Baby led solids and a clingy baby

[mollycat03]

Ok, so I have a 7 1/2 month old little girl who loves food. We've decided to go with baby-led solids ( i have the book from Rapley coming in the mail) and we've been doing it for a little bit and she loves the foods. I love that she loves the foods, the only thing is the mess. Ok, I know it's going to happen no matter what, but she will only stay in her highchair for maybe 5 minutes and nibble at her food. She fusses (pretty much screaming), I pick her up, and she is happy and chows down on whatever is in her hand. So, the only way she eats anything is by using my hip as her personal highchair. So, I get messy, food gets everywhere. I've been getting frustrated with it and been doing purees with her just holding a rice cracker or toast or something and it still gets a little messy but not so as bad. But I really really REALLY don't want to buy and/or make pureed baby food! Ugh. Help!

Another thing, how do you do it at other people's houses? It's so messy!

[new_mom808]

 You can train her to stay in her high chair. This is really seperate from whatever/however you decide to feed her. My son never ate very much in one sitting. He was and still is a grazer. But the rule was he had to sit in  his chair. When he wanted down, we let him down, but the food stayed at the high chair. (That was then, now at 2.5 he has to stay at the table until everyone is done.) Remember that at her age she's just learning to eat. She's still getting all of her nutrients from the breastmilk. So she may not be very hungry and playing is more fun. As eating solids starts to actually fill a need and ease hunger she will be more focused. ;)

As far as eating out, we just brough bibs, and removed all placemats. Tables wipe up easily. When we went to restarunts, we cleaned up as well as we could and tipped well for that first year. LOL.

[Edilma]

I have the same situation with my baby. He is 7 1/2 months old too and he does the same thing. He just wants to be with me no matter what he does. So, what I've been doing is making things more fun. We bought him a walker bacause he can move a little, this so he doesn't just stay in one place and he has the freedom to jump walk two steps up and down and be more active, and it has worked. He stays to eat as long as he is done. I do puree because I find it he eats better since mommy is involved in the feeding. At the end, he just grabs the spoon and he stays a little trying to feed himself for fun and biting on it (we have a very soft baby spoon :) and then after he is done I give him his zippy cup with diluted apple juice. That's the fun part for him...and it's been better now. Hope you find something that works for you. Good luck!!!