How to Feed Your Six-Month-Old: Tutorial
1. Gather your supplies. You will need a little bowl, a tiny spoon, mushy food, a bib, a haz-mat suit and your will to live.
(Helpful tip: the child will fight at every turn. Try not to logically explain the reason why he wants the food, but tilts his head downward, cutting off access to his mouth.)
2. Set the child up in a high chair. Methods for set-up vary from parent-to-parent. For example, I go with the standard, sitting up straight with a tray latched in front of him; Matthew prefers to lean the chair all the way back and allow gravity to do most of the work getting the mush into him.
3. Spoon the mush into his not-so-open mouth; laugh under your breath when he makes a face because he has to eat this crap. Repeat, as necessary, being sure to tally what percentage of food makes it into his mouth as opposed to what lands on his cheeks, chin, hair and hands. The actual amounts will astound you.
4. Lastly, and most importantly, you must make this face:
Ultimately, it will help. I'm not sure how, but we kinda always look like this around our place.
5. Follow with a hose-down and a mush-deserved nap.
If you were wondering where your toddler was the entire time you were force-feeding her younger brother, don't worry. She was just off eating a chunk of sidewalk chalk.
(Helpful tip: the child will fight at every turn. Try not to logically explain the reason why he wants the food, but tilts his head downward, cutting off access to his mouth.)
2. Set the child up in a high chair. Methods for set-up vary from parent-to-parent. For example, I go with the standard, sitting up straight with a tray latched in front of him; Matthew prefers to lean the chair all the way back and allow gravity to do most of the work getting the mush into him.
3. Spoon the mush into his not-so-open mouth; laugh under your breath when he makes a face because he has to eat this crap. Repeat, as necessary, being sure to tally what percentage of food makes it into his mouth as opposed to what lands on his cheeks, chin, hair and hands. The actual amounts will astound you.
4. Lastly, and most importantly, you must make this face:
Ultimately, it will help. I'm not sure how, but we kinda always look like this around our place.5. Follow with a hose-down and a mush-deserved nap.
If you were wondering where your toddler was the entire time you were force-feeding her younger brother, don't worry. She was just off eating a chunk of sidewalk chalk.
You make me smile! LOVE your blog! :)
ReplyDeleteThe face is to encourage the child to open his mouth the same way. I also like to lean the child back so that he can attempt to eat his feet. I can usually get two or three spoonfulls in before he realizes it is mush and not toe. Finally, the HazMat suit is encouraged as the child will inevitably either sneeze or practice blowing raspberries mid bite. I wish I had one of the black lights that worked on food rather than body fluids. I would love to see the splatter pattern that exists in our dining room.
ReplyDelete