My DS is 14 mo and I have no idea if I'm doing the right thing with his eating.
He eats really well, most of the time, quite varied, and he feeds himself with his hands (not great with cutlery yet). I usually spoon feed 1-2 meals a day. He generally eats better if he has things to play with, e.g. spoons, an empty bowl/cup/container to fill with food/water etc.
The problem is that he is SO messy. He throws food as soon as he gets bored and his water cup can be quite dangerous at 50mph through the air. At first it was ok, dropping food then peering over the high chair to check out gravity at work. Now he just has a bit of a tantrum once he's done and food goes all over the place. I try to only put a few bits down at any one time.
If I'm feeding him yoghurt, which I know he loves, he will only open his mouth to eat it if one hand is in the yoghurt. Then gets cross when I take it away. Same goes for most food actually.
I am trying to ignore all of this as I don't want him to think I care or that it will stress me out. I do make him stay in his chair until I have cleaned up around him and wiped him down. Constant whinging at this point.
Anyway, this has been going on for about 6 months now and I would have thought he'd have grown out of it by now. I want to start taking him out for meals but whenever we attempt it we leave a bomb site behind and I feel terrible!
We generally don't eat as a family which would probably help but DH not home til after 8 and the last thing I feel like doing at lunch time is sitting down and eating a meal while trying to focus on ds.
Help!