I'm not an expert in parenting, for I'm not a parent just yet :D, and I'm a last child in my family, so I don't really get many experiences in taking care of little children, but sometimes I observe how parents act to their children through TV shows and learning a bit of psychology from books.
When my brother and his wife is blessed with a healthy, active baby boy, I observe them too. Well my brother's not really bothered with his kid, for he's working and mostly doing his own stuffs when he got home and only helped a little, so my baby nephew mostly clings to my sister-in-law, as she's also still breastfeeding. When it comes to meal-times, before I came home, my baby nephew was usually moving around. And my sister-in-law or our head-household-assistant was always following him. Same as drinking milk routine, my sister-in-law was used to put her son in room and turn on TV and VCD of his favourite songs collections with cartoons, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars and so on. Apparently it worked when my nephew was really little, as he would just sit and stare at the TV and my sister-in-law would spoon him the milk. But as he got older, he becomes more active and like to move and play around. So I noticed. A little background, me and my bro was a bit quiet kid, I'm guessing it's from having a quiet dad, and strict mom too, but as I know, I don't really run around when I eat.
I wonder, why would the parents do the chasing? It's not them who need the food, it's the kids. Me myself, has always thought if I had kids one day, I don't want to do that :D. At first I ignore them, but well I got frustrated :p. So I told my sister-in-law. She was actually tired of doing that either, but had no choice, LOL. I was suggesting to get an eating chair for baby. I watched on one episode of Super Nanny, one family has twins of one year old, and they're eating on their own on their chairs. I like that! :) Even though of course it's gonna be messy, as they don't have good controls over their hands yet, but it's part of learning :). Like the detergent commercial said, Tak ada noda, gak blajar! :p
So when we went to Yogyakarta, we also borrowed an eating chair from my bro's friend, as their kid doesn't use it anymore. Turned out they don't really use it, because when they bought it, their kid was already older than my nephew now, and can defend itself more, unlike my nephew who still always clings and cries :). I'm guessing the mother gave up, and for me, giving up was not really an option. I prefer to see a kid listening to the parents, not the other way around. So first step to do is : DON'T BE EASY TO GIVE UP. My nephew was crying for the first time when he was put in the chair for meal time. He had a tantrum and cried really loud until his face was all red. But I always told my sister-in-law not to do anything and just let him finish his crying, he'd get tired of it anyway :).
When the kid cries, he can't eat, so please don't force him/her to eat, like many older generation mother did, as he/she would puke, I don't agree with that. Check with the kid whether he really needs to get off the chair to change diapers (but when the kid's still a baby, up to 1-2 years old, this is not a problem), or was feeling really hot, or just want to 'digendong'. If he stops crying immediately after my sister-in-law take him from the chair, I told my sister to try to put him back in the chair. Sometimes it's a struggle too, but the trick is : give him something to hold and play during that mealtime, so he won't get bored. I sometimes also sing foolishly for him, or my sister-in-law was playing and pretending to call someone to gossip and he would just stare and not throwing tantrum :).
When eating big snacks, like puddings, I also told my sister-in-law to use the chair, so my nephew would get used to eat in the chair, and got to think that to eat, he would need to sit, not moving around. But I'm not really strict too, for eating small snacks, like the one that me or my other family eat, biscuits, krupuk etc. (he really likes to ask for our snacks too!), he can eat anywhere he wants. :)
With the drinking milk routine, we eliminate that. I suggest my sister-in-law to do it at the same time with eating. So instead of having water for drinks when meal times like it was used to be, we now use the milk. He can always have more water anytime anyway when he asks for our drinks. So it was doing 2 tasks together at the same times :). More times for playing.
Will it get messy? Of course :). But it's a learning progress. Now my nephew can sit and eat in the chair. So never complain if it's messy, they're kids anyway :).
When my brother and his wife is blessed with a healthy, active baby boy, I observe them too. Well my brother's not really bothered with his kid, for he's working and mostly doing his own stuffs when he got home and only helped a little, so my baby nephew mostly clings to my sister-in-law, as she's also still breastfeeding. When it comes to meal-times, before I came home, my baby nephew was usually moving around. And my sister-in-law or our head-household-assistant was always following him. Same as drinking milk routine, my sister-in-law was used to put her son in room and turn on TV and VCD of his favourite songs collections with cartoons, like Twinkle Twinkle Little Stars and so on. Apparently it worked when my nephew was really little, as he would just sit and stare at the TV and my sister-in-law would spoon him the milk. But as he got older, he becomes more active and like to move and play around. So I noticed. A little background, me and my bro was a bit quiet kid, I'm guessing it's from having a quiet dad, and strict mom too, but as I know, I don't really run around when I eat.
I wonder, why would the parents do the chasing? It's not them who need the food, it's the kids. Me myself, has always thought if I had kids one day, I don't want to do that :D. At first I ignore them, but well I got frustrated :p. So I told my sister-in-law. She was actually tired of doing that either, but had no choice, LOL. I was suggesting to get an eating chair for baby. I watched on one episode of Super Nanny, one family has twins of one year old, and they're eating on their own on their chairs. I like that! :) Even though of course it's gonna be messy, as they don't have good controls over their hands yet, but it's part of learning :). Like the detergent commercial said, Tak ada noda, gak blajar! :p
So when we went to Yogyakarta, we also borrowed an eating chair from my bro's friend, as their kid doesn't use it anymore. Turned out they don't really use it, because when they bought it, their kid was already older than my nephew now, and can defend itself more, unlike my nephew who still always clings and cries :). I'm guessing the mother gave up, and for me, giving up was not really an option. I prefer to see a kid listening to the parents, not the other way around. So first step to do is : DON'T BE EASY TO GIVE UP. My nephew was crying for the first time when he was put in the chair for meal time. He had a tantrum and cried really loud until his face was all red. But I always told my sister-in-law not to do anything and just let him finish his crying, he'd get tired of it anyway :).
When the kid cries, he can't eat, so please don't force him/her to eat, like many older generation mother did, as he/she would puke, I don't agree with that. Check with the kid whether he really needs to get off the chair to change diapers (but when the kid's still a baby, up to 1-2 years old, this is not a problem), or was feeling really hot, or just want to 'digendong'. If he stops crying immediately after my sister-in-law take him from the chair, I told my sister to try to put him back in the chair. Sometimes it's a struggle too, but the trick is : give him something to hold and play during that mealtime, so he won't get bored. I sometimes also sing foolishly for him, or my sister-in-law was playing and pretending to call someone to gossip and he would just stare and not throwing tantrum :).
When eating big snacks, like puddings, I also told my sister-in-law to use the chair, so my nephew would get used to eat in the chair, and got to think that to eat, he would need to sit, not moving around. But I'm not really strict too, for eating small snacks, like the one that me or my other family eat, biscuits, krupuk etc. (he really likes to ask for our snacks too!), he can eat anywhere he wants. :)
With the drinking milk routine, we eliminate that. I suggest my sister-in-law to do it at the same time with eating. So instead of having water for drinks when meal times like it was used to be, we now use the milk. He can always have more water anytime anyway when he asks for our drinks. So it was doing 2 tasks together at the same times :). More times for playing.
Will it get messy? Of course :). But it's a learning progress. Now my nephew can sit and eat in the chair. So never complain if it's messy, they're kids anyway :).
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