I can't stand the mess of finger food!

This is soooo unlike me, because I am NOT a neat freak, but I HATE the mess the babies make with their finger foods. It gets all over them, all over their high chairs, all over the floor, etc. You know the drill....

Do you sweep the floor after each meal or once a day? How often do you clean under the high chair pad? And what do you use to clean them with? I was using wipes, but we are going through them SOOO fast!

YUCK! :bad:

 

i hear ya!!! i use a facecloth to wipe their faces and hands...usually have to play "the clean up monster" game to clean them up because they cry bloody murder!!! i clean up after every meal as best as i can...then after they go to bed, i really make sure it is clean and wipe everything down. depending on how messy the high chair is...i might hose it down!!!

 

Yeah, it does get kinda gross. I wash their trays after every meal and clean their high chairs and sweep the floor after they go to bed. If it's real messy with wet food during the day, I clean it then. Our girls aren't into a ton of finger foods yet so we have a minimal mess. I AM a clean freak but have learned to be a little lax about it, which is hard!

 

Two babies make a GIGANTIC mess! I clean after every meal because it is such a huge mess! I have got them in the table hook-on high chairs, so it isn't as bad as cleaning their big high-chairs anymore, but still a MESS!

 

QUOTE
Two babies make a GIGANTIC mess! I clean after every meal because it is such a huge mess!


Ditto!!

I always tried to make the finger foods around bath time that way they were easily cleanable as well!

 

Does the fact that my boys can hardly feed themselves tell you anything! I cant stand the mess and have been feeding them every meal. It goes much faster this way too. I put the tray on on SUnday when I made them pancakes and Seam us did good but Nicholas acts like I put a foreign object in his had and waves it all around. I need to let go and start having them feed themselves. I keepthinking to their smash cake at their bday party...Nicholas probably wont even know it is supposed to go in his mouth.

 

I have three dogs who clean the floors.. (I bleach the floors every other day!) I also suggest a good full coverage wipe-able bib. Once I take off the bib, I contain the mess in the chair by letting them stand right on the high chair and shake the food off of them.

 

I use the Kiddopotamus bibs (with "catching tray") and the matching placemats (also with "catching tray"), and put everything in the sink after their meals. And I have a floor mat ... it's not too bad (yet).

 

Hi,

I just started putting newspaper under their clip on chairs to catch the fruit/food that falls since it was sticking to the hardwood floor. I'm in the process of buying spare seats for our Chicco Hippo Chairs so I can wash them more frequently than I currently do -- as the banana and other stuff is gross when it gets in the fabric.

I also use Kiddopotomus mats and have 2 spares to swap out -- but that's because my kids don't like their high chairs that much so we use the travel clip on chairs more often. I think it's gonna get worse cause soon they start feeding themselves with utensils -- wow!!

Oh, I just can't wait -- I practically gag already when I have to reach in and grab the mushy stuff... ahhh

Teri

 

I use a washcloth to wipe face and hands first, then I wipe the trays. Then I take the bibs off. Really messy finger foods are fed at lunch when they can go into the pool afterwards or at dinner then it is into the bath. If it is a day of no pool....no messy finger foods just ones that are easily wiped away by the washcloth. Then I wipe down the chairs with anitbacterial wipes, wash the trays, let dogs clean the floor if needed and then just about every other day I do a vinegar and water mopping of the floors.

I am a neat freak and since I have had twins....this obsession I used to have well lets just say priorities change.

 

here's a picture for you, imagine not just 2 but 8 yep 8 fingerfeeding babies. When I did childcare we (there were 3 of us, 4-1 ratio) had that many at one time munching and tossing away. we used the biggest vinyl bib the parents could buy,(sometimes a painting smock worked better) used bleach water and sponges to wipe the chairs and trays and swept and mopped the floor after lunch every day. I am assuming that is what it will come down to when the time comes.. except I do have 2 dogs so they will help w/ the floor clean up a bit.

Alyson

 

I strip their clothes and let them eat. Afterwards I wash them with a nice wet washcloth then use the washcloth to scrape everything into the garbage disposal. I sweep real quick right under their chairs. Once they are happily playing or napping I give their seats a better cleaning.

 

I can only say I should have bought stock in those disposable floor cleaner products because I go through a ton. At least one floor in my house gets cleaned on a regular basis. I also keep a box of wet wipes or baby wipes close by. I keep having people tell me I'm going to miss these days... but they are good for some really cute pictures!

Emily

 

I've got carpet under their high chairs, so I lay down a big vinyl table cloth that I take outside & shake off every evening after they are in bed. Other than that, I just use a wipe for their faces/hands, paper towel to wipe the tray/seat & then after bed, I wipe it all down with Clorox wipes. Oh, and if it's something REALLY messy like tofu, strawberries, watermelon, it's naked feeding time!

 

I feed my girls most all table/finger foods, and yes, it gets very messy! I usually wipe their hands and faces with a warm wet papertowel and stand them up in their chairs and shake off the food there. I usually put them in the living room to play, and I pick up the food on the seat and put it on the trays. I then put the majority of the leftovers in the trash and wipe the tray down in the sink. If the floor just has a few bits, I'll pick it up with the papertowel. If more, then I"ll sweep after the girls take a nap. My girls aren't too mobile right now, so that works. When they start to crawl, then I"ll have to sweep after they are playing. As far as the mess getting better when they are older, well, don't count on it! My older two make just as much as a mess as the girls do on the floor! Whether it's playdough or food, I have to sweep daily!

 

Mine get almost all table food now, so - yep it's pretty messy. I have to clean it every time because it drives me nuts to leave it. I clean them, then the tray, then the floor (I have hardwood so it's pretty much hands & knees with a cloth). The cleaning of the high chair is funny because Lila like to clean that up for me first. The minute she gets down she pulls up on her chair & eats any food dropped in the seat then she crawls over to Luke's & cleans up his leftovers. I swear she eats more that way than when she is in her seat! After she's done, I clean the high chairs really well.

 

Don't have much time right now to give a good reply, but I just wanted to say that I'm so happy to see that using the dog as "clean-up crew" isn't so odd.....I get so embarrassed when someone is over and Im feeding the girls and they get some on the floor and the dog comes right over andlicks it right up before I even have a chance to get to it! ....love that darn dog.....