Monday, March 7, 2011

Adventures in self-feeding

We're slowly getting more adventurous about the food we serve to Joshua.  He's been ready for all kinds of table food for a while now -- it's just that David and I are having to steel ourselves for the inevitable and extensive mess that arises as a result of toddler self-feeding.  It's so much easier to just spoon-feed him, wiping him down after every bite, controlling the mess as much as possible...  But at some point, the control freak has to let go, and recognize that the boy does need to learn to feed himself, eventually...  :)

So, baby steps!  We started out by letting him try a toddler breakfast bar one morning.  And he went to town on that thing -- he loved the strawberry-banana filling, and was so good at taking bites by himself and not choking on it!  We were so proud.



A more recent addition to his dinners has been steamed broccoli.  The first piece I gave him was perhaps a bit too big (he hadn't quite figured out how to hold it and take bites), so after one small gagging incident, I've taken to chopping up the florets into teeny pieces.  But wow, does Joshua love broccoli!  He'll literally lick his bowl clean!



He's slowly figuring out the whole "bowl" concept -- about half the time, he'll take a piece from the bowl and put it directly in his mouth; the other half of the time, he dumps the bowl onto his tray and then throws the bowl on the floor.  We're working on table manners...

But he's generally good about keeping the bowl on his high chair tray, if it's filled with ravioli!  This does really push us out of our OCD comfort zone -- Joshua loves squishing the ravioli in his fingers, and then rubbing it into his hair.  But he also loves eating the ravioli, and will blow through two or three whole bowlfuls at a meal!  Here's a cute video of our ravioli-eating machine in action!


We'll be sure to keep you all posted on what new and exciting culinary adventures we embark upon!  :)

3 comments:

Emily said...

Too cute! Evan loves feeding himself, too. But he doesn't waste food by putting it anywhere except in his mouth. Hah! We know he's done because he'll take one piece and throw it on the ground and then look at us like "What now, suckers?" Hahahaha.

Nicole said...

Joshua is so cute. I think he manages to eat the ravioli quite nicely...

Glinda said...

There's nothing quite like spaghetti eating toddler. =D