Self Feeding (Sort Of)
Feeding Asher has become quite the chore. First we had the issue with the jimmy legs. Not only did we have to wrestle the jimmy legs into the highchair, we also had to continuously fight the one jimmy foot that liked to pop up over the tray when the big detachable tray wasn't in use. It seems that some babies like to mix in a little foot nibbling in-between bites of his food, which results in sweet potato toes that smear food all over the tray, high chair, other leg...pretty much all over the place. Not to mention, those feet are excellent at targeting the hand holding the food-filled spoon and kicking it as hard as possible, sending the spoon and/or food flying. His aim is awesome. Now that he's grown into his chair a bit and sits upright well on his own, though, we have conquered the crazy jimmy leg by putting the big tray on the chair. Whew!
Of course, the saying goes that when one door closes a window opens. So now that there is a block on the jimmy legs, the jimminess has apparently managed to escape the legs and travel north to the arms and hands. The jimmy arms and hands make the jimmy legs look tame. They want to grab the spoon. They want to grab the bowl. They want to grab Mommy's hands and wrestle the spoon away from her. They want to grab the food in the bowl. They want to slam their slimy little selves against the tray. I recently read that a good remedy for this is to give him his own spoon, that way he feels like he's part of the action, but I'm still in control of the REAL spoon. I haven't tried this yet, but definitely will give it a shot this weekend.
I also have started giving him finger foods to gnaw on, which has been absolutely wonderful at keeping him occupied and happy while we eat our meals. He's tried puffs, but has a hard time getting them out of his hands and into his mouth. Zwieback toast has been a HUGE hit with Asher. He seems to thoroughly enjoy gumming it into a disgusting, mushy mess. My hopes are that this will help Asher learn to chew and become accustomed to solid solid food, and that it will help reduce Stephen's crumb phobia (that's a whole different post).
I'm happy he's interested in eating, though. But I guess he's been very passionate about eating from the start, back when he was so violent with me during nursing. Like mother, like son.
Of course, the saying goes that when one door closes a window opens. So now that there is a block on the jimmy legs, the jimminess has apparently managed to escape the legs and travel north to the arms and hands. The jimmy arms and hands make the jimmy legs look tame. They want to grab the spoon. They want to grab the bowl. They want to grab Mommy's hands and wrestle the spoon away from her. They want to grab the food in the bowl. They want to slam their slimy little selves against the tray. I recently read that a good remedy for this is to give him his own spoon, that way he feels like he's part of the action, but I'm still in control of the REAL spoon. I haven't tried this yet, but definitely will give it a shot this weekend.
I also have started giving him finger foods to gnaw on, which has been absolutely wonderful at keeping him occupied and happy while we eat our meals. He's tried puffs, but has a hard time getting them out of his hands and into his mouth. Zwieback toast has been a HUGE hit with Asher. He seems to thoroughly enjoy gumming it into a disgusting, mushy mess. My hopes are that this will help Asher learn to chew and become accustomed to solid solid food, and that it will help reduce Stephen's crumb phobia (that's a whole different post).
I'm happy he's interested in eating, though. But I guess he's been very passionate about eating from the start, back when he was so violent with me during nursing. Like mother, like son.
2 comments:
Hee hee. It's like he's saying "Here Mommy, let me do it. Let's see what mashed sweet peas look like all over the wall!"
He will get the self-feeding thing down in no time.
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