Stubborn Self Feeders

I think there are two ways to present food to babies. 

1. Over protective mum approach.  You sit with them the entire meal and put tiny pieces of food in their mouth and freak out if they look like they are going to choke.
2. Lazy mum approach.  Load up the highchair with a bunch of different finger foods and walk away to do the washing up.

There are two ways babies like to be fed

1. Lazy but smart baby approach.  Baby absolutely refuses to pick up anything for himself.
2. Stubbornly independent baby approach.  Baby absolutely refuses to be fed.  Baby must feed themselves.

I started out as being the over protective mum trying to feed two stubbornly independent babies.  The closer I was to the highchair the less they ate.  I changed to being a lazy mum.  It was hard to convince other carers that the lazy approach really was the best way, especially considering the mess it created (and therefore, it really isn’t a lazy approach!).  I swear the more mess they had created, the more food they had eaten so mess was a good thing!  

My messy 13 month olds!