Jul 27 2005
How to Keep (my) Toddler Occupied During Dinners?
When we bring Ian out for food, the most effective ways to stop him from making noise are:
- feed him liquid (water/soup/etc) with a spoon/cup; or
- give him a piece of tissue paper
Ian is so weird. He only drinks 2 things from his bottle: milk and plain water. If we put anything else, he would reject. Soymilk, barley, fruit juice, etc – all being rejected in bottles.
So, if we want to give him any other liquid, we have to feed with a spoon or cup. He loves it very much, seeing it as a game for him. If I stop giving him liquid in spoon/cup, he would cry!
Therefore, whenever he starts making noise in a dinner, this is a good way to keep him occupied for a while. The only downside is, I will be quite occupied as well – he just won’t let me stop feeding him water with spoon, and I just can’t eat!
So, the second method now comes in handy. We give him a piece of tissue paper, and he will play with it for quite a while – record is 2 hours! He tears the tissue paper into very tiny pieces, one piece at a time, and throws it on the floor. He enjoys seeing the tiny piece sticks on his little fat fingers, and then rubs his fingers so the tiny pieces fall – and he enjoys seeing how they fall on the floor!
Of course, the downside is, after the dinner ends our table is usually the dirtiest table, with all tiny tissue paper pieces.
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the only way i do to stop SQ kacau r feed her at the same time lor…our dinner time is her dinner time too..now she can take rice liao..so i just give her small bowl of rice then mixed wif some dish lor…
my baby prefers ice cubes… other things like empty plastic bowl or spoon she’ll be bored very soon!
My little skywalker will want to try whatever me and my wife eat. Even if we ordered something soft like mash potatoes for him, he would still come after our food. Anyway, we have been suiting our (read my wife only) diet to his appetite.
Is Ian just plain cute or plain weird? Perhaps he is just easily entertained.
Tisu ya, we never let Sweet sweet played before wo… hmm better not, otherwise Lak Seh nanti the restaurant ask us to clean up the floor.
usually we let her play with Swet(ice cube), hehe SS playing with Swet :>
we gave a lot of things, everything can’t break we will give *sigh*…and have to find the same one, otherwise they will fight.
msau: feeding Ian at the same time is not a good idea ler. To feed him must concentrate one. He doesn’t chew, he just swallow, so very quick finish one spoonfull of food. He doesn’t let me stop, or he doesn’t want to eat at all. Nothing in between. He eats I can’t eat, I eat he can’t eat.
domesticgoddess& Lockee: good idea. Thanks for sharing, I will try ice cube next time.
egghead: yes Ian also wants to eat what we have, but just eat for fun, he still need something to do to be occupied. When he eats his meals, he also needs toys otherwise he will want to climb out.
jason: easily entertained? Hmm… I thought he is difficult?!
twinsmom: I constantly have to think of new ‘toy’. and you are right, must be something unbreakable because he can just throw on the floor when he is not happy.
Nothing keeps my baby gal occupied for a long time these days.
Especially when we are outside eating.. even worst.. climb all over me.. and not let me eat..! even donch want daddy to carry..!! Plus she wouldn’t try any of our food except french fries.