To ask how you cook dinner with a crying baby?

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Just that really! 1 year old son constantly cries when put down. I have a play kitchen close so he can play but he just cries to be picked up.

I'm going out my mind. Every evening it's the same battle to cook something before he has a full on meltdown.

I am struggling

Is he perhaps over tired at that time of day? Would a quick spot of soothing TV help?

Could you pop him in a highchair with some little healthy snacks to keep him busy? I used to give DD some sweetcorn dotted on her tray and that would entertain her also tried to choose fairly quick meals. And some nights we decided to eat later when she was in bed.

I would advise sticking a highchair right next to u in the kitchen, giving him a snack to eat/play with and if needed singing with him as you cook That's how I managed with DS 7 months

It sounds really difficult. Can you prepare most of the meal earlier in the day while he's napping, then just finish off? Or use a slow cooker? My sons had a baby Einstein play centre table that they could sit in, at the door to the kitchen. That helped keep them entertained.

Also meal prep when baby is asleep.
I have batches of cooked meats in the freezer ready to bung in with pasta on days where DS is too much trouble
Altho I tend to reach for the takeaway menu on those days

Sling
TV time
Batch cook and reheat
Simple meals so everything is whacked in the oven or slow cooker or microwave

Carrier on my back. I mean they’d still whinge but so much easier to put them back there and carry them but have my hands to make dinner and so much safer than tripping over them in the kitchen

It's really difficult. I used to cook when my husband was around to hold the baby, either that or try and prepare the bulk of the meal or chop everything when the baby was asleep if i was at home, or the evening before if I was out at work. It did get better over time, but when they just start nursery and are tired and want to see you but you need to eat, was the worst

I used to prepare the meal earlier in the day and just heat it up, with DD in a sling. Tried not to dangle her feet in anything hot!!!
We also ate a lot of toast, salads, ready meals .... Good luck, it is awful how they are tired at the end of the day just when you are trying to get stuff done.

I had a VERY clingy child (she's almost 20 now and honestly...still clingy) and I wore her in a sling around my back from that age on. She watched what I was doing over my shoulder and was quite happy about it. I almost always had her in the sling while i was cooking, come to think about it.

Tricky. Would he watch some tv?

Sling
Slow cooker- prep/ turn on when baby naps
Beans on toast (add one sliced tomato and cucumber if you have other DC you feel you have to get some veg into)
Massively lower dinner expectations- it’s easy to just get something quick and nutritious into you all, less stress is more important.

*some not one?!

Baby jail in the shed?

Cook when the baby is asleep and reheat.
Microwave meals
Slow cooker

All very dull but work.

I tend to batch cook when he naps or on weekends when dh is around. Or quick meals started when dh finishes work.

I used to prepare in the morning and also cooked double what we'd eat so there was another meal in the freezer! It's tough though. Really tough!

1. Sling
2. High chair
3. Buggy in the kitchen and turn them round for a different view every so often
4. Do the actual cooking at a different time of day so all you have to do is plate up or reheat either one handed or at double quick time
5. Loud music/earplugs to drown out the crying.

#4 is the thing I wish I'd figured out earlier. I do as much cooking as I can during my 1yo's morning nap so hands on time per meal is only 5-10 mins at the time.

Ahh the great witching hour which is perfectly designed to cover the time when you are least equipped to deal with it. You have had some good advice, many of us have been there.

Cook a casserole or pie earlier in day. Serve with couscous (just pour on boiling water) and reheated green veg (ie peas, broccoli, cabbage, mangetout) you cooked earlier in day.
Honestly even simple things like boiling and draining pasta are a deathtrap with a toddler under foot ..much better to make more complicated things when toddler is in a good mood, occupied, or better still asleep!, so that you can reheat them when he and you are frazzled.
I had to learn a whole new way of cooking, basically old fashioned nursery cooking or cafeteria cooking. Never try and fry or boil something or worse still chop with toddler frazzled.

Quiches, salad nicoise, cold potatoes fried in oven, macaroni cheese, lasagna, casseroles, chicken tray bakes with pre wedged potatoes, carrots, onion are all your friend with small children.

We have one of those Montessori kitchen helper towers for DS (he calls it his pot), he can stand up in it beside me and make horrible potions out of his water and snack and steal slices of vegetables whenever he gets a chance. Keeps him from trying to climb my legs and otherwise kill us both.

Ours is this one: www.amazon.co.uk/Bianconiglio-Kids-Montessori-transparent-adjustable/dp/B07YZQHPYL?tag=mumsnetforu03-21 it was the neatest one I could find and it'll do him til he's tall enough to reach the counter safely.

Who are you cooking for? Is there an OH around?

I managed with a mixture of
Being organised and chopping veg etc earlier in the day, preparing a casserole while they napped etc etc
Lower expectations about complexity of meals
Tv time for half an hour while I cooked
OH who emerged from his study to help with dishing up.

Sling, on my back. Then she'd cry herself to a quick nap while I cooked dinner. It was a nightmare while it lasted, good luck!

I used to meal prep when mine were asleep.
Whether that was using the slow cooker, or making something like a lasagne or a cottage pie where all the work is in the preparation and you just stick it in the oven when it is ready.
Or, if having something that only takes 20 - 30 mins, cook once the other adult is there, so one deals with the baby and one cooks.
If on own, with a baby that never sleeps, then you put them down and get on with it.

I just used to ignore if I couldn't engage them with playing unfortunately but I never made anything that would require longer than say 15 mins separate from them. I would pre-prepare veg etc whilst they had a nap earlier in the day and just cook super simple, quick meals or bung things in the freezer.