Montessori Mondays - Eating Time

Everyone knows babies and toddlers are messy eaters right? Sometimes it is because they haven't quite mastered the use of utensils or dumping food on the table is their way of letting you know that they are finished eating. One important thing to remember that food at this age is very much a sensory experience. A lot of times children who are able to use spoons will dip their hands in their yogurt or pasta halfway through to get that extra sense of touch. Textures of foods are also a big reason why sometimes toddlers love a food one day and then won't touch it for weeks. Here are a few tips for making eating time an enjoyable learning experience for both you and your toddler.

• Try to provide a mix of familiar and new foods in a meal often throughout the week - for a particular picky eater try preparing a familiar food in a different way - mashed vs. boiled potatoes or baked french fries, also give new foods several chances by serving them over the course of several meals before throwing it out the window
  
• Encourage your toddler to feed themselves by providing them with finger foods at first - I recommend always placing small utensils in their eating area so if they want to try using a spoon or fork by themselves they have the opportunity to initiate that learning experience and likely will ask for help the first few times
• Let your toddler initiate their own conversations at the table - eating is a full sensory experience for your child and especially in those first few minutes you may notice he always becomes very quiet and focused on eating - its important to let him have that experience and become attuned to the experience of eating and when he is ready to engage with you he will
• Set up a regular clean up routine - even if the food you served for that meal isn't particularly messy, set up a regular routine of putting dishes away, throwing away trash, going to the sink to wash hands and to a mirror at the toddler's level to wipe his face - this should help immensely when your child is covered from head to toe with spaghetti and you don't want him running away to the living room immediately