Lap Towels

For the next project to make sense you need a little background info. When Vivian was 6 months old we introduced solids to her using the traditional method. Rice cereal followed by all kinds of purees. I bought jarred food and made some of my own. About a month into this process I discovered (through a blog) the book Baby-led Weaning. I think most moms discover this method on their own by the time they have their second child and have less time to fuss with special foods. The idea is that you never give your baby pureed food but instead start them out young (at 6 months) on finger foods allowing them to explore foods in their "regular" form as well as develop the ability to chew and safely handle foods in their mouths. It totally clicked with me on some of my concerns with what we were previously doing so we immediately switched Vivian over to this method and were blown away by what our 7 month old baby could do! She was actually eating the same thing we were at every meal. It was awesome. I wish I had read it earlier and had just skipped purees all together. It would have saved us some catch up time. Anyway, it is probably worth a post all on its own.

One of the only drawbacks to this method is that you have to let the baby do their thing unhindered so it is rather messy. Our highchair is great except that the gap between the baby and the tray is kind of big so Vivi would drop stuff down there all the time. No big deal if it is dinner but if it is breakfast or lunch then her clothes got covered with food for the rest of the day. I would put a kitchen towel over her lap and belt it in place but, 1. I was going through kitchen towels too fast and 2. the belt would pull the towel up in the middle. If I didn't belt it on she would mess with it while eating and next thing you know it would be on the floor.

Last time I was at the fabric store I found some terry that was very inexpensive so I decided to make some lap towels for mealtime. So simple! Just cut a rectangle. Then cut a slit in the middle. Serge all the raw edges and they are done. Now her lap is completely covered from falling foods. These probably won't be necessary after a few more months since Vivian is getting more and more proficient at eating as her motor skills develop and her appetite grows but that is OK because they were so easy and cheap to make. If you wanted to you could upcycle these from old towels you already have or ones from the thrift store.

For the daily cutie I thought it would be fun to show you some of the mess I am speaking about. This was a dinner of quesadilla, black beans and carrots. A little mess is totally worth it to see her taste and try all foods and handle them herself. She gets such a sense of satisfaction from having control over her meals and is more able to listen to her hunger and fullness signals when we aren't shoveling spoonfuls of stuff into her mouth.Daycare was apprehensive at first when we told them to just give her the food in large chunks like this but after one meal they were amazed.

Another tip is that we took the big plastic mat that used to be under the computer desk up in the office and moved it down to the dining room to protect the carpet. It is bigger than most commercial spill mats and I like that it is hard plastic. I can spray and wipe it down at night. This creates a clean surface so we can pick food up that is dropped on the ground and give it back to her. Dropping food is a big part of the method since the baby is allowed to make a mess.