic bibs by the way - she HATES them!!

TIA xx

with the slippery stuff it just takes practice, they have to learn to pick up up carefully or it comes out of the fingers

I put Izzy in a long sleeved bib that goes to her knees, if she is having something dribbly I will put a cloth over her trousers too, but most of the time the bib catches the drips fine.

With the bib taking off thing - Izzy started to do do this with the velcro ones, but after being told she was to leave it she has stopped doing it, just keep working on it and they soon learn it must stay on while they eat.

I have a cheat when it comes to any mess going on the floor - my dogs lol - they run in after she has finished and eat any droppage, so I just have to wipe the floor lol

As for cleaning her up - I use wet kitchen paper towel for her hands becuase I can squeeze water through in between her fingers, just have a bib or cloth under the hand, and it just seems to clean better than a wipe which often just isn't wet enough.