Messy play for a 1 year old

[doireallyneedaname]

He will try to eat it.

Looking for ideas please :)

I’m also thinking about getting a tuff tray for him so anything that your kids loved would be great.

I mostly used dry stuff for mine - brightly coloured rice and lots of little things buried in it. It went everywhere and needed brushed up all the time, but didn't make a mess of the toddler! And it could go in the compost bin.

Shredded paper
Porridge oats
Rice crispies
Weetabix
Baked beans
Cornflour and water
Yogurt and food colouring
Custard
Jelly( made up - not cubes which are a choking hazard)
Angel delight
Cooked paste- spaghetti is my fav- you can dye it with food colouring
Dried rice

I work in a nursery and love our tuff tray
Go for it!

DD used to love it when I got one of those under bed plastic storage tubs and chucked a box of aldi cheapest rice crispies in it. I'd bury small toys in the crispies and give her plastic cups and spoons so she could fill and tip them up and dig about.

Would also fill it with warm bubbly water and freeze some of her small toys in cups of water with food colouring in. She'd melt the toys free and the water would change different colours with each ice cube.

Main thing is to have big sheet or plastic mat underneath so you can pop all the toys into the box then just gather the edges of the sheet up and tip the remnants into the bin for quick clean up.

Coloured worms/snakes/spaghetti - cook some spaghetti or angel hair pasta then pop it in a storage container with a few drops of food colouring, lid on, give it a shake, then pop in fridge for a couple of hours or overnight. You can do several different colours if you divide it up. Give spoons, tongs, sieves etc to play with it.

Gloop - 2 parts cornflour to 1 part water, add food colouring if you like. Great to pass through colanders etc or just enjoy the texture with hands.

Playing with food when there's so many people relying on food banks is just wrong 😢

@gettingusedtothelimelight

Playing with food when there's so many people relying on food banks is just wrong 😢

There is no link between the two things.

Me buying a 50p box of rice crispies for DD to play with doesn't deprive anyone else of food.

If there was a cereal shortage and me having them meant someone else couldn't then it would be a different thing entirely.

It is really wasteful though, when there's such a drive to reduce single use items.

It's not sonething I ever did with either dc. You can do messy play in the garden, or let them do some painting.

You can do sensory play without wasting food, even if you use dry rice and pasta, you can use them again .

Thanks all! Really good ideas :)

@gettingusedtothelimelight If it makes you feel better, I regularly donate various foods and items!

You can keep the rice or pasta for months and play with it every day! Just keep it dry and sealed overnight.

I do hate food waste but compared to single use plastic etc I can make peace with this.

You can keep rice, pasta and cereal for years never mind months to play with in your own home. It's no more wasteful than other toys, you don't buy a doll thinking it's wasteful because they will only play with it for a set time period. Or buy them Romeo and Juliet because that's the GCSE text they will be doing rather than 'that's not my truck.

You can keep dry rice and pasta but people cook spaghetti, make jelly etc to let children play with.

I'm fairly sure we should be blaming the government for the amount of people who are reliant on food banks in the UK. Not lovely mums trying to inject a bit of fun into lockdown for their babies

Letting your baby play with some cooked spaghetti does not mean a child goes hungry elsewhere
That’s a very simplistic view

1 part cooking oil to 8 parts flour for play sand. My little boy loves it!

I usually start with flour then gradually add the oil and just judge the consistency as I go.