Babies & Children at the Table
Ideas for bringing babies and children to the table and making mealtime a
healthy family
event
By: Pauline Hackemann
Do you feed your
toddler, then put them through bath routine and to bed before settling down
for a civilized meal with your husband or wife? Do you buy pre-prepared
food at the supermarket for your toddler or 2 year old?
It’s time to integrate
your baby/toddler into your own evening meal routine. I suppose the biggest
lesson we know to keep reminding ourselves of, is that setting a good
example is key. If you don’t want your child to use swear words, don’t use
them yourself – they are copying you – the same goes with food…
The sooner your child
learns to use proper utensils and real cups, the easier it will be for your
child to give up sippy cups/bottles and also develop his or her own table
manners.
We’ve heard from people
doing outrageous things with baby at the table, including spreading a sheet
of plastic on the floor for thrown food and giving toddlers pre-packaged so
called toddler food instead of what Mum and Dad are eating.
 One if the best
investments we made when our first child started eating solids was a
hand cranked food grinder.
This assumes of course
that you make your own food from scratch. If you do, it is easy to make the
food you normally eat and then pop whatever it is in the grinder for your
toddler. I ground cooked (seared or poached) fish, peas, zucchini,
avocadoes, tomatoes and mushrooms in this for a while, before simply cutting
the food into small pieces. The hand cranked one has a carrying case for
travelling. It is an excellent transitional device that you can use to give
your child some of your food together with some toddler food from the store
if you are busy. If you have tons of time of course you can make all your
babies food yourself and freeze small portions of mashed pairs, peaches,
broccoli, etc. There are many processors and storage devices
available, but you can also just use your own ice tray.
Whatever you do – make
dinner time together a routine from when they are small - BUILD GOOD
HABITS. This means getting the children used to utensils, and home cooked
fresh food. The longer you give them processed baby food, the harder it is
for them to switch. Their taste buds need to experience a variety of food
tastes (stay away from salt or mixing foods together too much). We always
encouraged our kids to use forks and real (plastic) cups, used although bib
and when they got older, we took the food away if they threw it or played
with it. Make it clear repeatedly that playing with food is not ok by gently
reminding them. If that does not work, the food is taken away or the wee one
is politely removed form the table. This way they learn, that at the table,
we eat and talk – we do not play or throw food. You’ll pat yourself on the
back when you are a restaurant watching other kids run wild…obviously this
will only work when they are nearing 2 years old. But even younger babies
can still sit at the table and can be encouraged to eat rather than play (a
polite “no, no splatting!” helps, just keep repeating it).
Toys have a habit of finding their way to the table frequently and this
practice can distract the child from focusing on eating. Our stance is no
more than one toy at the table and that the toy must only "Watch" rather
than participate in the meal. If the toy begins to join the meal eating
process the toy is given a timeout and removed from the table. Eventually,
toys get left behind at meal times and only rarely do they get placed on the
table. When the child decides its playtime while eating they get one warning
and then the next instance, their food is removed (meal time is over and
play time begins). For meal time to re-commence, playtime must end
immediately and any associated toy must be removed from site - placed in
another room.
Storage products (all
BPA free):
Spoons:
BPA Free Bowls:
Baby food processor:
Cookbooks for Babies:
Some argue that because
she hides healthy foods, these foods won’t build good eating habits. I
believe that even though this may be true in the long run, if you tell your
kid, that the xyz delicious cupcake has carrots in it, your child might say
“but I don’t like carrots. I do like carrots inside cupcakes though!”. My
daughter hates mushrooms, even though I gave them to her repeatedly as a
toddler. However she does like them in wild mushroom ravioli and knows they
are in there. Sooner or later she will make that leap to the mushroom
outside of it’s ravioli casing.
 One last thing.
Getting children to eat well and love vegetables has to do with setting a
good example. So, practice what you preach and eat healthy yourself. If you
don’t know how to cook – LEARN – buy a simple cook book and read it. Don’t
be intimidated, just follow the instructions, or take a cooking class. Also
remember you can stuff yourself with salad, vegetables and fruits, they have
no calories and high nutrition indexes and are packed with vitamins – so are
fresh herbs. And - if it has a wrapper – think twice about eating it - the
best foods are in their raw form. For example, eat a real apple instead of
apple sauce…they are cheaper and create less waste and your child will soon
copy you! Our son eats the whole apple, including the core.
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