Am I teaching my 10 month old bad habits by turning teatime into a 'picnic'?

[Ceebee74]

My 10 month old DS is pretty useless with finger foods - he just plays with them and drops them all over the floor and then whinges to get out of his highchair.

So today, I thought I would not put him in his highchair (he gets bored VERY quickly in there) and put his tea of philly sarnies and some cucumber sticks on a plastic plate and we both sat on the floor and I let him take what he wanted off the plate and crawl around with it if that is what he wanted to do.

Subsequently he has eaten 3/4 of the sandwiches and picked up and played with some cucumber (doesn't seem to be able to actually bite any off) - which is more than he normally does.

Does this sound ok or am I going to make him think that all meals should be eaten off the floor?? (I should add that he has spoon-fed breakfast and lunch - as long as I spoon fast before he gets bored!)

I think it sounds like a great idea. Whatever works IMO.

Well I think it's a fab idea, especially if he's eating more than he normally would when contained in his highchair. My dds are older now, but I still do this sometimes at tea-time. I put down a picnic blanket in the living room and they eat an 'al fresco' tea indoors (usually when there is something special on tv they want to watch)

if you make food fun then it can't be a bad thing.
it'll just start good eating habits!
well done!

I don't see that it will hurt at all. GS and I still have a 'picnic' at least once a week for his tea, and he's 4. We move to the garden on nice days.

anything that works IME

We bought a telly to go in the dining room and mine often eat more when they're watching as they don't notice what they're putting their mouths...

Ta for the reassurance - following my original thread, DS started actually eating a cucumber stick (which is unheard of) - plus there is philly rubbed all over the rug (must remember to put the plastic mat down tomorrow )!

my ds hated being in his high chair. he preferred his bumbo on the floor but outgrew that so i did the same as you until we found an alternative. now we've got a booster seat type thing but with no tray which he seems to like as it isn't so enclosed. he still has it on the floor on a mat at the grandparents etc though. although he isn't allowed to move around with it he has to stay on the mat.

would be careful if he is eating and crawling around too incase he chokes.

Nappy - thanks for the advice.

I think it may be partly due to the highchair as he seems to find it uncomfortable. Went out for lunch today and the pub supplied us with a booster seat type thing attached to a chair which he sat in quite happily etc for at least an hour - pulled it right up to the table and he ate bits of finger food off the table - I can't imagine him doing that in his (or any other high chair tbh).

Problem is I feel guilty as my parents bought us the highchair as a present when he was born and it was quite an expensive one so I do feel we should continue to use it - what to do??

Had another 'picnic' this afternoon for his tea and he ate most of a round of peanut butter sandwiches!!

when dd started cruising she decided she preferred to have her plate on the coffee table at lunchtime. i'm not a big believer in the 'bad habits' thing, surely it's a better habit to eat well and happily? i'd ditch the highchair, btw. you can get booster seats for £15.99... sell the highchair on and make a profit.

aithc - tempting, very tempting but what would my mum say??

Fear I am going to have to buy the booster seat but keep the highchair when my parents visit!

Sorry - Aitch (only had 2 sips of beer so far and look what happens )

tbh, i'm sure if you explain that her grandchild doesn't actually like the highchair then it would be fine, would it not? none of you knew that when it was chosen...

ceebee when you were out at the restaurant did you put anything on the table. i always try and put serviettes down cos i get paranoid that table might not be clean but he just pulls those off!

ask them to give you the biggest, flattest plate they've got. somethign like a pizza plate is good, as they don't tend to fanny around with them so much ime.