To serve a baby led weaning buffet at my daughters party?

[PignutSalamander]

Dd is turning 1, I am planning to do a buffet based on the very hungry caterpillar. The plan as stands is to set it all up on a trestle table and when it's time to serve it put the legs down and let them at it.
Consideration has obviously been given to making it safe and easy for kids to feed themselves and the first few people I mentioned it to said they thought it was a great idea
I mentioned it to a mum who will be bringing her dd and she said " err! What about germs? How will we stop them taking a bite and dropping it, then another baby eating it?"
I basically feel that they will be spending the whole party sharing toys, touching each other etc and that germs are just going to be shared.
Obviously I will ensure that hands are washed before they eat and have also checked for allergys and warned mums not to put them in there best clothes. Also seperate snacks for adults
So what's the consensus mn? Aibu?

Ooh, and just to be clear, YABU.

A baby led weaning buffet sounds so pretentious.

I once (naively) decided to have a carpet picnic with my BLW'd 1 year old. I went to waitrose for a selection of naice picnic fare. I set it all up and then plonked DS down already for a lovely lunch....

Oh The Horror.

He had no idea what was going on. Trampled through everything, smeared stuff everywhere (carpet, sofa, walls) and ate nothing, aside from all of the sweet treats I had bought. I didn't know what to clean up first. If I wiped the baby clean, as soon as I put him down he headed straight back to the pile of mush on the living room floor. If I attempted to clear up the food, baby was let loose, rolling smushed falafel (oh yeah, it was that wanky) over my soft furnishings. The thought of that times 10 or more makes me shudder.

I ended up chucking everything away, and never mentioned the sorry affair to anyone before today. I might as well have shoved £15 in a blender and scattered it over my house.

Let my tomwankery be a lesson to us all.

Seriously OP, what do you have against plates?

Constructive advice: don't invite any French people, they will stroke out

There are some very threads today.

BLW does not = self service at a buffet.

Buy some paper bowls. Muppet.

Oy who are you calling a Muppet :)

It's all the parents wading in that I can't get my head round either. Noone would surely leave their baby to this food carnage unsupervised. Everyone would be clambering over each other to get to their child. If my child was amongst all this I would have a fixed smile on and be cursing under my breath.

The whole thing sounds utterly poncetastic.

I wish I could be there as a fly on the wall. Lord knows I'd have a feast ... on the floor, on the walls, on the table legs, in the babys' hair...

Summary of thread

Op: do you like my idea for a party
Everyone: no. It's shit
Op: you plebs!

OP - what you are describing is a sensory party. The children could explore all kinds of substances and textures - paint, dough, foam... it doesn't need to be food.

However, if food is your preferred medium, I think you would be better leaving it in large tubs so the children can genuinely be creative. Your description of 3 rows and a column, a pineapple sun, a caterpillar, a cocoon and a butterfly, sounds incredibly restricting... children need to be able to sculpt their own forms without being limited by your preconceived notions.

DD wasn't even crawling at age one. she was just staring to pull herself up. If she had been next a low table the entire buffet would have ended up on the floor.

The idea sounds interesting, but IMO too overdone and impractical, and it won't be properly appreciated.

You got it munchkin oh and the op has a thing about plates.

I don't get the baby led weaning thing ?? Your child is one not 6 months??? I know lo who we did our own thing with (I.e not particularly stickin to tw or blw) was eating all normal food at about 9 months, if bot earlier...

I think it's a bice idea doing the vh caterpillar idea (though icant quite picture it in my head an I can't find anything on pinterest!) and I think having a picnic on the floor would be nice for older children, I think 1 is way too young. Would be nice for 3/4/5 yer olds

My local surestart centre did a massive paddling pool of spaghetti hoops that the 6month plus babies sat in and ate.

It was gross fab!

The op says on p9 she will clean the floor AND cover it and provide plates for those that want them.

sounds great, it will be really messy but so what, the children will have fun!

My local surestart centre did a massive paddling pool of spaghetti hoops that the 6month plus babies sat in and ate.

I would have vommed cold tomato sauce all over babies I work with under 4s if my work did this i would have to leave tobesick

Urgh re spaghetti pool. Nappies. Eurgh.

Maryz I did BLW in 1999 and didn't realise until I joined MN that's what I had done. I called it 'chucking a selection of offerings onto the high chair tray'.

My local surestart centre did a massive paddling pool of spaghetti hoops that the 6month plus babies sat in and ate.

I called it 'chucking a selection of offerings onto the high chair tray'.

so feeding your son then