Playing with food

[keeks]

Call me old fashioned, but I am really struggling with the wide spread idea of letting children play with food. I grew up with the idea that food is "sacred" (not in a religious sense as we are all heathens) and not to be wasted.

At my grandparents we were often allowed to explore the food in the sense we could go to the plot to pick potatoes, carrots etc and then clean and cook them in different experimental ways, but we ate what we prepared.

Also, I find it confusing for the children that sometimes you're not supposed to play with your food and other times it's fine.

What are your views on this?

xx

[nokidshere]

Food is sensual and pleasurable. It is good for all the senses and eating is supposed to be a joy!

We play games with food - we have blindfolded taste, touch and smell tests, we use it to make pictures, we cook and prepare it, we eat it, we make jelly sculptures, we grow it, we take photos of it..... the possibilities are endless.

I can understand were you are coming from in terms of wastage, i grew up in a similar environment. But you can get very cheap stuff to play with these days - a pack of value cornflour for instance is only a few pence, as are value pasta shapes or lentils etc.

The educational value and the pleasure they get outweighs the minor cost of using stuff that has no edible end product.

Go for it - let yourself enjoy it as much as they do.

[Penny1959]

I also use food to explore - with the very little ones it is an excellent safe way for early mark making and they will stay engaged with an activity such as 'Jelly Play' for long periods of time (my 12m olds and 9m old played for over 20 mins with jelly on their highchair tray).

As mentioned before the benefits of use cheap foods such as pasta, rice, cornflour are endless.

In my opinion my using these foods to play with are not wasteful and do not have any impact on those unable to afford food or those that do not have access to food anymore than me choosing to buy a starter, a main and a pudding when eating out does. I think supporting the children to do things like give to charites, using charity shops and donating food to things like harvest festivals, sharing surplus food from our garden is far more effective in teaching them about helping others.

There is no confusion in my setting - little ones are allowed to touch, squash, look at, and generally play with their food at meal times - it is not until they stop using their mouth to explore things in play and are able to use either spoon and fork or knife and fork effectively - that I start to discourage playing with food at mealtimes - this age coincides with the age that they are able to understand why we use our knives and forks for some meals, spoons for others and fingers on other occasions.

However these are my views and I know others have different views - so not suggesting that I am right in my view - just putting my view into the 'discussion pot'

Penny :)

[keeks]

Thank you guys, good points! I do use food for sensory play and we did it daily in my nursery. It is just every time we do, I picture a child from Biafra and feel guilty.

It is not the cost at all, I can certainly afford it, it is more that it is against something that was so drummed into me as a child that it is part of who I am. Also I agree with the values that this idea is based upon - which was really solidarity although the children of Biafra wouldn't have been suffering any less if I had played with cold pasta in a tray. I do now have standing orders to water aid and save the children, and I do know that makes more of a difference (although not enough).

And for playing with food at meal times my babies eat with their hands and cover most of themselves and those around them. I just don't consider that playing but learning to explore and enjoy food.

Hearing your points is like therapy I suppose, so thanks again. :D

xx

[Pauline]

I know exactly what you mean Keeks and feel the same.

A little while ago our play centre used 4 boxes of weetabix to fill a large play tray. I found it really difficult to use it not only for the food waste side, but also thinking that if a child was later given weetabix to eat and they put a car in it and started playing, they would be told off! :rolleyes: Mixed messages in my opinion.

[curlycathy]

I agree with you keeks. For instance my dd only ever encountered spaghetti at the childrens centre in a tray to play with until she was about 2 - so guess what happened when we went out for a meal with father in law and she had spaghetti:blush: I was mortified trying to explain to dh and his dad why she thought she could play with it!

My other concern was at the childrens centre they would have jelly to play with, or glitter in mashed potato, or scent in the playdoh etc and they would sometimes try to eat it as well.

So whilst I agree with the points that it does give children a chance to use all their senses in play I have to say that I did tend to avoid using food to "play" with like that - except for gloop! Instead we would make cakes, or explore how the grated cheese melted when it went on the pasta etc x

[Pipsqueak]

i agree with Keeks, i was taught that food was for eating and you can get pleasure through all your senses by eating it. I was never allowed to 'play' with food.

We do food play - cold pasta, gloop, mash tatie etc but tbh its rare.
We can explore food in plenty of other ways such as making it, cooking it, picking it, growing it, eating it - as it is meant to be.


