Self feeding babies

So my mom was looking at my blog and sent me email saying she couldn't believe I put my kids' food on their trays and not on a plate or in a bowl. But you see, by the time my kids finish their meal, it looks like a bomb went off on the ground. They throw so much stuff on the ground, including their sippies and spoons. If I were to give them food in a bowl or on a plate, EVERYTHING including ALL their food would be on the ground. But I decided to weigh into my friends at Twinstuff. What do you do? If you do use a bowl or plate, how do you keep it on the tray!! ?
Melissa
PS feel free to click on the link in my signature to see the offending pictures!

 

I usually always would put my guys stuff on the tray as well. That is why it is plastic, that is what it is meant for... and it is easy to wipe off. If kept clean, it is no different than putting the food on a plate.

 

On the tray here!

 

There is no keeping it on the tray - just one more thing to wash!!

I did check out your blog - your kiddos are adorable!!!

 

I put it on the tray. Like you it ends up on the floor, on the inside of the chair, so why have extra things to wash up?

 

i've been putting everything on their tray & wiping it down with a clorox wipe if it's not something "mushy" like tofu. if terribly messy, i wash it in the sink & run through the dishwasher every other day. i have to laugh at myself after reading this cuz i just bought some of those cute paper plates that are animals & have partitioned sections made of ears, etc. thinking it would cut down on cleaning- hadn't thought about the fact that they'll just pick up the whole plate & throw it on the floor! :laughing: guess those will stay in the cabinet till the toddler years!! also, a good tip i learned- a plastic/vinyl tablecloth under the highchairs can save the carpet from some stains!

 

On the tray of course

 

\We use plates and bowls for the babies even though they dump them. Well that's not true.. for snacks: puffed rice, cheerios and baby crack, we use the tray. For dinner type foods (messy veggies) we use plates and bowls.

 

We have always put their food straight on the tray. Since about 16 months, we have occasionally used a bowl or plate, because it seems to intrigue them and sometimes they eat more. But we still have to give them only a few pieces at a time, because if that bowl/plate goes flying, I don't want the entire meal to wind up on the floor. <_<

We have booster seats, not real high chairs, and we just wash the trays at the sink after every meal.

ETA: Your blog is great! I especially love the photos where you can tell you're in Africa. The hip carriers that the nannies use look so comfy -- makes me want to ditch my backpack carrier and get me a sling.

 

We put the food on the tray. I clean it very well after each feeding and wipe it down with an all-natural disinfecting spray once a day. Every couple days I throw them in the dishwasher too. A bowl or plate would last about 2 seconds before ending up on the floor.

 

Tray here too. I have a feeling a plate would be a disaster at our house!

 

For these guys I just use the tray too. With my older DD I had a suction plate that was meant to stay on her tray - yah right. They obviously didn't use live subjects in testing because it then became a game to see how long it would take to pull up the plate. Now you have projectile food on the wall as well as the floor!

 

Are you kidding me??? I put the food right on their trays. I tried the whole bowl thing and it got immediately flipped over right away and then went to the floor with all the food. Then I tried those suction bowls...what a waste of money that was. They don't work. I do have a tray that goes on the tray with different sections but they ended up just mixing everything anyway so there was no point in that. I just find the tray easiest for now until they start to understand the proper ettiquet of eating using dishes and utencils. I will try again sometime in the near future and if it doesn't work again, I'll try a month or so after that.

 

I put their food in bowls or on plates, but their snacks (cheerio's and crackers) on the tray. Even though they dumped most of it in the beginning, I still think that it is teaching them the right way to eat. Plus, they see us modeling using bowls and plates, so why shouldn't they have them too? My girls hardly ever dump their food anymore, but when they do I will take the bowl away and let them finish off of their tray. I do not mind the extra clean up, beacuse I think in the long run they will understand the concept quicker since it was introduced to them earlier.

 

Tray, definitely the tray. We've tried the bowl a couple times as an experiment to see if they are ready to use the spoon and it always goes on the floor.

 

Mother's are Not always right. We should not we are mothers and We are not always right. In this case though I think the concensus is on the tray. With my singleton it was a while before I started teaching her plates, bowls and spoons.

 

On the tray until more recently, maybe 18 months they started being able to handle a bowl or plate. At 11-12 months, a dish would have ended up on the floor. I was still doling out food in one or two pieces at that point, made for less food getting thrown.

 

We are also tray users for food placement. I know using bowls/plates would turn into a throwing game, and I'm not quite ready to deal with that yet!! :wacko:

 

I put dry stuff on the table or tray and put wet stuff in bowls or on plates. We were always right next to them when they'd eat wet stuff so we could keep the plates on the table. I like suction cup bowls not so much because they stuck to the try but because they were harder for the girls to accidentally knock over or knock off the table. However you feel like feeding your babies is your choice though.

 

Tray all the way!

Although I have one of those suction-cuppy bowls and the only thing it sticks to, aside from the bottom of the sink, is the granite counter. Picture me prying it off with a butterknife! lol