Do you let your LO wear clothes to eat?

dana316

I am the only one that strips my child to her diaper for every meal? I keep seeing pictures of babies and toddlers in their high chairs (at home) eating with their clothes on...and I'm baffled.  I strip Caroline to her diaper for every single meal, because she makes a ridiculous mess, and I hate doing laundry. 

Am I alone here??  Do your kids not make awful messes and stain their clothes? 

Caroline knows she has to take her clothes off...I say "are you ready to get in your highchair?", and she comes over to me and starts taking her own shirt off. 

(Obviously we let her keep her clothes on in restaurants )

So, do you strip the clothes or not??

 

mrsolsenk12

The only time I strip him down is when we eat spagetti or anything with red sauce in it. Other than that, he stays dressed. I put a large bib on him (the kind that slips over his head) and I pull his sleeves up. He isn't as messy as he used to be. He is getting better with a fork and spoon. It usually goes in his mouth instead of on his lap.

Mrs.Reem

I don't strip my kids but we do have long sleeved bibs.  It's waaay too cold here to strip.  lol

leslie&brian

I only strip him down when we are eating pasta. Otherwise, he keeps his clothes on. I put a big bib on him. I also use Baby Oxyclean with all of his clothes, and he's yet to stain anything.

GreenEyedGal

Depends on what he's eating. If it's spaghetti then only diaper but if it's a "clean" dinner (like chicken with veggies) then he's usually clothed.

choco_lab

I've never once stripped DS to eat.  He has a bib that gets most of it and it doesn't really get on his legs because of the tray.  What kind of stuff are you feeding her that makes a mess?  He does get cereal/milk or oatmeal on his shirt sleeves since he's not great with the spoon but I just wipe it up!  Too lazy to change his shirt for that!

CMM05

I have never stripped my kids down. To me, that is way too much work. Not to mention that I don't want them to learn that it is okay to strip when they eat...Lol!

Just use bibs

 

sasa625

We never take DD's clothes off before eating... we used to when we were having spaghetti/tomato sauce, but now we just roll up her sleeves and put a bib on her. She doesn't make that big of a mess anymore, and if she does, I just spray the clothes and wash them with the rest of the laundry (we do laundry at least 2X/week anyway)

Christakim

If it's got red sauce in it, her shirts comin' off AND she's wearing a bib unless it's bath night:)

cjsbdl

mrsolsenk12:

The only time I strip him down is when we eat spagetti or anything with red sauce in it. Other than that, he stays dressed. I put a large bib on him (the kind that slips over his head) and I pull his sleeves up.

Same. We use the big-mouth bibs from Walmart. Maybe Henry's just not a messy eater, but he rarely gets anything on himself (and he's now in a booster without a tray, rather than a highchair). 

JillRock96

I never strip the girls.  We use plastic bibs for mealtimes.  Even with the messiest meals, I've never had an issue with stains not coming out of their clothes.  I guess because I do so much laundry anyway (probably a load of their clothes every other day) the stains don't sit around very long to set.  I also use Tide Free on all of their clothes -- maybe that makes a difference?  I wash their clothe after every wear anyway (except jeans or clothes they wore for a very brief time), so unless we are going out somewhere, I don't care if they get dirty.  Ava doesn't even use a bib anymore, and her clothes aren't stained. 

desabean

Wow, your husband must let you keep the heat up higher than mine ; )   or it is a LOT warmer in Alabama than I think it is.

I let her wear clothes...BUT, I don't let her eat messy foods.  She only gets yogurt that she can drink out of a straw (no spoon fed foods that's asking for it!).  She eats a lot of cut up meat and veggies that aren't really messy.  Certainly her clothes get messy from time to time (her arms are the worse, we don't use a bib anymore as we don't do/Garrison won't eat the spoon fed foods  anymore) but I just deal with it.  On occassion I might change her into something else to eat if it is important to me that her other outfit stay clean for something after her meal.

dana316

Wow...I guess I'm in the minority, lol.

