Thank you Mumsnet

[CP]

There was a tip on the homepage a couple of days ago about pressing gently on your childs hand to get them to let go - WOW, it really works. DD now thinks she is ever so polite as she 'gives' things back to me!! Also to all of you who gave me tips on feeding the little monster, thank you - she now feeds herself lunch and tea. So far so good... I do find the Annabel Carmel finger food recipes a bit tedious though - am I lazy or just slow and incompetant in the kitchen?

I've tried this hand pressing thing too with DS2, 6 months, it works great, I'm impressed!

Where abouts do you press on their hand? (this technique sounds like just what I need!!!)

No, you're not slow and incompetant in the kitche, Annabel Karmel has more time than sense! I used her recipes but didn't bother with all the fancy "tarting up" she does.

AK's salmon starfish = SoupDragon's salmon blobs.

GeorginaA, I think it said something along the lines of gently pressing the back of their hand and they would open their grasp and it really does work.

SoupDragon, I've done salmon blobs too. The recipes are good but mine wouldn't make for such good photos! Who has got the time to cut out bits of food to make a sail for a baked potato boat? IME it wouldn't make my sons eat more than they would normally anyway, if they like baked potato, they'll eat it whether or not it has a sail and if the sail is made out of red pepper, they won't eat it anyway!

Thinking about Annabel Karmel, I bought her book under pressure from my HV (felt like a bad mum if I didn't buy it, HV was probably getting commission) and have not had great success with it. I tried a few of the recipies for party food, peanut butter and wheatabix bumblebees and jelly boats, they were a bit of a disaster and extremely time consuming, next time I will just stick to good oldfashioned fairy cakes! I don't know who has the time or energy to make most of the Annabel Karmel things.

Annabel Karmel was good when ds was little (wanted to make sure he got a good variety when he was being weaned - but didn't have the imagination or the knowhow myself) but I don't bother now except for a few old favourites. Macaroni cheese with ketchup is soooo much nicer than the stuff out of the tin, and the clean bowl is thanks enough for the extra hassle.

Ta Demented, will try that and report back )