How to Feed a Henry

In my last post , I wrote about Henry's transition from a highchair to a booster seat. As a toddler, Henry's ability to drink from an open cup and use flatware are also improving. The more he practices, the better he is getting at these skills. Henry still uses straw cups for most of our meals. With the hot summer weather, however, I have been giving him lots of opportunities to use a regular cup when we are outside. He hardly spills when he drinks from an open cup, but he also enjoys pouring the water out and watching it splash on the ground. Henry practices drinking from an open cup. In the past month, Henry has become obsessed with using utensils at every meal. He wants to have a fork or spoon in hand, e ven when we are eating finger foods like a sandwich or grapes. I don't want to squash his enthusiasm, so I try to remember to give him a utensil with each meal. Henry focuses on stabbing a blueberry with his fork. Henry usually doesn't use flatware for...

Last week I took a break from writing when Henry came down with a bad cold. Then Daddy and I were under the weather too. With the coughing, fever and runny noses, no one at our house was getting any sleep. We were all feeling pretty crummy but I think we are over the worst of it now. Having a sick baby is awful. Henry does not understand why he feels so miserable and there is no way to explain it to him. One of the best things for getting better is to drink lots of fluids, but Henry’s bottle intake dropped noticeably. The amount of water he was drinking from a straw cup was not making up for the difference, so I decided to try a different approach. The Zoli BOT cup helped encourage Henry to drink more liquid. I brought out the ZoLi BOT cup that had been too challenging for Henry a few months ago. He was so excited about using the new cup that he drank a few extra ounces of liquid from it -- that made Mommy and baby both happy.  With the side handles, Henry wa...

On a recent hot day, Henry and I went for a walk to a local coffee shop where I purchased an iced tea. When Henry saw me drinking from the cup, he immediately reached out his arms and started swinging his legs. I know that sign is a request for water , so I gave him the cup thinking that he might gnaw on the straw. But Henry surprised me by slurping the tea through the straw. Babies are not supposed to be able to handle a straw, but I guess Henry is an exception to the rule. Henry is an expert at drinking from a straw. After the difficulty we have had with sippy cups , I went in search of a small cup with a straw for Henry to use at mealtimes. Most straw cups are marketed for toddlers after they have mastered a sippy cup. In fact, there’s a whole segment of sippy-to-straw cups that are designed help children transition from a sippy cup to a straw cup. I had a difficult time finding a cup with a straw that would work for Henry. I was looking for one with a lid to prevent...

As I mentioned yesterday , Henry loves water. The problem is that Henry is not very skilled at drinking water. We’ve tried sippy cups, shot glasses, and regular drinking glasses. Water usually ends up dribbling down his chin, spilling on his tray, or cascading to the floor. Who knew it took practice to learn how to take a drink of water? Henry has two key issues with sippy cups. First, he does not like that the cup needs to be tilted up to get the water out. Second, the no-spill filters are nice for keeping everything dry but they make it difficult for him to suck the water out. We tried removing the filters but then water just pours out freely. Since I am helping Henry tilt the cup, it is difficult to see when the water reaches the spout and determine how much he is getting. If I tilt it up too high, Henry is drenched with a huge mouthful that he needs to spit back out. Henry can hold a sippy cup but he does not li ke tilting it up to drink. Next, a friend recommended...