Raising healthy babies who LOVE to eat everything

Saturday, September 17th, 2011 2:48 pm | By Stephanie Woo

My favorite topic is eating. Trying to feed two babies at once is not an easy task, but if you create a safe, child-friendly eating environment, then foster their love for eating AND their love to feed themselves, then your job as mom will be much easier. You will need patience because in the beginning it will be a mess. It really will be. But once they get the hang of it, you will be amazed at what your children are capable of.

To date, my favorite baby purchase has been the weaning table and chairs. It is a child-sized table that is about 24” x 24” and two child-sized chairs. The dimensions on these are very important. I bought mine at Michael Olaf or you can have a carpenter make one for you (email me if you need exact dimensions).  It was about $150 for the table and $100 each for the chairs. These wooden tables and chairs are heavy and sturdy, so the babies cannot move them easily. This is important for safety reasons. If you have particularly rambunctious little ones, you can also screw in iron plates at the bottom of the table and chair to make it even heavier.

Weaning Table and Chair

The height of the armrest needs to be correct in order to support young sitters

Best time to start using the weaning table and chair is when your baby first starts solids, around 5-6 months. Use small pillow(s) to support them if they cannot sit up by themselves yet. Here is B and M at 7 months. Notice the small pillows that we put on either side of them to support them.

You also need child-sized spoons, small shallow bowls and very small glass cup. Don’t use plastic plates and utensils! As your children are absorbing information about the world, give them the best that our world has to offer – give them beautiful spoons (I bought demi-tasse spoons from William and Sonoma and Sur La Table), real bowls (we use small IKEA sidedish/dessert bowls, Corelle bowls are also good because they won’t break) and glass cups (shot-glasses are good, I bought mine at Sur La Table). Glass and silverware have a very distinct touch and weight whereas plastic is light and slick. Let your child experience the true pleasure of eating from a young age – and it starts with plates and utensils.

Also, many parents go from bottle to sippy cup to plastic cup to glass cup. Skip all the steps in between and go straight to glass cup.

Small shot glasses and water pitcher. All made of glass. A see-through pitcher would be even better so the child can see how much water is left in the pitcher.

Use bowls that are shallow so the child can see what’s inside their bowl. If the bowl is too high up, their vision will be blocked by the bowl

Here is Mackenzie sitting at her table, eating applesauce+yogurt and drinking water!

Reader Comments (7)

  1. Environment, then foster their love for eating AND their love to feed themselves, then your job as mom will be much easier. You will need patience because in the beginning it will be a mess. It really will be. But once they get the hang of it, you will be amazed at what your children are capable of

    Monday, April 9th, 2012 11:18 am | Stage Hypnotist
  2. Your post is wonderful. My girl is just 7 months old now too. I've been introducing glassware cup too since like 6 months, but I feed the water to her mouth actually, as I saw she uses her pincer grasp to grasp the mouth of the cup instead of holding the cup from the roundside of it. With the milk bottle she would do it okay with both her hands holding it. Can I get some insight from you that how I should assist her learn hold the cup with both of her hands like holding the bottle? Thank you so much!

    Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012 12:53 pm | qoosmicah
  3. Hi!
    I’m setting up our home with Montessori-inspired areas for our 11 month old. Would you be able to share with me the dimensions of your weaning table and chair. Also, do you have an idea of what age children will outgrow it?
    Thank you!
    Sasha

    Thursday, October 23rd, 2014 1:34 pm | sasha
    • Hi Sasha, If you take a look at my friend Jeanne-Marie’s website http://www.voilamontessori.com/en/resources/downloads/, you’ll see the dimensions of the weaning table and chair. I bought mine from Michael Olaf, which you can search for online. Believe it or not, my children still use that table today, and they are 2 months away from turning 4-years-old. They don’t eat there because they are too tall for it, but they still use it as a baking/prepping table almost everyday…

      Saturday, October 25th, 2014 4:55 pm | Stephanie Woo
  4. Hi Stephanie,

    I bumped into your post and watch some of the videos you posted of your twins. Let me start by saying I’m extremely impressed by how good they are at helping themselves at mealtime. My son is 18 months and I wish he would be willing to do some of the stuff that your twins did. Bravo!!

    I would like to ask for your opinion on some of the things you discussed in your post.
    1. I’m looking for a small set of table and chair for my son. I am choosing between the Michael Olaf First Chair or Slatted Chair. Do you think a toddle will outgrow the First Chair pretty quickly? Should I just skip the First Chair and go right for the Slatted Chair since my son’s already 18 months?
    2. For drinking glass, I do want to use glass. But am afraid that my son will throw stuff and break them. Does your kids do that at all? And for dishes, does Corelle really doesn’t break easily, would it withstand a little bit of throwing around by a toddler?

    Thanks!!
    Bunfuns

    Wednesday, February 11th, 2015 11:08 pm | Bunfuns
  5. Hello,

    I wish I’ve come across your blog much earleir. My twins are now 2.5 yr Olds and they are still very picky eaters. The only thing they consume consistently is milk.
    Do you perhaps have any recommendations on making them eat more variety?

    Much thanks!!

    Friday, September 9th, 2016 4:57 pm | Maureen
  6. Great post! I started my 2.5yr old on glassware about a month ago. It’s really made a difference in how careful he is. I now have a 5mth old and would like to get a weaning table/chair made. Could you please send me dimensions please? Greatly appreciated!!

    Wednesday, May 2nd, 2018 11:07 pm | Kara

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