Funnily enough there are whole generations of adults out there who managed to grow up with their 'senses' intact and they were not allowed to play with food. those during the war when food was less available, less glamerous/exotic managed to appreciate all 5 senses - funnily enough my mother (now in her late 70's) has a wonderful sense of smell and taste, she is a very tactile person and has a whole host of vocab to describe things, her sight is fine but due to old age her hearing is not what it was. So through powered egg she managed to awaken her senses!


We eat finger foods in our house - ribs, sandwiches, raw veggies etc . We use a knife and fork and eat that way to but we don't play with the food. We make food fun especially for littlies.

[jane5]

I have mixed feelings on this subject.

I encourage my babies to play and explore their food at mealtimes and as they get older and can understand table manners then it is discouraged and the older ones are told that only babies play with their food at meal times.

When we bake and cook the children get to 'play' and feel the food ect... and there are so many sensory things to play with like play doh that we dont need to open a tin of beans or packet of weetabix to play with. I do use dried pasta for threading and making pictures though and I use gloup so we use food but not just for the sake of it iykwim.

When my grown up dd was about 4 she got corn flakes and eggs (while I nipped to the loo) and mashed them into my carpet. I was not impressed :angry:

[singingcactus]

We use food to play with. Never experienced an older child playing with food at a meal time though - unless they ordinarily do it. Playtime and meal times are entirely different scenarios so no mixed messages will be sent.
I also totally hate the 'we don't play with food because a child in africa is starving!' argument. Because the same people who say that also fill up paddling pools in the summer, fill up water tables, wash their cars every sunday often with a hose pipe, water their garden with a hose pipe, have long hot showers every single day, etc, well guess what? That same starving child in Africa is also dying of thirst. No-one seems to have the same problem using water as a learning experience though.
Please note: it is the argument I hate not the person using the argument.

[Dragonfly]

Keek I feel the same as you, and I dont use food for playing with apart from cornflour for gloop.There is lots of other things you can use instead of food.

[snufflepuff]

Any time I get out food to play with the children just eat it! So I have to be careful that what we are 'playing' with is actually fully edible. I don't do it often anymore, no good having them fill up on jelly or dry rice crispies then not eating their lunch!

[keeks]

I find it so interesting to read peoples different views on this. I can see what singingcactus means by comparing with water waste! So many people don't have access to clean water and I am personally very very careful with wasting it. I always turn the tap off when brushing my teeth, in the shower whilst washing my hair etc, and do lots of washing up by hand even though my flat has a dishwasher. But I don't feel bad about letting children use water for play - funny, isn't it!

xx

[Dragonfly]

Yes I can also see where singingcatus is coming from.I dont use a paddling pool either!! but do use a water table:blush:

[The Juggler]

Keek I feel the same as you, and I dont use food for playing with apart from cornflour for gloop.There is lots of other things you can use instead of food.

I agree. Cornflour is the only food I use for playing with. Otherwise we grow it and cook it.

[Twinkles]

Would just like to add.

Take a minute to think how 'cheap' food is produced.

It can only be produced by underpaying workers and allowing very poor working conditions.

I cannot be comfortable with allowing playing with food when we have so many other resources and ways of allowing children to explore their senses.

[manjay]

Would just like to add.

Take a minute to think how 'cheap' food is produced.

It can only be produced by underpaying workers and allowing very poor working conditions.



I often think that could be said about some of the other resources we buy! I am guilty of hunting out the cheapeast possible resources and if I am honest I don't often check where they have been made or if they were made ethically:blush:

I am with singingcactus and we use food often in our play. I also have never had any problems with playing with food at meal times but actually thinking about it I wouldn't have a problem if they did. As far as I am concerned it is all part of development.

[Twinkles]

I buy fair trade food wherever there is a choice.

http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/


I use scrap stores for a lot of resources and the good old jumble sale. Oxfam have some great multi cultural things too and the proceeds are helping others.

My friends and I 'recyle' clothes among ourselves, but, hands up, I have bought cheap clothes in the past.:blush:

[manjay]

I buy fair trade food wherever there is a choice.

http://www.fairtrade.org.uk/


I use scrap stores for a lot of resources and the good old jumble sale. Oxfam have some great multi cultural things too and the proceeds are helping others.

My friends and I 'recyle' clothes among ourselves, but, hands up, I have bought cheap clothes in the past.:blush:

It's really difficult isn't it? I am a bit of an eco warrior on the quiet but there are some things I buy on impulse or because I am in a rush that I wouldn't normally buy:rolleyes: