When will meal times be less of a chimps tea party?

[ledkr]

My dd is 15 months and is my 5th child. I either have a poor memory or she is particularly messy with food.

I try to feed her mostly off a spoon because if i give her food to eat herself she either throws it or rubs it into the highchair tray,hair etc.

She drinks from a beaker but throws it when she's had a drink or drips it on the tray.

She used to eat a few crisps nicely too but now squishes them up and throws them.

Now she is obviously getting bit old to be spoon fed she grabs the spoon from me but then throws the food at the walls or on the floor.

It literally takes me ages to clear up after a meal,the floor the highchair,her,the walls and doors.I expect a bit of mess but this is ridiculous.

Today i gave her some buttered bread,some cucumber and a bit of cubed cheese.It almost immediately got thrown apart from a cube or two of cheese.She then had a yogurt half fed to her and half self fed,it was in her hair her eyes and the wall.

Surely this isnt normal.I dread mealtimes now and dh said he does too.

What do i do,im completely baffled.

Hi. Not really got any advice but we're in same boat! I regularly say meals are like feeding time at the zoo (particularly tea). Mine are 3.4 yrs and 6 months! Older dd is worst and as she refuses to use cutlery or be spoon fed you can imagine the mess :o. When Dp not working away we split jobs - I do bath while he tackles kitchen clean up. We have a dog for the floor :).

Yes thats how it is for us,it is a massive clean up operation no m,atter how i tackle it. Dh has her on Mon and Tues when i work and he says he feels as if the day revolves around mealtimes.
I dont remember this with the other 4 they just sat and ate.

Anyone got any suggestions.

Oh, didn't realise this was you ledkr until I got to the end of the thread . Just to say Alice is the same only she won't let anyone expect my mum feedher with a spoon - she must always feed herself . I think I spend at least an hour a day just cleaning up after her meals and snacks and the dining room carpet is disgusting despite massive oilcloth all over the floor and carpet cleaning regularly. Will watch thread with interest...

Well, my older 2 are teens now and we had quite a civilized discussion about stuff last night although dh did have to remind ds not to eat so noisily a bit earlier on. Is that the kind of target you are looking for, or were you hoping it might be a bit sooner ?

back for good

backforgood I mean.......I'm not reciting take that lyrics here

backforgood Yes that kind of thing,that and not having to pick bluberries out of my bra after breakfast We have dicussions though,they go like this.
"stop it"
"no,naughty,dont throw"
"let Mummy help"
"give me the spoon thers a good girl"
"fucking mess everywhere,get me back to work"-this bit is said under my breath of course.

glad im not the only one.
Dh has just vetoed a cleaner.Apparently its an unecessary expense I told him so was sky sports

Well ledkr at this age she'll have picked it up from somewhere you

Haha,very funny. She doesnt see me eat on acccount of me never having time cos too busy clearing up her mess

Can't help much, mine is 2, and does eveything yours does, but add in spitting food out..stuff she likes, it's not a dislike for food, she will eat like a horse most of the time.

I would say that I wonder if it is something I am doing, as she apparently doesn't do it for the childminder or in fact anything she does that annoys the hell out of me.

I don't know the answer - except coverall painting bibs from poundland.

Meant to say, the beaker is also a problem for us - it's non drip now all the way, thrown out all the freeflow ones. She still grabs my water bottles and drinks from those, squirting everywhere, and screams when I won't let her have them, but the non drip valves on cups do help. Except when she fills her mouth with milk and spits it all out over herself and the floor.

If anyone has a clue I would like to know too.

I wouldn't hold your breath on the tidy meals front.

DD1 is 14 and still decided to eat her fajita without cutlery. At least she can wash her own hands.

Ledkr the first thing that came in to my mind is maybe she's not very hungry....? Perhaps sounds silly but surely if she were hungry, she would eat at least a little bit? Try giving her the tiniest portion and see what happens, try only giving her a mouthful of water in her cup, or none until she's eaten some food and you would imagine would be the time she would need a drink to go along with it...? My ds has a good appetite and likes to sit at the table and eat. Dd will eat if she's hungry, if not then she just faffs, plays, pays no attention and just drives me mad. I would therefore give her a much smaller portion and if she finishes it then she would get more but if not then there's less to worry about.
And if you don't think this is the problem with your dd, at least if you do drastically cut her portions down, there will be less food to clear up afterwards

Deb I blame DH in our case then

Agree with the painting bibs - we have to triple bib dd every meal time plus a tea towel - she has a little baby bib underneath to catch everything on her neck line the long sleeved bib misses, then the long sleeved bib, then the plastic bib on top and tea towel over her legs to cover any missed spillages there.....and yet I still often end out somehow with her getting food all over her clothes (as well as me and the dining room). Whenever friends come over with similar aged children they are a bit at the amount of bib-age and mess that goes on

bram dd makes a mess whether hungry or not - she uses hands not a spoon to eat her ready brek every morning and geniunely eats it hungry style but the mess

Can i have a straw poll to ask if she should be feeding herself at this age?

bram I think she is hungry but agree once she isnt it gets worse.I have been taking stuff off her today as soon as she throws it and i have i admit mostly spoon fed her because i just couldnt face it.

I think im going to go down the tiny bits at a time route and see where that takes us.

Can I join you?

DS2 is 16 months and has permanently RUINED our very old and irreplaceable terracotta tiles with his food throwing antics...

He has to have a bath pretty much after every meal bar breakfast, which he wolfs down.

We can't put his food on a plate or in a bowl because he just tips it all onto the table of his high chair.

The correct place for yoghurt is in his hair and he likes painting with chocolate mousse...

We did BLW from 6 months and he has always self fed. Now I give sloppy foods with a spoon but he still manages to flick it out of my hands if I'm not careful...it feels like we are going backwards but I can't face the mess any more!

Giving smaller amounts definitely helps a bit

My DS is 20 months and until very recently was completely like this - the mess to clear up afterwards was just awful, and such a waste!

The things that seem to have changed are that he suddenly seems to be more dextrous with a spoon/fork. He still eats some with his hands which I ignore, but when he uses the fork I am effusive in my praise.

I also give much much smaller portions, into his bowl from a bigger bowl. I don't know if he seems less overwhelmed or if there is any sense of "I shouldn't throw this as there isn't much" or just if it's because there is less to throw, but I'm talking about maybe 3 spoonfuls into his bowl/plate at a time.

If he starts deliberately throwing it onto the floor he gets one warning "oops, that landed on the floor, please don't throw it on the floor, or lunch is over" (said in a nice way!). If any more gets chucked I just assume he isn't hungry and he gets down.

He is by no means perfect but the combination of the above does seem to at least keep the mess down a little bit.

My next issue though is that he is very reluctant to sit in his booster seat any more, but if he sits in a normal seat he can barely reach the table. Grow child, grow!

Ooooh I feel your pain. Of all the myriad challenges of child rearing, I'm finding the food mess the hardest. Dd is 23 months and a total chimp with food. I gave her cous cous for the first time last week. Oh dear lord. Never, ever again.

Yesterday she had some cheese on toast with some ketchup to dip. I sat in front of her and corrected any throwing or smearing of food. I then gave her a fromage frais which i closely supervised her eating.It would seem this was better but cant see i can always do that. When she threw i quietly picked it up but when she ate nicely i gave big time praise.
Its worth a try i suppose.