My 2 year old son Oliver eats just about everything.  The other day, Janda and I had lunch at Aran here in Regensburg, and Oliver had fresh German whole grain bread spread half with tomato-garlic spread and the other half with a tuna-artichoke mix.  He’s eaten caviar, blood sausage, raw onion, boiled beef with horseradish, spicy mustard, Thai curry, Indian curry, veal sweetbreads, and just about anything else we’ve offered.

We have friends whose daughters will only eat spaghetti with Heinz ketchup.  They even have to pack the ketchup in their suitcase on trips to grandma’s house because she doesn’t have the right kind of ketchup.  My husband’s nephew only ate potatoes and cheese pizza until he was 14.

What makes a kid a picky eater, and what makes them adventurous?

The New York Times says it’s genetic, that kids inherit their pickiness from their parents.  I haven’t had time to read carefully through the study cited, but given that it’s a twin study with twins raised together in the same home, I’m not sure how they can determine what is cause by genetics and what is caused by environment (since the twins share both).

It’s possible I’m just really lucky and have a kid genetically predisposed to be adventurous, or it may be that the way we feed Oliver has something to do with it.  Actually, I think it’s likely a combination of the two.

Janda and I discussed this topic over lunch and came up with some ideas.

• Breastfeeding — A formula fed baby is going to be fed the same thing several times a day for the first several months of life.  It wouldn’t surprise me that the child would grow up to be wary of new flavors.  But, we adults aren’t all adventurous eaters.  Most people stick to their favorites and don’t experiment a lot with new flavors.  So breastfed babies may not even be exposed to that wide a variety of flavors, although it would still be more than formula fed babies.  Personally, I’m fairly adventurous, and made a conscious effort to eat a wide variety of flavors through pregnancy and the first year of breastfeeding, since I knew the flavors passed on to the baby, and a varied diet is a better source of vitamins and minerals than supplements (I still took supplements though).  I tried not to buy the same fruits and vegetables from one week to the next.  I picked up things I’d never had before and ordered dishes I’d never thought to try at restaurants.  I made some new favorites that way, and it was a great learning experience for me.
• Eating together — We got a Stokke Tripp Trapp high chair so Oliver could sit at the table with us for dinner.  We never fed him separately.  He was always together with us at the table enjoying our company (and we enjoying his).  Oliver hates not eating with us and protests very loudly if he’s put into a conventional high chair with a tray.
• Eating the same thing - I’m too lazy to even consider making separate meals for everyone.  Oliver had (organic) baby food from a jar unless he could eat whatever we were having for dinner.  (I did try making baby food once, but he wouldn’t touch it).  So soups came early, then pasta, vegetables, and finally meats.  We don’t force anything on him, we just stay relaxed, enjoy our food and let him choose what he wants to eat from what is on the table.  We’ve never had a problem with this method, he eats a lot.
• Food is a treat — Food, to us, is something special.  We stop our days and enjoy our meals together, eating high quality, tasty food. I learned this after working a short time in Italy.  Everyone stopped what they were doing when they ate.  You never saw people walking down the street with a sandwich or coffee.  There were no calories ingested without thought.  I do still sometimes eat on the go, but I try to make meals a special occasion as often as possible.  I think our child sees this enjoyment and emulates us.  If food is just sustenance, there isn’t any reason to be adventurous.  This is a personal thing.  Some people really enjoy food, some people are into other things.

I can’t promise that doing these things will make a child an adventurous eater.  Even foodies have picky kids. But perhaps these ideas can be food for thought. And here’s one more story:

Oliver never ate cheese.  I’d offer it to him on bread or alone and he’d always hand it back.  I figured he just didn’t like cheese.  But then last week, we went to France and came home with a cooler of the stinkiest, yummiest, French cheeses we could get our hands on.  Oliver was all over them.  He tried all of the cheeses and asked for seconds and even thirds.  If he doesn’t like German cheese, I don’t know what he’s going to think of American cheese!

There is something he won’t eat.  Jello.  If we eat jello, he looks at us like we’ve lost our minds.

Do you have picky or adventurous eaters?  How do you handle it?

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Mutsy Grow-Up!

