Parenting Tips: Table Manners For Toddlers

Toddlers eating at the dining table usually end up with frustrated parents taking a long time to clean up the mess left behind by their little children. Fortunately, there are some tips that parents can use to develop table manners for toddlers.

Dr. William Sears gave some tips posted in PARENTING about the most effective ways to reduce the mess left behind by toddlers after eating. He also gave some advice on how to gradually instill table manners on toddlers.

"We realized that while it can be a nuisance at times, playing with food is a normal and quite a healthy developmental stage for a child," Sears shares. He says that the reason why toddlers love to play with their food is because they enjoy seeing things fly from their hands and how other people react to it. However, parents can still do some things to promote less mess and more table manners for the toddler.

Offering one tiny bite of food at a time is a great idea to lessen the mess. Giving toddlers a full plate of their food will definitely result into a great mess that parents will have to clean up afterwards.

Another tip to instill table manners on toddlers is to not laugh when they play with their food and create a mess, no matter how funny it may be. When parents laugh at this behavior, the toddler gets an idea that what he or she is doing is fun and is okay to repeat again and again.

Sears also shared another insightful tip, "In our family, we would allow a mess on the high chair tray, but completely discouraged food flinging and purposeful dropping by immediately terminating the meal." The doctor explains that they do this in their family to show that playing with food has consequences.

Another tip is to serve up nutritious smoothies for toddlers. This is ideal for toddlers whose food is mostly being wasted instead of being eaten. "They make for a powerful breakfast and are the perfect snack. These miracle drinks are fast, fresh, high in fiber, low in fat and loaded with vitamins and antioxidants," She Knows explained.

Lastly, one of the best tips for instilling table manners for hyperactive toddlers who like getting out of their high chair is to keep feeding toddlers with small bits of food at a continuous rate -- with water breaks along the way -- until the meal is finished. This is ideal to keep toddlers preoccupied with trying to keep up with the steady supply of small bits of food that they will have no more time to move around too much.