Need some tips on feeding a toddler at Disney World please..

[disneypolybride2008]

Hi there. I've only taken my DD1 at the time out to eat but she was only spoon fed so there was no mess. Now that she is 2 and feeding herself, i look at her messy tray, messy hands, messy everything and think, "how am i going to do this at Disney World?" We have a character meal all but one day, how can she hug them if she's all messy? Yes, wipe her off sounds good, but she gets quite messy with most things and it is more like a wash, rather than a wipe that will do. At home i bring over a container of water and i rub her hands with soap and rinse them off, repeating if necessary and then wash off her bib and tray.

Restrooms can be minutes away from a messy toddler, like at 1900 you have to walk out of the restaurant and around the corner.. to clean her off... ok enough rambling.. please let me know what you did and hopefully that will work for me

 

[powellrj]

I always carried a wet washcloth in a baggie when my kids were that age. I would start at their faces, then hands and then table. My DD was the worst at making a mess! I would also try to steer her to neater food and start now trying to have her practice using sliver too! Have fun!

 

[Ariel on Land]

for messier foods in public, we just feed her! Otherwise, bring lots of wipies!!

 

[Goldilocks07]

We just tried to avoid things like spaghetti, which is horribly messy.

One thing that may work, is what we are planning on doing this upcoming trip (bc she will be in a princess dress that I do NOT want splattered)- which is to bring a youth-sized t-shirt to wear, sort of like a smock.

I don't know what else to do to protect her clothing. So I'm just going to bring a couple of cheapy t-shirts that go down to her knees, to wear while eating. This way, I can just wipe her face and hands and pull off the stained filthy shirt, and she should be clean. Hopefully.

Also bring cheap cotton burp cloths. They are AMAZING at wiping up anything, they are so absorbent and wash really well. Way better than napkins OR wipes.
Always have gallon zip loc bags, you can throw the icky cloths/shirts in there and wash them after.

Good luck!

 

[3Gsandme]

Do you know anyone who could sew you up some bibs like this?
http://www.craftinessisnotoptional.com/2011/05/bapron-tutorial.html

They'd cover a ton of her clothes.

I'd really focus on giving her things she can't make as big of a mess with. I'd avoid sauced anything at times when you know it's going to be really hard to clean her up. My dd is four and I won't order her spaghetti out. It looks like a crime scene when she's done.

Also, I've found that frequent wiping is easier to manage then letting them go at it and trying to clean the whole mess up at once.

 

[set1208]

We just tried to avoid things like spaghetti, which is horribly messy.

That's what we would do too. I would always try to get the finger foods off the menu for my kids. Maybe bring a dry wash cloth so your child can wipe their own hands and face while they eat? Paper napkins and toddlers don't work well in our house.

 

[Help Please!]

Choose neater foods...instead of oatmeal/yogurt for breakfast, go for fruit/ dry cereal. Instead of mac and cheese, chicken nuggets and veggies. That's what works for us (and my son is 2!). The only messy food we let him do is applesauce, because it's "clear" and easy to clean!

 

[Teacup53]

When we brought our toddlers who were feeding themselves finger foods to wdw we brought table toppers so we didn't have to worry about plates and spills. We used napkins but the weren't horribly messy eaters. Then again we didn't give them goopy messy food like yogurt to eat. I got the table toppers through amazon and found winnie the pooh that both my sons liked. They were 1 & 2.5 during our trip.

Another bonus was I knew it was a clean spot for them both. Have a great trip.

 

[OhanaBreadPudding]

Ikea sells these PERFECT art smocks that I used to use for really messy meals. I still feed my almost 3 year old yogurt and extra messy things when I don't want to clean him up.

I love the washcloth in a bag idea.

 

[disneypolybride2008]

thank you for the great ideas

 

[msmama]

Also if you just give them little bits of food at a time, rather than a bunch at once, they stay a little neater.

 

[wiigirl]

for messier foods in public, we just feed her! Otherwise, bring lots of wipies!!

 

[mrssam]

We bring their own smaller utensils and a small pair of scissors to quickly cut their food up. Smaller bites, easier to handle=less mess. Baby wipes are your friend and we are big on cleaning as we go. As soon as their face or shirt starts "wearing" their meal, I wipe it clean. You'd be amazed what a baby wipe will clean up. And we always have a change of clothes, plus an extra shirt in our to-go bag just incase things get crazy with a Mickey ice cream treat. Luckily my kiddos aren't fans of red-sauces, but they love guacamole and dips and ice cream haha

 

[AprilRenee]

We have these bibs
http://www.bumkins.com/junior-bib.html
They fully cover his shirt and sleeves (if we push up long sleeves) and they rinse off after meals and will dry quickly if you hang them from the stroller or something.
I swear by them and own two for our daily use.

Once the clothes protection is taken care of its easy to quickly wipe his hands and face off after eating.

 

[LMN]

I also used to do the washcloth in a ziplock idea for quick cleanup after meals. You will definitely want to protect their clothes for all the picture ops! I love the large bibs that pps posted. I wish they had had those when my kids were that age. We just bought the biggest bibs we could find when mine were little. Maybe at the character meal you could wait to eat until after the characters come by your table? That way you won't have to quickly clean up a child! Have a great trip!

 

[MSSANDRA]

We pretty much tried to stick to finger foods that were not to messy when eating out when the boys were little. They really never ate a lot of kids type foods so not too hard. Tiny pieces of grilled chicken or soft tiny piece of a firm fish were not too bad. Steamed veggies without sauce, and small pieces of steamed potato. I always had the gerber graduate apple cubes (not sure they still make them) and they were the least messy choice. We used disposable bibs and place mats and if they wanted bites of a more messy food, we fed them. Now at home we of course gave them foods of all types and textures and let them feed themselves to learn how to do it.