Eating at the table
Introduce your toddler to family mealtimes by pulling the highchair up to the table when you have a meal. He'll be able to see everything that is going on and will gradually become more accustomed to family meals and to mealtime behaviour and good manners.
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To make sure that he feels included give your toddler the same food that you are eating, but prepare it in a way that he can manage to spoon or pick up without your help. This process will be much easier if your child is quite neat and able to eat without much mess. However, if your child is very messy you may find it more successful to feed him before the rest of the family and to then bring the child to the table with a few favourite finger foods when you eat.
Don't expect your child to automatically adopt adult behaviour, especially at the beginning. Around the age of 12 months he'll be used to crawling and “cruising” and will probably not be far off walking, so don't be surprised if your child is unwilling to sit still for long. If he insists on getting down, let him do so; he'll probably come back for more food in a few minutes and will soon learn that food means sitting still and eating. If, however, he shows no signs of wanting to come back don't insist that all his food is eaten. If he is hungry he'll make up for it at the next meal.
Messy eaters
- Stand the highchair on a plastic table cloth so that you can mop up spillages easily; otherwise just surround the highchair with newspaper that can be gathered up after each meal.
- Draw a circle on the highchair tray to show your baby where he should put his cup down. Make the positioning of the mug into a game.
- Most toddlers don't like having their faces wiped with a cloth. Use your own hand dipped into water; for some reason, this is much more acceptable and will do the job just as well.
- If your child is very messy, take him over to the sink to be washed. Make a game out of washing hands; let your child play some water games while you're there.
- Let your child dip both his hands into a bowl of water when he's still sitting in the highchair and then just wipe them dry with a towel.
New Babycare
Copyright © 2009 Dorling Kindersley
Text copyright © 2009 Miriam Stoppard
Posted 03.11.2010
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