BLW - strategies for mess please!

[wastingmyeducation]

DS has been BLW since Saturday, and I've basically changed his clothes after he's eaten, dropping crumbs and lumps as we go, and wiped his face and hands. Then when I can get a minute, wiping down the highchair and floor. I haven't used a bib as his sleeves and trousers get the muckiest.
I am enjoying the whole thing very much, and DS obviously is, but I need to figure out how to do less washing/cleaning etc. or at least have a strategy in place to deal with it quicker. What bibs are best for BLW?
Suggestions and experiences please!?

xx

pelican bibs from tommee tippee, you can shove them in the dishwasher too. i had the roll up travel ones, so great for taking out too.

basically anything with a big pouch at the front to catch the food.

SillyBillyz are long sleeved, fleece fronted bibs, and are great. If you combine with a pelican bib over the top then it catches the downwards bits.

A giant muslin on the floor catches all the bits, so you can just gather it all up, sling the bits in the composter/bin, and the muslin in the wash if nec. Folds up to a tiny size so easy to take out

TBH by dinner time I was as likely as not to let DD have her dinner in her nappy and then to bung her in the bath...

Re the floor, if you buy a length of plastic tablecloth you can put that on the floor before meals and when he drops things just pop them back up on the table for a second go. It's much easier to keep the cloth clean than the floor IYSWIM.

Long armed bib! We had silly billyz too. I think bump to three sell them.

My children threw and dropped food far beyond the area of the highchair so a muslin or wash mat was useless.

Some people use newspaper. In the end I just put nothing on the floor and just washed it after each meal. I'm not saying I enjoyed the latter .

Ooh, some good ideas, thank you! Am looking at Silly Billyz now!

xx

Right, I've ordered some Silly Billyz, and presume I'll be able to pick up a pelican bib in Boots.
I got some mess mats from Morrisons but they're very flimsy. I shall have to see where I can get plastic tablecloth from.

xx

I don't like mess at all and I'm finding blw mess a nightmare but am perservering. My tips

1. Eat in just vest/nappy and bib

1. Once finished lift dd out of highchair and get the thick of the food off her.

1. Put dd in bumbo on the floor with a toy while I wipe highchair and clean floor.

1. Clean rest of dd and put clothes back on

I'm dreading having to give her food in public - if I go out for lunch. How do other people manage this?

long sleeved bibs

highchair that gets really close to the table (Antilop / Tripp Trapp)

cheapo shower curtain thus or similar v good for floor

So would taking the tray off the Antilop and pulling it right into reduce the mess? TBH most of the mess is escaping down inside the highchair and falling from his legs. Sit him on a thicker towel maybe?

xx

into the table I mean.

xx

give it a try - have you the inflato cushion to boost him to the very front of the chair? if not use towels or something. The less space the have to drop stuff on their lap and squish it inot their clothes (as opposed to dropping straight on floor/back on table) the better IME

remember the table will get messy

we have the antilop. i shove DS right up next to the tray so there is barely any gap using the inflatable cushion thing behind him. stops most of the mess falling down.

i also keep the floor mat more-or-less as clean as highchair tray so i can just pick food up off the floor and give it back to him.

also, there are lots of foods that are less messy - anything that is in a dryish lump is easier to clean up than something that can splat onto the floor. so yesterday's lunch was pasta spirals, meatballs and cauliflower and butternut pieces. most was pick-up-able and the rest was dealt with in a few wipes. things like tomato pasta sauce are a nightmare, so we only do that just before bath time!!!

TBH i've just given up worrying about the washing and bought more babygros and he now spends more time in babygros than he even did as a newborn! we do reusable nappies though so mucky babygros just go in with them so it's not actually much extra washing IYSWIM.

I've used some spare terry nappies to prop him up, but he's sitting well so haven't bothered. That's a good idea.
I don't have a problem with mess, just the time/washing to clear it up!

xx

also floor mats and antilop can be 'power-hosed' off in the shower if they're really horrid.

My ds always ate in just his vest, then at least his clothes were ok.

Second the long sleeve and pelican combo when out if eating is vest is not appropriate.