People always told me I wouldn’t believe how quickly my child would grow, but things are getting ridiculous around here. My almost-two-year old has suddenly decided he’s a forty-five-year-old businessman. While his misconception can be entertaining, especially when he demands the car keys and shouts “Bye Mama!” while heading for the door with his dad’s briefcase, it can create tension at mealtimes. Because, obviously, grown-ups don’t eat their dinners off high chair trays. They like to be part of the flow of conversation. They want to pass the salt.

My son’s newfound maturity (along with Jackson Pollock-inspired food art projects I mentioned earlier) led me to search for a way to bring him up to the big kids’ table while keeping him contained, safe, and comfortable. It also wouldn’t hurt if the solution added to, instead of detracted from, our kitchen decor. I happened upon the idea of a booster seat, friend of small-kitchened families everywhere, and from there I found the Mutsy Grow-Up! booster.

The Grow-Up! (yes, that exclamataion mark is part of the official product name) is a step up from seats like the basic and ubiquitous plastic Fisher-Price Healthy Care Booster. It has a sturdy plastic base with nicely padded feet to prevent chair damage, topped by a thick, foam-like seat. (The seat feels like the same kind of material as a Bumbo Seat.) An adjustable system of straps attaches it to a normal-size dining chair and works as shoulder and/or waist belts to secure the child in the seat.

My son loves the Grow-Up! It raises him high enough to reach his food and see his tablemates, while keeping him comfortable and secure. The soft seat is textured and not slippery and the waist belt holds him firmly in place. It also lacks the awkward assembly of its bigger sibling the EasyGrow, as it relies mainly on a strap/belt system instead of the problematic slide-in safety bar. Like the EasyGrow, however, this seat is very good-looking, and is one of the few boosters on the market that appears like furniture, not like we’ve dragged something from the toybox into our kitchen. The mod color choices are an added bonus. The price tag ($49.66 on Amazon) is on the high end of the booster seat market, but having sampled some of its competitors, I would say the quality and design of the Grow-Up! make it worth the higher cost.

On the downside, the Grow-Up! is not as portable as many other boosters, so if you’re looking for something that folds into a little cube every time you’d like to take it to Grandma’s house, this probably isn’t the product for you (try the Sack-n-Seat!). The shoulder straps are a bit awkward — they hang off the back and never seem to quite find a stable place to rest once they’re buckled — so we don’t use them, since my child is old enough to do without them.

Keep in mind that this booster is not a high chair subsitute for small infants, as it lacks the back and head support they require,and it doesn’t have a tray attachment. But that’s part of its charm — it’s designed with toddlers in mind, so it’s targeted to their desire to sit at the big-kid table.

So it seems I’ve found a practical way to make my kid happy at dinner time. Now if I could only get him to turn off his Blackberry while he eats.

We’re giving away a Mutsy Grow-Up! to one lucky MamasWorldwide reader!
Enter to win by:
–Leaving a comment on this post
–Linking to this giveaway from your blog, and then comment here with a link to your link

Each reader can enter twice — once with a regular comment, and once with a link comment. Do so by midnight (12am) Pacific Time on Tuesday, January 13th. Be sure to include your e-mail address in the comment sign-in section so we can contact you if you win. We’ll choose one entrant at random. We can only pay to mail this within the USA, so please enter only if you have a USA mailing address.

In addition, don’t forget that Goore’s online store is offering an exclusive discount for Mamas Worldwide readers — receive 10% off the purchase of any Mutsy products by entering code MWMU10 at checkout.

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Mutsy EasyGrow

Somewhere between the ages of twenty months and two years, my son decided that shoving smushed-up green peas and sticky banana goo into the vinyl crevices of our high chair was his favorite form of personal expression. We used the Chicco Polly, which served us well for more than a year, but as soon as I began finding unidentifiable remnants of dinners past on a too-regular basis, I realized I was either going to have to become more diligent about using my fingernails to remove the gunge in the cracks of the chair after every meal or perhaps we should look for a different solution.

I was attracted to the Mutsy EasyGrow because of its apparent versatility and modern look. I also considered the Stokke Tripp Trapp and the Boon Flair. Mutsy is a European stroller manufacturer that has recently branched out to the high chair market. The Easy Grow is designed to grow with babies from infancy through school-age, with removable insterts and straps and an adjustable seat and foot bar.

