In a month I'll be joining you in the SY and I have a few questions. Sorry if they've already been asked! When did you start giving them a bowl/plate of food? I'm still holding the food and just putting a few pieces at a time right on the tray for them to pick up. DD is using her hands, DS still only picks up one thing (but that's another story!) with his hands and likes holding the spoon better. They both hold spoons well and put them in their mouths, but unfortunately cant manage to keep any food on them I'm wondering if I should get some of those suction cup bowls and try to have them practice that way? What did you do? Plate? Bowl? Suction cup? Fingers? Spoons? When? :wacko: Do you still take them out to restaurants? I used to be able to when I was feeding them, but now DD totally refuses to be fed and she's a disaster at meal time. Am I stuck in the house (or at parks on my washable blanket) until she gets better? When did you start using a blanket in the crib? We've been doing sleep sacs, but I think we'll stop when they grow out of these. Plus the weather here has been so crazy that I put them to bed at night when it's warm and by morning they're freezing. I've started covering them with their little lovey blankets (like a foot square) because they seem so chilly! So a thin blanket would be great... Thanks, ladies! See you in a few weeks
When did you start giving them a bowl/plate of food? Plates with little bits of food around 18 months. Started practicing with spoons and forks before then though with bits of food on the tray. I'm wondering if I should get some of those suction cup bowls and try to have them practice that way? What did you do? Plate? Bowl? Suction cup? Fingers? Spoons? When? I didn't do the suction cup plates and bowls. I heard from others they didn't work well so I just got little plastic plates and bowls, and plastic spoons and forks. We tried spoons first with mashed potatoes on their tray, but they actually did better with forks (for things like green beans or bananas). All this was between 16-18 months when we started using them consistently. Do you still take them out to restaurants? I used to be able to when I was feeding them, but now DD totally refuses to be fed and she's a disaster at meal time. Am I stuck in the house (or at parks on my washable blanket) until she gets better? We still take them to restaurants. Its more challenging though. I used to pack cheerios or another snack and then sneak in bites of my food as well. When they got a little older, I brought their plastic plates and dished out some food to them. My mega pet-peeve is kids meals that are served on super-hot plates. UG! When did you start using a blanket in the crib? We've been doing sleep sacs, but I think we'll stop when they grow out of these. Plus the weather here has been so crazy that I put them to bed at night when it's warm and by morning they're freezing. I've started covering them with their little lovey blankets (like a foot square) because they seem so chilly! So a thin blanket would be great... My girls have slept with their little baby blankets on them since they were about 8 months old.. maybe even earlier. See you in a few weeks!
QUOTE(mamabee718 @ Jun 18 2009, 11:09 AM) [snapback]1359364[/snapback] In a month I'll be joining you in the SY and I have a few questions. Sorry if they've already been asked! When did you start giving them a bowl/plate of food? I'm still holding the food and just putting a few pieces at a time right on the tray for them to pick up. DD is using her hands, DS still only picks up one thing (but that's another story!) with his hands and likes holding the spoon better. They both hold spoons well and put them in their mouths, but unfortunately cant manage to keep any food on them I'm wondering if I should get some of those suction cup bowls and try to have them practice that way? What did you do? Plate? Bowl? Suction cup? Fingers? Spoons? When? :wacko: I would give them bowls now. We have those suction cup bowls, and I like them, but they don't really stop them if they are in the mood to throw food on the floor. At this point, mine do pretty well with bowls and try hard with spoons and forks. DD was eating strawberries with a fork the other day, and I was shocked! She can do that?!? Just let them practice. We do finger foods a LOT with no utensils, because we do a lot of things that would be finger foods for me (I don't know about you, but I don't eat grilled cheese, bagels, or chicken nuggets with a fork. ) We do utensils with utensil food - mac n cheese, strawberry shortcake, oatmeal, etc. We still feed them runny foods most of the time - yogurt, applesauce - because it just makes too much of a mess! Do you still take them out to restaurants? I used to be able to when I was feeding them, but now DD totally refuses to be fed and she's a disaster at meal time. Am I stuck in the house (or at parks on my washable blanket) until she gets better? Yes, we still take them out. It got really rough for a few months around a year, so we went to child-friendly restaurants (we still go to child-friendly restaurants, who am I kidding?) at quieter times. We let them eat - we pull the highchairs up to the table, put down one of those disposable stick-on placemats, give them a sippy and order them something and let them feed themselves. Food ends up on the floor, and they try to grab our stuff, but it works, and they learn and get better all the time - go out and just go for it! I love taking them to Chipotle (they make quesadillas!), Noodles & Co. (buttered macaroni!), IHOP (love breakfast foods at our house!). When did you start using a blanket in the crib? We've been doing sleep sacs, but I think we'll stop when they grow out of these. Plus the weather here has been so crazy that I put them to bed at night when it's warm and by morning they're freezing. I've started covering them with their little lovey blankets (like a foot square) because they seem so chilly! So a thin blanket would be great... We started with blankets at a year with our pedis complete permission - we started with receiving blankets because I was still scared and wanted something thin, but now they have like chenille type blankets. Soft fluffy things. Thanks, ladies! See you in a few weeks
