Call me oblivious ("Hi Oblivious, how are you?"), but I have no idea how to teach Ian table manners. He is definitely at the age where he shouldn't be smearing peanutbutter all over his tray and throwing grapes on the floor!I've tried having him at the table without his tray, and with a normal plate with food on it... but of course, the inevitable tipping of the plate occurs and it all goes down his lap, the very place I was trying to prevent his food from going.
So I guess my questions are these:
1. IS 16 months the age babies SHOULDN'T be doing this?
2. How do I teach him how to use food properly when he still thinks "NO" is a game we like to play?
3. What DOESN'T work? (Because I must be doing that).
I'd honestly rather hear from real moms than from a book!
4 comments:
Tee Hee... Sarah (at 21 mo.)is STILL turning her straw cup upside down to "dot" milk all over her tray and then connects the dots... I've tried hand slapping (with an explicit warning first) and being very consistent for when she purposefully drops her food/cup overboard and that has seemed to help the floor mess, but what she does on her tray is more like toddler art class... Mushing peas, painting with avocado etc. A lot of this goes on when she's getting full/bored toward the end of her meals...Or if I'm multi-tasking (washing dishes)and I'm not giving her my full attention... I'll be interested in hearing what others say. My personal take on it is that I'm not expecting her to have any sort of table decorum until two and a half... If I'm surprised before then, then awesome! I am reinforcing the please/thank you since she's able to say them... (And Lord help me the with getting her to say "excuse me" after she passes very LOUD morning gas... ugh!)
Is he interested in using a fork or spoon? Sarah's getting better with them and it can turn pushing food around the tray into the challenge of getting it on a fork and into her mouth... It also falls under the "each kid when THEY are ready" category I think... or perhaps the "Pick Your Battles" category...
If you can't play with your food when you're under 2, WHEN can you play with it? (I still do it in secret at 35 so I've no advice for you)
haha. thanks sistas. good call. i guess i get caught up sometimes in the need to make my child "advanced." :)
mine still make terrible messes, but now they are old enough that they have to clean it up themselves!!!! =) Have you tried having him help you clean it up? It's worth a shot!
tarena
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