One of the many challenges parents face as their child moves from being a newborn to a toddler is the weaning stage and the change from liquids to solids. This is another milestone in your baby’s development and comes with many questions like what foods are right for them and when are they able to cope with solids being just an example.

This can seem like a stressful time and research conducted by WaterWipes^® showed that over a third (34%) of parents feel stressed or anxious.

However, we all know as adults that taking the stress out of most situations is made so much easier when we are having fun, so to guide mums and dads through the weaning phase, WaterWipes^® has teamed up with child psychologist and food acceptance expert, Dr Gillian Harris, to show how sensory food play in the first year of life can help babies gain confidence in trying new foods and benefit children later in life.

Messy food play has a huge role in reducing food fussiness, both in infancy and later in childhood.

“Babies are highly sensitive to stimuli around them, they react to taste, smell, touch and sound. Surprisingly, sensitivity to touch has the biggest impact on the acceptance of new foods. Just like some children do not like the sensation of sand or having their hair washed, foods with new slimy or stringy textures can feel very uncomfortable at first, and result in a baby refusing contact. However, a reaction becomes less extreme the more it is experienced. This is known as desensitizing, and where sensory food play can help.”

Did you know, almost half of parents (40%) have never engaged their baby with food play at home?

It appears the fear of mess and soft furnishings are the main barriers to parents encouraging food play, with parents preferring to move it to an alternative venue such as a playgroup (36%) or someone else’s house (16%).

However Sensory Food Play doesn’t need to be messy, it can be simple and controlled whilst also being a fun way to interact and bond. To inspire new ways for parents to introduce Sensory Food Play to their little ones, WaterWipes^® has enlisted the help of food play expert Sarah Schenker who has devised a few simple food play games to try out at home.

Sensory Food Games

Hidden Treasures

Hide small pieces of chopped fruit and vegetables (such as blueberries, chopped melon, soft prunes and cucumber sticks) in a wide tray of rice krispies. Encourage your baby to find them with their hands.

Rainbow Painting

Print out an image of a rainbow (or a picture of anything else you like – it just needs to be multi-coloured). Then place different coloured foods in front of your baby, such as grapes, berries and tinned sweetcorn, and if you have the time, also chop a few colourful vegetables such as carrots or beetroot. Ask your baby to match and then place each food colour on the colour of the rainbow.

Texture Crush

Lay out foods with different textures, such as breadsticks, plain crackers, rice cakes, cooked porridge, hummus, soft banana and avocado. Then help your baby snap or crush with their hands.

Shape and Colour Matching

Dip differently shaped fruit and vegetables into edible paint and make prints on a sheet of white paper. To create different shapes, use star-fruits, orange segments, halved apples, halved pears and kiwis.

Edible Spaghetti Play

To dye spaghetti cook up a batch as usual and split it into 4 before colouring it with different amounts of food colouring. After mixing in the colour let the spaghetti sit for a few minutes and rinse off excess water. It is such a fun texture to explore!

"Weaning can be a confusing time and every baby is individual, reacting to new foods and sensations in different ways. There is no one way of going about it, but Sensory Food Play can be great fun without necessarily being messy. Babies benefit from being able to touch, lick and squash their foods, all taught by their best teachers – their parents. It’s also perfect for bonding whilst they discover the exciting sensations food has to offer. See what works for you and your baby, keep it simple, don’t worry too much about the mess and just give everything a good wipe at the end!" - says WaterWipes employee and mum of two, Emer Dunne

WaterWipes^® Textured Clean Wipes are an ideal option when cleaning up sticky hands and faces as they contain just three ingredients - 99.9% water and a drop of fruit and berry extract, and are gentle on sensitive skin.