When did you start giving them a bowl/plate of food? Up until about 17 months old I had pretty much stuck to just putting pieces of food on their highchair tray. My girls would just dump the food off their plate. Then around 17 months I tried again and they did great. So now I just put food on the plates. I'm wondering if I should get some of those suction cup bowls and try to have them practice that way? What did you do? Plate? Bowl? Suction cup? Fingers? Spoons? When? I bought the suction bowls but it was pretty much useless to us until this last month. The suction didn't hold very well so my two would just dump the bowls. Do you still take them out to restaurants? I used to be able to when I was feeding them, but now DD totally refuses to be fed and she's a disaster at meal time. Am I stuck in the house (or at parks on my washable blanket) until she gets better? Yes we still went out. We would bring the adhesive type disposable placemats and just place pieces of food directly on there instead of plates. When did you start using a blanket in the crib? We've been doing sleep sacs, but I think we'll stop when they grow out of these. Plus the weather here has been so crazy that I put them to bed at night when it's warm and by morning they're freezing. I've started covering them with their little lovey blankets (like a foot square) because they seem so chilly! So a thin blanket would be great... My girls were probably just over a year when we started covering them with a receiving blanket. Hope that helps.
When did you start giving them a bowl/plate of food? At about 15 months we used suction bowls. By 16 months my girls could figure out how to undo the suction, so we moved to regular heavy plates and the girls have never messed with them. We started with spoons around a year and forks by 14 months. My girls were better with forks and still are. We use regular people forks, the small salad ones; they're a lot easier than baby forks that can't pierce anything. Do you still take them out to restaurants? Yes. I brought lots of cut up food so they didn't have to wait for a meal. We only went to interesting places at that age, so the girls could watch people walk by. We also always had two adults so that if there was a meltdown, we could do one on one triage. When did you start using a blanket in the crib? We started around 20 months. Before that my girls were in sleep sacks. They still fit (at 25 months) in the Halo XL size, but my husband really wanted to switch to blankets so we did. The blankets have been a pain. The girls can't pull them up by themselves so they yell in the middle of the night because the blanket has shifted. And without the sleep sacks they can jump around more and can take their clothes off. So... be careful about ditching the sleep sacks!
When did you start giving them a bowl/plate of food? I'm still holding the food and just putting a few pieces at a time right on the tray for them to pick up. DD is using her hands, DS still only picks up one thing (but that's another story!) with his hands and likes holding the spoon better. They both hold spoons well and put them in their mouths, but unfortunately cant manage to keep any food on them I'm wondering if I should get some of those suction cup bowls and try to have them practice that way? What did you do? Plate? Bowl? Suction cup? Fingers? Spoons? When? :wacko: We started practicing with forks and spoons at 13 months. I am embarrassed to admit that we have not been consistent with it but our kids do decent with them. We tried the suction cup plates and my kids figured out how to unsuction it within a minute and everything was on the floor. The same with plates, so I still struggle with that! Do you still take them out to restaurants? I used to be able to when I was feeding them, but now DD totally refuses to be fed and she's a disaster at meal time. Am I stuck in the house (or at parks on my washable blanket) until she gets better? Yes, they still go out to restaurants. We have disposable placemats that they eat off of and they do pretty well at the restaurant. We cut up their food and let them feed themselves When did you start using a blanket in the crib? We've been doing sleep sacs, but I think we'll stop when they grow out of these. Plus the weather here has been so crazy that I put them to bed at night when it's warm and by morning they're freezing. I've started covering them with their little lovey blankets (like a foot square) because they seem so chilly! So a thin blanket would be great... The twins at almost 18 months still sleep in sleep sacks. My DD likes to hug her little blankets when she sleeps and she has been doing that since 8 months. I do have a little crochet blanket in DS's crib but he never keeps it on. See you soon!