Choose drier foods when out to minimise mess. eg bread

My ds is 3 now and is a very tidy eater

hello

DS will be 6 months on 23rd November. To celebrate, we are planning on... feeding him steamed carrot batons (first food ever!). Though I'm wondering whether butternut squash might be nicer.

Therefore, as a soon to be novice blw-er, I'm avidly looking for hints on mess reduction. I'm afraid we have gone for a 2nd hand Svan chair. I'm getting a plastic tray for it on Thursday (reserved in shop). And I'm about to go shopping for
-a wipe clean tablecloth or 2 (hmm could also use for floor I see) in both non extended and extended dining table sizes
-bibs with sleeves
-pelican bibs
-melamine bowls

We already have
-a plastic backed picnic mat that goes in the washing machine. Could I use this to protect the dining room carpet?
-a gadget I picked up half price to "stick" the bowl to the highchair tray, Tommee Tippee, I think - do these work?
-lots of little "normal" bibs I have been given and some funky my first Xmas ones - are these any use at all?

We have a white garden dining set to eat out in in the summer - am wondering whether I can persuade dh that an Antilop chair, if cheapo plastic, would be worth getting in the spring perhaps to go with (or sooner if we can't cope with cleaning the Svan)!

don't worry about bowls etc. for now. just put the food straight onto the highchair tray or table. if your DS is anything like mine, the bowl will just go straight on his head anyway!

carrot sounds great as a first food. i might be tempted to offer a rice cake or bit of broccoli as well so he has a couple of things to explore and get to grips with, but if you just want to do one thing at a time then that would be fine.

you definitely need a big floor mat. keep it as clean as the highchair tray or table so that you can just pick bits up and put them back on the tray without worrying! otherwise you'll waste a lot of food.

normal bibs are probably not that useful unless you are giving something not too messy like plain pasta, but even that will get pretty much everywhere! definitely sleeved ones or pelican ones.

antilops are £9.99 + £3 for the tray so not too difficult to justify on price and they are very easy to keep clean

i've just used the tommee tippee mat for the first time with DS (7.5mo) today because we are on holiday in a hotel next week and i've no idea how the high chair/table set up will be, so i wanted to try something a bit more containing for the food. it seemed to work okay at keeping the plate stuck down and DS stopped trying to yank at the plate after a while, but mainly because i gave him some of his favourite food so he was more distracted by that! so it might work, but i wouldn't bother until your DS is actually eating a decent amount of food.

Mother care do some great bibs with long sleeves, they are made out of wipe down plasticy material and fasten really easily. They are only £3.99 I think, and as they get older they work really well for playing with water and paints!

if you've got a fabric store near you, just buying 2metres of shower curtain type polyester fabric is perfect for under the highchair and ca be shaken out and bunged in the washing machine each time. 2m is enough for each meal so that times 3 covers the day obviously. cheaper than buying shower curtains for the floor too which i originally was looking for.

We use a 'cummerbund' made from a teatowel pegged at the back - this means that DS's lap isn't covered in porridge after breakfast. You can just fold the teatowel up and stick it straight in the wash (with the long-sleeved bib, if need be).

I use a bumbo with a bumbo tray and a bib from sainsbos that seems to be made form shower curtain type material. This combination tends to mean that anything dropped lands in between the bumbo tray and the bib. The tray is really close to DD so the mess seems to be alot less than when she is an high chair, Obv we won;t be able to use this for long as she will eventually be too big.

DD is not much of a thrower although she did chuck a handful of spag bol at my mum's house last week - which looked lovely on her cream wall

DS always eats from his Kiddopotamus TinyDiner Portable Placemat - it has an ingenius trough which goes between DS's tummy and the table, catching most of the debris. You can then fish stuff out and re-offer it. It rolls up quite small so you can take it with you quite easily. The only downsides are that it doesn't stick to a lot of surfaces (so it slips towards your baby) and tomato sauces have stained it orange (why they didn't make it in orange is beyond me!).
I think you do have to choose where you give them a meal if you're going to someone's house, they need to know how messy the baby will be, perhaps you can eat in the kitchen instead, etc, if they have a table in there.

Eat naked and put a big piece of lino under his highchair.

get a big shower curtain for the floor - you can shake it out and then stick it straight into the washing machine.

always eat in vest - get some baby legs if you think it's too cold for your lo.