Wednesday, November 05, 2008

It's Working!

Okay, so a few weeks ago (maybe SEVERAL weeks ago), we decided to begin our first 'battle' with our dear son. He had been eating solids for a while and it was beginning to be such a mess that I felt as though I should wear a bib for myself when I fed him. He would put his hands in his mouth to "help" his cereal into his mouth, he would grab the spoon in my hand if the food wasn't coming quickly enough and he would attempt to grab the bowl if he could reach it.

So, I did some research and according to the Baby Wise Mom Blog (and our parenting class, I might add) they suggested to hold his hands in his lap while we eat. Supposedly, eventually he would learn to keep his hands down. Well, I started this at about the beginning of September, maybe the middle... and this week I feel like he is finally understanding the concept!! Two or three weeks ago we really had to battle through this because he did NOT want to hold his hands down. He did NOT want me to help him hold his hands down and he cried for about 10 minutes (ok, it was probably 2 but it felt that long!) before he calmed down enough to eat his cereal.

This week I've started to not hold his hands as much. Right when he gets in his booster seat, he'll grab onto his tray and pretty much keep them there the whole time. Occasionally he'll begin to lift his hands and I calmly say, "No Brady, where do we keep our hands when we eat?" And most of the time he will correct himself and grab back onto his tray... ALL BY HIMSELF!! Can you believe it??? I honestly thought I was crazy (as some of you may be thinking I am right now) to be trying to 'train' him on things at this age... and I wasn't sure if it would really work but now that I'm seeing fruit from my labor, I think I will try to be more consistent in other little areas (ahem, the changing table?) as well!

So be encouraged, all of you Baby Wise Moms out there... it DOES work. It took 2 months and a LOT of patience but it did work! This is the first thing we've really tried and been consistent about, so we'll see how other stuff works, but it has been a big encouragement to both jeff and I.

2 comments:

Olson Family said...

YAY! When Jack finally learned that, it was almost time for him to start doing finger foods and he was so confused that I was letting him reach up on the tray to grab food:)

The Bird Family said...

What a smart boy!! I will tell you that we did some of the same things with Madelyn and it does get much easier (and shorter training time) the older they get...I am really glad we stuck to some of the things we taught her but it was really hard at the time! We are now working on not throwing food off the high chair:)!!