Thanks for the great advice! Someone had just commented onthem not eating off of plates *yet* and it got me wondering! QUOTE(idril @ Jun 18 2009, 12:19 PM) [snapback]1359445[/snapback] When did you start using a blanket in the crib? We started around 20 months. Before that my girls were in sleep sacks. They still fit (at 25 months) in the Halo XL size, but my husband really wanted to switch to blankets so we did. The blankets have been a pain. The girls can't pull them up by themselves so they yell in the middle of the night because the blanket has shifted. And without the sleep sacks they can jump around more and can take their clothes off. So... be careful about ditching the sleep sacks! Good points...maybe we do need to buy the next size up and stick with them a bit longer! Believe it or not, they still fit in the Halo small sleep sacs! And my DS is a complete chunk! So I guess it would be worth getting maybe some large so they're roomy enough to use for a while.
QUOTE(mamabee718 @ Jun 18 2009, 10:09 AM) [snapback]1359364[/snapback] In a month I'll be joining you in the SY and I have a few questions. Sorry if they've already been asked! When did you start giving them a bowl/plate of food? I'm still holding the food and just putting a few pieces at a time right on the tray for them to pick up. DD is using her hands, DS still only picks up one thing (but that's another story!) with his hands and likes holding the spoon better. They both hold spoons well and put them in their mouths, but unfortunately cant manage to keep any food on them I'm wondering if I should get some of those suction cup bowls and try to have them practice that way? What did you do? Plate? Bowl? Suction cup? Fingers? Spoons? When? :wacko: Do you still take them out to restaurants? I used to be able to when I was feeding them, but now DD totally refuses to be fed and she's a disaster at meal time. Am I stuck in the house (or at parks on my washable blanket) until she gets better? When did you start using a blanket in the crib? We've been doing sleep sacs, but I think we'll stop when they grow out of these. Plus the weather here has been so crazy that I put them to bed at night when it's warm and by morning they're freezing. I've started covering them with their little lovey blankets (like a foot square) because they seem so chilly! So a thin blanket would be great... Thanks, ladies! See you in a few weeks 1) Well I first noticed them using a bowl around 7 or 8 months, I set some baby food in one and walked away for a sec and Azalea was digging in with the spoon when I got back! We'd offer them bowls/silverware for awhile but it was very messy. Then they lost interest, so we stopped giving bowls and plates/silverware for a few months. I'd say Probably by 10 or 11 months they were using plates and bowls. It wasn't a definate transition. I would just put food on plates or in bowls to bring to them and set it down, if it was something that I couldn't just dump out (like crackers). If they had a problem getting it I would help them but they liked feeding themselves from pretty early, as soon as they discovered they could. However it was usually with hands. Even now they are just started to get interest in the silverware again, but still eat mostly with their hands. I havent found any special bowls/plates that really help any more than just regular plastic ones with kid designs. 2) Yes, we take them out to eat with us! If we didn't we would never go anywhere (we don't have any family/friends to watch them in this area.) Haha...Usually we bring them snacks but also feed them off our plates or get an appetizer and chop it up for them. Thhey sit in high chairs at the table and just eat whatever they want. They are usually pretty good as long as there is something to look at. They don't do good in fancy places. My suggestions would be take them to places that are family friendly and not super quiet so its not a big deal if they get noisy. 3) I think we've bucked the norm on this, we have always given them a blanket. When they were smaller it was a thinner baby blanket, now it is a bigger one plus their comforter from their crib bedding. We've always put things in their crib with them, especially as they get bigger because we want them to be entertained if they wake before us. Right now there are probably 10 toys plus blankets/a pillow and some books in there
