How do I handle the messiness made by baby-led weaning?

Baby-led weaning can be really messy, but there are ways to keep the mess under control.

I have so many great pictures of my son from when he is first starting solids. In a lot of them, he is absolutely covered in his food. In one he has yogurt all over his hands. In another, he has apple sauce all over his face. These occasions make adorable pictures and they are definitely part of the fun of baby-led weaning.

In almost all of these pictures, my son can be seen wearing a very messy smock. What's not visible in most of those pictures is his high chair and the floor around it. But I'm sure you aren't surprised to hear that if the food was all over my son, it was also all over my dining room. The reality is that baby-led weaning makes a lot of mess, and not just on your baby. Part of your job as a parent doing baby-led weaning is not to overreact to the mess—remember your baby isn't doing it on purpose! Unfortunately, another part of your job as a parent doing baby-led weaning is to clean up.

Every parent knows that having a child means having a lot of chores to do. So most parents are looking for anything that helps make those chores easier to manage. Just because baby-led weaning makes a lot of mess doesn't mean there aren't tools you can use to make the clean up easier. The rest of this blog post will give an overview of those tools. Hopefully this will help you find the tools that you need to spend more time with your family and less time cleaning.

Bibs

Before my son started solids, when I imagined a baby eating food they were always wearing a bib. I think a lot of other people share that association. And don't get me wrong, bibs are definitely useful. They are my go to tool to keep my son relatively clean when eating away from home. You'll definitely want a few of these so you always have one ready to bring to a restaurant or a friend's house.

But at my own house, bibs just aren't good enough at keeping the mess contained for most of the foods my son eats. In practice, a bib is pretty small. When your baby has apple sauce all over their hands you can feel confident that some of that apple sauce is going on their clothes, their high chair, and anything else they can get their little hands on even if they are wearing a bib. That being said, for some relatively low-mess foods like bread and cheese a bib might suffice.

My family uses the Moonkie Silicone Baby Bib, and we like them because they fit well and can be cleaned in the dishwasher.

Smocks

If you need more help keeping the mess under control than a bib can provide, then this is where a smock steps in. A smock is basically a very large bib, possibly covering your baby's arms and even legs. The smocks that we use at home are large enough to go over a lot of the high chair, and this was one of the main reasons that I was very enthusiastic about using a smock whenever possible at home. While I definitely recommend getting a high chair that is easy to clean, the lowest effort way to keep your high chair clean is to not let it get dirty in the first place.

My advice to you when your baby starts solids is to always opt for a smock if you're at home. Early on, there were times where my wife and I would choose not to put a smock on because my son wasn't supposed to be eating anything messy. But as the meal progressed, something messy would find its way over to my son and sure enough I would be wiping down the high chair after the meal. Lesson learned.

We have the Bibado Long-Sleeve Coveralls smocks. They are designed to go over parts of a high chair to minimize clean up, but in practice we don't use them that way. Still, they are good because they have excellent coverage and are long. It was only when my toddler reached about 18 months that his feet started peaking out from under this smock.

Splat mats

A splat mat helps reduce the clean up associated with dropped food, spilled drinks, and other splatters. A splat mat is basically a small machine washable plastic covering for your floor that goes directly under your little one's high chair. There is no doubt that this is a very simple piece of equipment, but it's also extremely useful. You will probably want a few of these so you can change them out when they get dirty, and they will get dirty because that is exactly their job.

My son would regularly drop his food and his utensils, and the splat mat really reduced the amount of yogurt I had to scrub out of my dining room rug. He's also dropped his milk cup quite a few times too, and the times that the lid blew off when it hit the ground were a lot less bad thanks to the splat mat. In other words, a splat mat can really help you keep relaxed when your baby is making a mess while learning about solids. If you're more relaxed, then meal time will be smoother and your family is going to feel a lot happier and more harmonious.

While any splat mat will do the job, something that covers more area will probably be more effective if you have the space for it. We have two different kinds and almost always use the Blissful Diary Splat Mat because they are just a little bigger than the other one we have.

Cloths

At home, we use reusable cloths to clean up both my son and the area around him after a meal. When we're out, we typically just use a few single-use wipes. Both options work well. Still, we favor reusable cloths because they are really efficient for cleaning up big messes (and let's be honest—there will be more then a few of these) because you can just take them back to the sink a few times.

Conclusion

Just because baby-led weaning can be messy doesn't mean that you as a parent have to spend all your time cleaning up. When you have the right tools for the job, the messiness can be a lot more manageable so you spend less time cleaning.

Reducing mess isn't the only way to save time with baby-led weaning. If you're just starting out with baby-led weaning, then MealAppeal can also help you get food on the table faster and more easily. Try MealAppeal free for 1 week, no credit card required.