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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Clean after every mouthful or when food is finished?

38 replies

fuckingroundabout · 09/09/2017 16:53

What do you do with your young children? Do you wipe their mouths and hands every mouthful or once they have finished?

Bit of a debate going on...

OP posts:
Hassled · 09/09/2017 16:55

Why on earth would you wipe after every mouthful? What would be the point? It sounds like a good way to spoil the whole eating experience.

DappledThings · 09/09/2017 16:55

When they've finished. Maybe between courses as well if it's been a particularly messy main but after every mouthful? How would you ever get a meal finished? And you'd use tons of wipes.

hairymaryquitecontrary · 09/09/2017 16:55

Where is your aibu?

And why would you annoy a kid by constantly wiping at them? Would you like that when you';re eating?

44PumpLane · 09/09/2017 16:55

I have babies and doing BLW and the advice is once they are finished.

Depends on the age of the kids though but if find it very irritating if someone kept wiping my face while I was eating!

Calphurnia · 09/09/2017 16:55

I wouldn't want to be manhandled like that after every bite, so wait til they're all done

Some children don't like being messy though. But not mine!

MaisieDotes · 09/09/2017 16:56

Well not after every mouthful anyway, are you kidding me?

I have two toddlers. We usually wipe their hands and faces after they finish eating but if there's, say, a yoghurt involved then there will probably be a few mid-meal wipes too.

Albertschair · 09/09/2017 16:56

At the end. If a particularly messy mouthful sort of dangles off the chin i might grab that - with my fingers if blw. Spoon if spoon feeding

Theresnonamesleft · 09/09/2017 16:57

Why would you do after every mouthful?

Original poster
fuckingroundabout · 09/09/2017 16:59

Thank God I'm not the crazy alien. My grandma insists on wiping every sodding mouthful and is now willing because I told her to leave their faces alone and let them bloody eat

OP posts:
mirime · 09/09/2017 17:00

Never after every mouthful, but DS went through a phase where he didn't like anything stuck to his hands, so a lot of wiping happened then. DS was always a fairly tidy eater though, I was looking forward to the messy eating but he never really did it.

Urubu · 09/09/2017 17:01

I did it after every mouthful, from the beginning when they were 6mo, ih and it was twins.
They are 3.5 now, I am a bit more relaxed but still ask them to wipe their face/hands/the table several times during a meal.

Frouby · 09/09/2017 17:02

Hose the buggers off outside once they have finished eating.

Dog cleans floor, highchair got hosed off too.

Sickofthinkingofnewnames · 09/09/2017 17:04

Mil kept buggering about wiping babies after each mouthful had to make sure she never fed them /was around during meal times.They don't like staying with her now after up to three showers a day enforced on one trip.

TestingTestingWonTooFree · 09/09/2017 17:05

I might scrape with a spoon between mouthfuls of yoghurt but I wouldn't wipe with a cloth until the end (except hands that are going to make a mess).

AuntLydia · 09/09/2017 17:06

Argh, my bloody MIL used to constantly wipe my kids faces when they were little. It drove them and me dotty! The last thing you want to do with a fickle toddler who doesn't always want to eat a decent meal is annoy the crap out of them and interrupt their eating!

Oysterbabe · 09/09/2017 17:09

Clean up after. I like to let her dig in and get messy and not distract her, she's only a baby.

Original poster
fuckingroundabout · 09/09/2017 17:11

It's driving me dotty

OP posts:
RedastheRose · 09/09/2017 17:11

Can cause a problem with the kids starting to get phobic about having any mess on their hands or faces when eating if you do this too much. There was a program a few years ago 'the house of' something or other and the child psychologist who worked with the parents said that the mother had cause her child's extreme anxiety about eating through her obsession with keeping her clean at all costs.

AdalindSchade · 09/09/2017 17:11

That's a sure way to create neuroses around food.

Vinorosso74 · 09/09/2017 17:11

I always found it easier to deal with the mess after DD had finished eating. Would be a bit like washing up each item as soon as you're finished with it.

Mamabear4180 · 09/09/2017 17:12

I wipe the baby between main and pudding then at the end. Also doing blw so she's a complete state by the end of it. Top tip by the way is to put them in old babygro's to eat meals, like overalls.

However my asd 2.8 year old will wipe her hands in her hair if they're messy so I keep a wipe next to her and wipe her quite a few times. She hasn't quite got the hang of a napkin so it's falls to me.

Wiping after each mouthful is precious and daft. Kids should be allowed to get messy! My kids are filthy by the end of the day. Food doesn't even compare to the mud and gunk accumulated!

SeaCabbage · 09/09/2017 17:16

Their poor face might get sore if you did it after every mouthful. Do keep sticking up for your child!

Anecdoche · 09/09/2017 17:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

MrGrumpy01 · 09/09/2017 17:21

My mil insists on giving everyone a piece of kitchen roll napkin what ever they are eating. I tend to refuse it for a kitkat.

Aph413 · 09/09/2017 17:23

Speech and language therapist told my mum she should let my brother get messy during meals and clean him after. She hated seeing him messy and would clean him up during the meal.