My child was 22 months old when we pulled our Easy Grow up to the table. Assembly was fairly simple, especially if you’re used to following IKEA-type picture instructions. The chair comes with a foam-like insert and shoulder/waist straps for younger children and an interchangeable eating tray and safety bar. We experimented with all the different pieces since my son was just at the top edge of the size recommendations for the infant insert.

The Good:
The EasyGrow is just as cool and sleek as its photos suggest. It comes in an array of different colors, and while ours is one of the most neutral choices (grey), it still feels like an interesting addition to our kitchen. The lightweight but sturdy chair easily pulls up to our dining table without using a great deal of space in our compact eating area. That’s a big improvement from the high chair which seemed like it was always in the way. And, though there are definitely a few places where smushed-up peas can get caught, the plastic and metal pieces are easy to wipe off, especially compared to the many creases, nooks and crannies of the high chair. My son is comfortable in the EasyGrow; its seat and footrest are adjustable so even his long torso and short legs fit just fine, and I can see that we’ll be able to move the components so he’ll be able to use the chair for a long time to come (the marketing materials say up to 12 years old).

The Bad:
When I first strapped him in using the infant insert, straps and dining tray, I realized how awkward the setup was. The straps don’t work in an intuitive fashion and, in perhaps the most frustrating feature, inserting the dining tray or safety bar between the child’s legs and under the infant insert is a real pain. It’s also awkward to reverse the process and get the kid out of the chair. After we realized he was big enough to do without the foam insert and straps, things got less complicated, but the process of sliding the safety bar up the chair to get him in and out, not to mention fiddling with the mechanism that keeps bar in place while he’s eating, is still annoying. And while this is marketed as an all-ages high chair, I’m not sure I would have felt comfortable with the back support and safety features it provides for a wobbly infant.

Overall:
The Mutsy EasyGrow is a nice step up from a traditional high chair and an attractive addition to a modern kitchen. It’s a good choice for toddlers and older children who like to have their own chairs at the big people’s table. The price ($188-$195 on Amazon) is competitive with similarly-marketed chairs like the Boon Flair ($189) and the Stokke Tripp Trapp ($249). While its smoothness-of-use could use some improvements, its easy-to-clean surfaces, solid construction, and adjustable height mean it will be useful for several years.

Mutsy products are available through online and brick-and-mortar retailers all over the world — check your section of their website for specifics. In addition, Goore’s online store is offering an exclusive discount for Mamas Worldwide readers — receive 10% off the purchase of any Mutsy products by entering code MWMU10 at checkout.

Stay tuned for another Mutsy product review and giveaway later this week.

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After much research on my part, my husband and I settled on getting a Stokke Tripp Trapp high chair for Oliver.  It’s expensive, at 140 Euro for just the base chair, but we expect to get 1–2 decades of use out of it, making it more affordable than a high chair that would only be used for 1–2 years.  As your child grows, the seat level and foot rest level can be adjusted to grow with them.  Plus it’s really well designed and comes in a wide variety of colors.

The Tripp Trapp can be used for babies starting when they can sit up, although the baby set, which includes a higher plastic back and wooden seat rail with leather crotch strap, costs an additional 35 Euro, plus the recommended safety harness costs yet another 27 Euro, bringing the total baby ready cost up to a little over 200 Euro.  (Note: the baby set in the US is a plastic shell with leg openings which includes a built in harness.  A quick search looks like the base price is about $250 with the baby set costing around $40.)

Oliver loves his Tripp Trapp and I really like it to.  It was definitely money well spent.  He likes sitting right at the table with us (and we like this too).  The chair is easy to wipe off after meals, although I would leave out the seat cushion if I were to make the purchase again.  It did help a little when he first went in to the chair, to keep him from slipping around, but in order to wash the seat cover, you need to disassemble the chair.  This is way too much hassle, and the seat gets filthy rather quickly, so we put the cover away.  Maybe we’ll pull it out again in a few years when he’s a little neater at the table.

Also, the harness can do double duty.  When I’m off to the grocery store, I stuff it in my bag and use it to strap Oliver in to the shopping cart.  Carts in Germany often have no restraint, so it gives me a little peace of mind.  You should never leave your child unattended in a shopping cart, but this way I can read the ingredients label without worrying that he’s about to climb out of the cart and crash headfirst into the floor. I think I might even start a trend, I’ve had parents stop me to ask where I got the harness.

