Friday 15th April 2011 - Pigs, food and training.

What has that got to do with anything. Well lots actually. They all relate to Number 1 Son. Timothy Elliott that is.
He has discovered he likes food. But not the usual mushy food that is fed to 7 month old's. He likes real food, Cheese, tomatoes, silverbeat mashed spud, carrots sweet potato, pie and so on. The only concession is that they are cut up small. And he loves all food. He is like a pig. Have mouth will fill. He will quite happily feed himself. And there are no bibs. We clean up the mess, not that there is much. He will take food from a spoon. But not a baby spoon. Tea spoons are good. Although when I eat my porridge in the morning we share the spoon. Well, we do share the food, so why not the food.
Why have we chosen to do adult style food. Did I mention he likes spaghetti bog? Well it goes something like this. With the girls we mushed up the food. They didn't like it. We would finish up feeding them off our plate. So we got wise. If we is gonna feed them off our plate, why bother with the mushed up baby food in the first place. Hence Tim eats what we eat. Same in a restaurant. We would order a kids meal, which they hardly touch. They preferred our food. Again, we got wise. Just order another adult and an extra plate. Two happy girls in no time flat. We would and do take the time to teach them restaurant manners. Timothy will be the same. He will be and in deed is, taught age appropriate manner.
That brings me to my next subject. Some time ago I wrote and article on training versus expectations. I need to revisit that article. It is here in the blog somewhere. I actually wrote that when I was associated with Raising Godly Tomatoes. It did not go down well there. Too new age for them. But it did stand us in good stead with the girls. But that was 3 years ago and they are - well - girls. The principles are the same but the application slightly different. It will be interesting to compare notes.
We have started with Tim. In fact we started training within a day or so of his birth. Things like "legs down". So important at diaper change time. I mean, can you imagine a leg kicking around in a pooey diaper on a change table? Nope, not good.
Then there is don't touch. We have both worked on that. He is now 7 months and grabs every thing within sight. We don't want him touching everything. Boundaries. And at this age it is so easy to set those boundaries.
Don't touch training looks like this. Timothy will make a grab for the curtain. We don't want him to do that. So we take his little hand off the object and fold the hand across his body and say "don't touch" at the same time. It takes time. Lots of time. But, like Cathy before him, he is getting it. I wear glasses and I really don't need him to touch my glasses. So it is the same thing. I say "don't touch" and at the same time take his hand away. I will also tap his hand and say "don't touch". It takes a while for him to get the message. But even in a week he has get it down pat.
We have been looking at some things by the Ezzo's lately. They have talked about working within the funnel. It means setting age appropriate boundary's. I like it. It makes sense. Let the child have freedoms appropriate to his/her age. Too few or too many freedoms and we have a frustrated child.
That will do for now. Till next time.........