to put my 11 month old on the floor after meals

[claireybee]

and let him eat all the bits he (and his sister) have just thrown down there??

Yes.

Buy a dustpan and brush. Or get a dog.

YANBU
Saves getting the hoover out.

depends how clean your floor is?

a bit icky really to eat off the floor deliberately, but chacun a son gout

why not pick the bits up and put them back on the try rather than encouraging eating off the floor?

Pretty clean Lulu, is done daily anyway (and no, I don't just mean by him licking it!)

Done the replacing on tray thing too, but at the moment it is more fun to throw food than to eat it

NB I don't actually put him down there to eat the scraps but while I wipe over the table/highchair and if he does start eating the peas he dropped there 5 minutes ago I don't tend to worry. Just wondered if the general MN concensus was that it was a mingoid thing to let him do!

Naaaaa that's not nice at all clairey I'm sorry. That is how dogs eat not babies.

I think it's mingoid but then my floor is quite dubious
if yours is really clean then I don't see a problem

don't really see a problem with it - if my Ds drops his cracker or biscuit in his play area, he will pick it up later and carry on with it - so long as you don't HAVE a dog or a filthy floor, there isn't going to be much health risk so carry on! And anyway, it's your house, so your choice.

my goo monster likes to race under the table and hoover while I clean up

not v pleasant, but some of the other things she gets hold of are equally

I wouldn't encourage the habit. Pick ing the odd thing up and scoffing it is one thing, but actively encouraging him to pick up any old crap and reat it is really yukky.

Oh fgs, the kid will be fine.
It's a floor in the house, not a public bloody lavvy.

I think if said child were to scoff while, fristance, your back was turned, clearing up say - you could feel better about it than if you deliberately put him down there to finish his dinner!

(Can you tell this is what happens round mine? I do have clean floors though)

Well both mine have lived to tell the tale after picking odd bits of food up off the floor.

It won't kill them, mine finds stray bits of food every now and again too and I clean the floor everyday. I say it builds up their immune system.

It's not any old crap though pointydog, it is food that he has put down there within the last few minutes.

Yep Taliac that is basically it, I lift him out of highchair and put him on floor while I wipe highchair and table. I don't actually put him down there with the intention of him eating but lately he has done a few times. FWIW I do often put him in the sitting room rather than on the dining room floor but that darned magnet he seems to have sends him scurrying back to around my feet

I'm not the least biut bothered by children eating things off teh floor. I do it myself. But to put a small child on the floor in the expectation that that is what they will do - well, that becomes a habit. And when will it stop? And do you tell them not to do that in other people's houses if they do have pets? And do you tell them not to do it in a cafe? How would a 1 yr old understand that you do it all the time at home but not in other places?

I'm just thinking ahead.

When we were tiny, we were having a picnic in the garden, a sandwich was dropped and my mum picked it up and was about to brush it off, when she saw the lodger (a doctor) coming down the path, so she went to throw it away. He said "no, don't bother, let them eat it, it'll improve their immune systems". Certainly did.

I see what you are saying but I don't actually put him down there to eat, I just don't stop him if he does pick something up.

The OP was meant to be tongue in cheek anyway, I do know eating off the floor isn't a good habit but DS picked up a couple of peas earlier on after his dinner and it made me laugh that I wasn't bothered by it

Can't believe anyone would be bothered by it TBH. Unless your floor's covered in dog hair/crap etc.

Especially if it's something like crackers or anything dry. They put all their toys (which live on the floor) in their mouths anyway so who cares?

slinks away to find her slummy mummy hat

Mine have done this on occasion ! Its a similar thing to when they drop their biscuit on the ground and start wailing, do you refuse to give it back for fear of germs, or just brush it off and hand it back ? I know I am in the hand it back group!
When they play outdoors, or at the park, they are touching who knows what, and putting their hands to their mouths. plus there are more germs on light switches and door handles etc, than on a bit of food thats only just been dropped !

My DD actually sits under high chairs when other children are eating to catch any falling bits

This is not something which I have encoraged.

She does always know these children but its still embarassing.

Eating food off the floor at home, no problem.

My ds throws food off highchair tray sometimes, and then will eat it off the floor if I put him down before I get dustpan and brush out.
I discourage it because I don't want him to think it's ok to eat off of any floor.
However when at my parents, where there isn't a highchair or booster seat, I put food on a plastic plate on the floor, suppose that's a bit confusing for him though.

If you're finding your children eat more/better off the floor, why not set dinner up as a picnic with a blanket and some plates.

well the thing is clairey, one day you'll say to him "don't eat that, it's been on the floor, it's dirty," for example if you are visiting friends who have a dog, or in a cafe with a dirty floor, and he will be very confused because he thinks eating off the floor is normal. at the moment i am trying to get dd to understand that she can't just pick things up off the floor and eat them. even though i know it won't do her any harm. so, no eating off the floor for us...

I think I agree with others who say that it's not a problem in that he is probably not going to get sick, but isn't really something to be encouraged.

I was very laid back about my ds picking up stuff on the floor at that age, but then we found out he had a nasty egg allergy, so we couldn't let him down on the floor at birthday parties etc, because he would be likely to scoff cake and the like.

But like every other developmental thing that we discuss on MN, it's a phase and it will pass.

Put some newspaper down underneath the highchair, then as soon as you take him out of the chair you can roll up the newspaper and the -tempting- -goodies- revolting cruddy bits of food are all gone.