I was reading along in my "Just Take a Bite" book today when suddenly pieces of information came swirling together in my mind. I started thinking, "feet on the table . . . feet . . . firm feet . . . feet firmly planted . . . ."
1. John prefers eating in his Learning Tower . . . where his feet are flat on a surface.
2. I recently read that the Montessori method eschews typical high chairs or booster seats that leave the baby and toddler's feet swinging, and advocates a specially designed "weaning chair" that gives the child a place to plant his feet firmly. (The Montessori method promotes child-sized furniture for everything.)
3. At occupational therapy, John always sits in a child-sized chair with his feet planted on the ground and eats well.
4. At the kitchen table at home, John sits in a booster seat with his feet swinging free. Many nights, he repeatedly puts his feet up on the table, resulting in time outs and ultimate expulsion from the table (which is very bad for encouraging eating--yet we aren't going to allow feet on the table either).
5. In "Just Take a Bite," an entire section is devoted to describing how children who have any kind of eating problems need to be sure to have a seating position in which their feet are planted firmly and they are supported because when the body flops all over, the child puts his energy into stabilizing his body instead of eating. (Is John stabilizing his body by propping his feet on the kitchen table? Even if it has become a game, was that his original purpose?)
With these questions in mind, I assembled an experimental child-sized table and "chair" in the kitchen. I used one of our side tables from the den and a stool. It wasn't perfect, but it made for an interesting experiment. (When I sat down to eat, I ended up moving away my chair and sitting on the floor so I could be more eye-to-eye with John. One of my questions for families who encourage or allow their toddlers to eat at a small table: does that mean the child is eating separately/alone? A child-sized table and chair seem excellent in so many ways, but it makes me sad to think of John eating down there all alone while Daddy and I eat at the kitchen table.)
It may have nothing to do with anything, but at dinner John asked for my ravioli. I've tried to get him to eat ravioli for a year to no avail. It's a mixed texture: firmer outside pasta, squishy inside. Definitely on the "no way, no how" list. He asked me for mine and I obliged by cutting him a piece, expecting it to become part of the great amount of food I throw away after John rejects it. But John ate it and liked it and asked for more and more, so that's what he had for dinner. He could even see the cheese filling squishing out and he still ate it! I love seeing this progress.
We do have a child sized table and chairs (as you may have seen on my blog), but it's not where DS1 eats primarily. It's mostly for school work and arts and crafts. I don't really like the weaning table idea for the same reason you mention-- I don't want him eating alone! Our little guy mostly using the booster now (I think we have the same one) and DS1 uses a regular chair. If he does sit in the booster, though, occasionally he will try to brace his feet against the table! I never connected it to anything else buy playing around...however, our kitchen chairs are big enough so that he can also rest his feet on the chair when sitting in the booster. ANYWAY, where I was really going with this is that he is much more of a "grazer" than anything else. He prefers to eat on the move and I had attributed it to just a toddlerism, but maybe not? He doesn't have any eating issues, but I wonder if what the author describes could be true across the board? He likes feeling "solid" while eating?
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting about the feet on the floor and fidgeting. We have a child-sized table (Lowes)but they are still not quite big enough for their feet to touch the floor when seated. Maybe some of that fidgeting will stop when they do touch.
ReplyDeleteAs for eating with them...we alternate between eating together at the big table or sitting in the pint sized chairs at their table (we bought extras and they are sturdy).
Courtney: I know that toddlers prefer to graze. It is interesting to me to study the widely variant schools of thought on when to try to consolidate their eating, when to start teaching them about sitting at the table with family for eating. I wouldn't mind the grazing. My only problem is that grazing does not fit a modern lifestyle. When John refuses to eat at any of my mealtimes, so there is no overlap, then I'm in the kitchen 3-5 times/day for me and as many *different* times for him, and that just doesn't work. Or if I cannot convince him to eat before we leave the house, then he's hysterical with hunger while we're doing errands so I'm forced to bring an array of snacks (having no idea what he'll be willing to eat in advance) and then have tons of food refuse in the van (which is the current state of affairs! yuck!) or have a hungry child. It's all just so frustrating. Anyway, John does a combo of eating a few bites at our mealtimes plus grazing at other times.
ReplyDeleteWe use a feeding table by Babee Tenda. When she was an infant the seat had a footrest, now that she is two, she uses the chair that it came with. It pulls right up to the table we eat at, so she it still having meals with us. We never did the high chair thing
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