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When my son started eating finger foods on the go, I looked for something to make my life easier. The last thing I wanted was to be picking blueberries out of the stroller seat or from between the seats in the car.

On a casual trip to Babies R Us, I discovered The Snack Trap.  The Snack Trap is a bowl with handles and a plastic slotted top to prevent spills. The child can fit his or her hand inside, and the trap keeps the extra pieces from falling out. I also purchased a couple of covers to keep the crumbs out of my bag.

According to The Snack Trap’s website , it does not contain BPA, PVC, Pthalates, or Laytex.  The website also says that The Snack Trap is independantly tested by labs in several countries.

Now that my son is a bit older (21 months), we continue to use The Snack Trap for bite sized pieces of fruits and vegetables, crackers, and if he’s lucky, cookies. I find it works especially well with blueberries, sliced carrots, and Lucky Duckies crackers.

The Snack Trap is available for purchase internationally in Canada, Germany, Australia and England.

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My sister-in-law turned me on to DEX Dura-Bibs.  The pocket at the bottom, created by putting together plastic snaps, is wide enough to catch almost any dribble or spill.  The bibs are soft but thick enough to stand up to lots of wiping and washing, and the pocket easily unsnaps so the whole thing lies flat and can be rolled up and shoved in a diaper bag.  They last forever — we’ve used the same one almost every day for the past year.  I bought mine at Nurture Center ($7.50 each), but I’ve seen them at Target stores, and Wal-Mart carries an exclusive (and adorable) line of animal “big-mouth” designs.

Bumkins are plastic (PVC, BPA, Phthalate & Vinyl Free) bibs that we’ve used since my son first sat in a high chair.  Their smallest size is great for little ones who swim in larger bibs, and they offer a nice selection of larger sizes as well, including a toddler bib with sleeves.  I love these because the plastic is soft, not crinkly.  I can wad them up really small to fit in my purse, and they open up without a wrinkle when I’m ready to use them.  These are available at most specialty baby stores.  I’ve found the best prices ($6 for the medium-sized SuperBib) online at Lullaby Lane.

What are your favorites?

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When The Boy was around nine months old, I went back to work full-time outside of the home. Up until then, he had had very few bottles. My husband was not itching to give him one, and if The Boy was not starving, he would refuse it anyway. We started trying bottles when The Boy was rather young (4–6 weeks old), but he always preferred the breast. Needless to say, the impending start of daycare left me anxious.

I tried numerous bottles—many for the second, third or fourth try. He would not take any of them. Then we went to a sippy cup, which he would use when I was around, but the daycare told me that he would not drink from one while at daycare. Then, I discovered THE bottle of my dreams! The Adiri Natural Nurser.

The Natural Nurser is designed to mimic breastfeeding, and is BPA-free. There is a vent on the bottom to reduce gas and relieve colic as well. The age guidelines did not really hold true for my son, as he stayed on the level two bottle until he was almost one year old.

The Natural Nurser is easy to use and clean. A couple of things I learned though:

• When tipping the bottle upside down for filling, tap it on the counter a couple of times to ensure that the lid is on tightly. This prevents leaking from the nipple while filling.
• The vent on the bottom/lid and the surrounding area of the lid needs to be completely dry or the bottle will leak.
• Only warm this bottle by running water over it or warming the milk first and then pouring it in, as bottle warmers heat it REALLY quickly and the pressure builds up inside causing it to leak.

The Natural Nurser is available online, in stores and in some international locations. You can check to see if it is available near you here.

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At eighteen months, my son is just big enough to sit up to the table in a normal chair, but way too wiggly to stay there for long. We use his high chair at home, but I’m too busy trying to stash his extra stuffed giraffe and some clean underwear in our luggage to imagine fitting even a portable booster chair on the plane. I discovered the Sack-n-Seat before a recent trip to a family wedding in France, where I knew we would frequently eat sit-down meals at well-set tables. It’s a fantastic cloth harness that attaches to a full-sized chair, keeping the kid safe from sliding to the floor and preventing him from spending the meal running around the room stealing morsels off his fellow diners’ plates (or is it just my child who likes to impersonate Oliver Twist at events like this?). Best of all, the affordable Sack-n-Seat (I bought mine for less than 20 euros) wads up into a tiny, built-in drawstring bag that fits easily into a diaper bag or even Dad’s coat pocket. It’s available at retailers throughout Europe and Asia.

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