She hates bibs, and pulls them off every chance she gets...so that makes it difficult. 

Lots of mornings, she gets toast with peanut butter or all fruit spread, and that makes a hell of a mess...and yogurt...good grief, that's a mess too. 

For supper tonight, she had vegetable soup...and needless to say, that was an incredible mess.  She's still not all that good with a fork or spoon, but she's learning.  I think we are going to stick with our strip down routine for now

ETA:  It is pretty warm in my house...I keep it at 72 or 73 in the winter.  We never wear socks (Caroline does, when she will leave them on), and today I'm in short sleeves and thin yoga pants...so it is never cold enough in my house for her to be bothered by being in a diaper for the 30 minutes it takes her to eat.

 

 

GypsyEsq

Generally DD is dressed. I say generally because DH sometimes takes off her shirt when she's eating something known to be messy. But she mostly feeds herself and we're working on her utensil skills so I figure that she may as well work on staying neat while she eats too.

qtpa2t

I am not a stripper.  (lol)  I've seen your pics of Caro in her diaper for her meals.  G keeps her clothes on.  She makes a mess of some things, but she's pretty good overall.  We put a bib on her for some of the messier meals.

SS091506

We do not take off DD's clothes before we put her in her high chair.  She eats fully clothed but she wears a bib.

Million$$Baby

Nope, I never undress them for meals. In fact, I usually don't even bother with bibs unless they're feeding themselves yogurt. If they get a ton on their shirts or pants I'll change them, otherwise I just wipe them off and they wear the stains for the rest for the day if we're just staying in. Dressing/undressing two kids 3x a day would drive me insane!

ardilla

I've changed them out of dress clothes into something I didn't really care about if it got messy.  Otherwise, the bibs take the brunt of it, and the clothes just get a bit!

AvaLikeLava

Nope. Clothes stay on. On spaghetti days we put one of the Bumkins poncho bibs on him. It covers his shoulders and goes on like a smock. Otherwise we use the standard bumkins bibs. They're AWESOME, and that pocket has been a great way to catch toddler drippings

Although I will say that I hesitated to give G a spoon to feed himself for a VERY, VERY long time. But even when I def him, he was still clothed.

muppet.fan

Mrs.Reem:

I don't strip my kids but we do have long sleeved bibs.  It's waaay too cold here to strip.  lol

Ditto this. We have some great bibs/smocks from Ikea that have long sleeves. Elizabeth still makes a mess with things like yogurt and applesauce, so we still use them. But they're also great for finger painting and other crafts.

Ali212

JillRock96:

I never strip the girls.  We use plastic bibs for mealtimes.  Even with the messiest meals, I've never had an issue with stains not coming out of their clothes.  I guess because I do so much laundry anyway (probably a load of their clothes every other day) the stains don't sit around very long to set.  I also use Tide Free on all of their clothes -- maybe that makes a difference?  I wash their clothe after every wear anyway (except jeans or clothes they wore for a very brief time), so unless we are going out somewhere, I don't care if they get dirty.  Ava doesn't even use a bib anymore, and her clothes aren't stained. 

This exactly. It's never crossed my mind to strip her for meals; we also have a lot of meals out and with friends over so it doesn't really make sense for her to think she needs to be naked to eat.

PsychedForBaby

We've never had to take Megan's clothes off.  We're lucky if she eats anything, we certainly don't need to worry about her making a mess of it.  She'd probably freeze to death if we undressed her and had to wait for her to eat a decent meal. 

She dropped a little bit of taco meat on her sleeve the other day, but we could just as easily drop taco meat onto ourselves.  KWIM?  She eats breakfast in her jammies and then they go in the hamper.  Breakfast is probably her messiest meal with eating cereals with milk in it.    

Besides, she doesn't like to be dirty.  If she's eating with a spoon and gets something on her fingers she looks at it and holds her finger out for us to wipe it off. 

I always think it's funny when I see all these naked babies at the table!