Quick tip – catsup

Have you ever had your child twist and turn in their seat while they eat? Um, yeah. Par for the course, right? Our smock bibs prevent their clothes from getting demolished at every meal but things can get tricky when you add “dippy” to the mix. The twins’ favorite “dippy” is just what you would expect, catsup. So my quick tip of the day, for making the mess less, is……

Put the catsup in the middle of their tray far enough away that they can just reach it. Instinctually, I used to put a glob of catsup right in the middle of their tray as close to them as possible, so they could reach it easily. When I did this, I realized that every time the kids turned to see what that noise was or what that other kid was doing, they dragged their entire sleeve through the catsup and, inevitably, got it on their clothes.

Yes, it’s a silly, simple tip but if it saves you from scrubbing stains out of their favorite outfit then I have done my job.

Cleaning up a screaming toddler

What is more fun than trying to wipe the food covered face of a screaming toddler? Ok, maybe cleaning their bum. Babies and toddlers grow so fast and develop so quickly that it is often difficult to keep up with their changing needs. I know that the helpful hints in this post will seem obvious to many of you but in my experience there are MANY other out there that will find this to be a breakthrough.

I’m always stressing to my husband the importance of communicating with the kids. Let them know what you are going to do TO or FOR them. My daughter is VERY independent when it comes to self care. She has wanted to feed herself since starting solid food. Meal times can take a while if she is determined to eat every bite using her fork or spoon. I’m glad she uses her utensils because it’s great for her coordination, but sometimes a little adult help can go along way. I have learned that it is key to ASK HER if I can help. I don’t just take the spoon from her – this causes quite a scene. I ask her, “Can mommy help you make big scoops?” Usually I’m trying to help at the end of a meal when it is harder to scrape the bowl of yogurt etc.. I ask this question because she can get tiny scoops of food whereas I can make a big scoop of food. Most of the time she lets me help.

The twins are almost 2 years old and I have had to adjust my communication again. My daughter is just ahead of my son with her speaking skills so I have to adjust for her before I do for him. She used to let us clean her up after a meal with a  ”time to clean up”! That, however, is no longer enough communication for her. I recently started asking her to look at her hands while describing what food she has on them. I say, “you have yogurt on your hands!” and she will let me clean her up with out a fuss. It used to be a major struggle to clean up her face. Now that I remind her of the food she had on her face, she will let me clean it off without thrashing around.

I hope this small tip will help some of you make your day just a bit more enjoyable. If we can stop some of the little daily battles, we can better handle the major meltdowns related to teething or bumps and bruises.