QUOTE(mamabee718 @ Jun 18 2009, 10:09 AM) [snapback]1359364[/snapback] In a month I'll be joining you in the SY and I have a few questions. Sorry if they've already been asked! When did you start giving them a bowl/plate of food? I'm wondering if I should get some of those suction cup bowls and try to have them practice that way? What did you do? Plate? Bowl? Suction cup? Fingers? Spoons? When? :wacko: We started plastic plates around 11 months. Sometimes they get a small plate with each course (protein, veggies, then fruit, etc.), sometimes they get a large plate with everything on it from the beginning. Both work equally well for us because my kids will eat anything - it's generally just more of a what's ready when it is time for them to eat. We didn't start working on bowls/spoons until 13 months, and even now we aren't all that consistent with it. I will say having them over the wanting to toss plates thing before you start bowls is probably a good thing. We do use the suction cup bowls to make it easier for them to pick things up with the spoons. While they could easily pull them up, they have never even tried. They stick really well on our trays so they get a big thumbs up from me. Do you still take them out to restaurants? I used to be able to when I was feeding them, but now DD totally refuses to be fed and she's a disaster at meal time. Am I stuck in the house (or at parks on my washable blanket) until she gets better? Yep. 2-3x time a week. Sometimes more. We ate out alot before they came along. It was easy to take them in their car carriers when they were little, and it was a pretty seamless transition to highchairs. My kid LOVE food. And they are very good while they are eating. Yes they occasionally make some racket, knock something over, or drop something on the floor, but overall they are super well behaved out at restraunts as long as they have food (note: always carry snacks to tide them over until meals arrive). When did you start using a blanket in the crib? We started letting them sleep with a blanket at about a year, but they in no way use it to cover themselves up. In the "winter" those on and off maybe 2 months where it is actually cold here we will still use sleep sacks until they use the blankets for thier intended purpose or the sleepsacks don't fit anymore. I bought large ones so I assume they will last at least another year.
When did you start giving them a bowl/plate of food? I feed them from a bowl adn will let them put their spoons in if they show an interest. I put bits of food on their tray otherwise the food will end up everywhere. I'm wondering if I should get some of those suction cup bowls and try to have them practice that way? What did you do? Plate? Bowl? Suction cup? Fingers? Spoons? When? I don´t have any suction plates but wish I did. I give mine spoons each time they eat. Not much progress is being made but Im not worried. I keep things to a minimum as it will end up on the floor! Do you still take them out to restaurants? Yes but last time we had to leave as DS had a meltdown as he was overtired. I take food with us and will sit them on our laps and try what we´re eating if they show an interest. It´s getting harder going out with them now as they want their independence so badly. When did you start using a blanket in the crib? Since they were born. Never had a problem. I admit we´ve been using sleeper bags - much safer and convenient - but now it´s hot here, they don´t need anything on them. See you here soon!
I gave it a try at dinner tonight...and they were surprisingly good with the plates. They tried to pick them up and dump them a few times, but no major incidents. I just put a little food on at a time and tried to help them keep them on the trays. Maybe I'll start using them once a day or something so they start to get used to them. Thanks again!
When did you start giving them a bowl/plate of food? I don't yet! They eat right off their trays. Do you still take them out to restaurants? I used to be able to when I was feeding them, but now DD totally refuses to be fed and she's a disaster at meal time. Am I stuck in the house (or at parks on my washable blanket) until she gets better? We eat out at restaurants several times a week and it goes great! We use the disposable placemats too,I have snacks on hand, we order them food...They enjoy being in highchairs and I get to actually eat and enjoy a meal! When did you start using a blanket in the crib? I still don't
When did you start giving them a bowl/plate of food? For them to eat all by themselves at 18-19 months. Before then I would just cut everything up into small pieces and give it to them because when I tried the plate of bowl it ended up on the floor. I'm wondering if I should get some of those suction cup bowls and try to have them practice that way? What did you do? Plate? Bowl? Suction cup? Fingers? Spoons? When? I bought the suction bowls but, they didn't stick! I had no luck and it ended up too on the floor. I started out buying and letting them feed themselves with those gerber little dippers then went to spoons and last the forks. Do you still take them out to restaurants? Yes and at times it's hard if someone is too tired or DD is very strange when it comes to strangers so, if they come up to her and upset her I end up holding her which is hard but, she's getting better. We take Lysol & hand sanitizer and put it on the table & chairs. I feed them on the table.I tried the disposable mats but, somehow they figured how to pull them up and it was a big old mess! Now here in the past month I've been able to give them their own plate of food and it doesn't end up on the floor! When did you start using a blanket in the crib? They have always had their little square security blankets but, we tried a large one and both kicked them off. Good Luck & Take Care!
