A solid solids mess

I was talking to another mom who has twins near the age of mine, and she said that she feeds her two several solid meals a day. My response was that I didn't think I could stand to do that many baths and she said that she only has to "wipe them off". Wow, mine are coated in food and need a full bath! I know that they should probably get multiple solid meals a day by now but each meal takes around 2-1/2 hrs from start to clean to finish, and I haven't even started to make my own baby food yet! Are my boys just messes? When I feed them, they'll grab the spoon and pull it towards their mouth. If it makes it to their mouth, only about 1/3 will go into their mouth, another 1/3 going on their face and hands and the remaining 1/3 on their bib and high chair. I strip them down to their diapers, even taking off their plagio helmets, before feeding them. Here's some pics to demonstrate the mess -- Sam eating, Alex eating. After giving each a full bath, I have to clean the high chair, the floor and lots of dishes. I can't imagine doing this more than once a day, in fact I sometimes skip days because it's so daunting.

 

LOL! Those are messy boys! I found that giving the boys their own spoons helped me get more into their mouths. Hang in there, they will get better with it! FWIW, I think my boys didn't start 2 meals a day until 8 months.

 

Wow, that's a big mess. I understand your pain looking at those pix. I've given my boys their own spoon, but they try to poke their eyes out, so now I give them a finger food. Still messy, but it's distracting enough to slip a spoon in while they try to shovel cheerios in.

Also, now that they're older I am giving mine more people food and fewer purees. This week I tried scrambled egg yolk w/cheese, banana pancakes and frozen waffles (thawed and pulled into bite size pieces, no syrup) and I finally found yogurt melts, rather than spoon feeding yogurt. For lunch we did grilled cheese today. How are your guys with textures, are they ready to move away from purees?

 

From the very first spoonful my kids were not allowed to grab the spoon. When they'd try I'd move their hand away. There were some meals that when I got the food on the spoon, I held their hands with my other hand to put the food in their mouth! They still managed to get sort of messy (we still call Kayci a full contact eater because she wears some of everything she eats and she's four!) but nothing a few wipes couldn't take care of.

 

LOL...your LO's are so cute!

Ditto on the holding their own spoon. This is a great stage and a messy one. They are ready to feed themselves! :clapping: Have you tried giving them any finger foods like rice puffs? My girls are messy eaters and started taking the spoon away from me as well. Once this started happening I started giving them finger foods like shredded cheese, potatoes, apples...etc. They are usually a mess when they are finished, but all I do is wipe them down with a wet towel.

 

I did the same. It was probably around 8 months when this happened. Your little ones are so cute :wub:

 

I figured that I should let them try to manipulate the spoon to learn to feed themselves. They're not too bad at getting the spoon mostly right-side up and mostly into their mouth. They're generally holding on to one or more spoon and drop it when I bring the newly loaded spoon close. I didn't start feeding them solids until just a month or so ago, when they hit the 6 month adjusted point. The only finger food I've tried so far is banana chunks, and they didn't seem interested in picking them up. I tried putting them on a spoon and putting them in their mouth, but they just spit them out. I know they like banana puree. I'm giving them stage 3 foods which are pretty thick purees and yogurt, and they also like mum-mums. Alex has 8 teeth and Sam 2 and they like to crunch the mum-mums. I'm still introducing things in single-ingredients, and haven't made it to apples, cheese or wheat yet. I just backed off new things for a week as well since Alex had a nasty diaper rash after trying yogurt. Probably just a coincidence. I'm going to have to try more textures I think. I'll probably try banana chunks again. Such a mess!

 

:laughing: Those are some cute pictures!

I always gave them a spoon to hold, too, so they couldn't grab mine. Or I gave finger foods on the tray that would take their attention away from me & I would just sneak bites into their mouths here & there.

 

Don't feel guilty about dreading feeding them solids. I feel the same way. My girls are so messy, I hold them in my lap. A lot of moms feel this is harder, but it works better for me. I feed them one at a time in my lap. I will say, the last month or so, it has gotten somewhat better.

One of my girls can feed herself yogurt drops, puffs and the likes, but the other chokes. (She had a neonatal stroke so she is very behind.)

Hang in there. Don't feel bad about hating it. I thought I was the only one!!!! Apparently I'm not! woo hoo! :crazy:

 

Oh my that is a big mess.

What I did, with my girls at that age, was trap their hands under their high chair trays - I'd put their hands down, and push the tray in as far as it would go. I dunno if that will work for you, but it took a long time for my girls to figure out how to get their hands out! (And by the time they consistently figured it out, they were mostly self feeding, so it really worked out perfectly!)

(I never did, and still haven't let them have spoons! They just use fingers for now. I figure utensils will come a bit later (maybe we'll try in 6 months or so!)

 

while, yes it's important to learn to use a spoon, most kids don't have coordination to do it even remotely well until after their 1st birthday...letting them hold their own spoon will help, also put down finger foods for them to eat on their own...reinforce "mommy's spoon" and "sam/alex's spoon"...also, only do a little bit at a time and wipe as you go...i will say this, having bald babies certainly helps make clean up a bit easier!