Any tips for a baby who doesn't like messy play?

[buzzy bee]

He will quite happily feed himself yogurt, baked beans, dinner... anything basically... with his hands, but if I give him playdough or paint or anything messy to play with he turns his nose up, cries and tries to shake it off... any ideas?!

[HomefromHome]

perseverence!

i have a 2 yr old like this - been with me 6 months now and he's just started to paint his own hands for art work!

[flowerpots]

one of my mindees was like this, she started with me at 11 months, shes now 22months and shes just started taking part in craft (wouldnt before, was scared the glue would go on her hands), i just perservered and always offered the activity to her (sometimes amended it) and shes slowly but surley startuing to take part, were not up to the point of messy play yet but were getting there.

xxxx

[Polly2]

It can be hard when children are like this.

Have you tried painting under cling film? They can move the paint with their hands but its clean! Might be a way of easing them into messy play!

Or water with bubbles in?

[Helen79]

If he's happy picking up and getting messy with food maybe give him things like jelly/custard with bowls and spoons to play with.

Ice cubes made with paint that he could push around with his fingers on paper.

adding different textures into normal play may help him get used to different textures so things like filling a tray with things like cornflakes, pasta, dry porridge, saw dust and let him play with the cars and diggers in there to help him get used to different textures.

[Kes]

You can make observations through their playing with food so I would'nt worry too much about them not doing messy play or use beans as your messy play.
You could try sealing messy items into sandwich bags and letting them squish it to get used to the texture without getting messy.

[Gherkin]

What about rice play (raw rice). Good for pouring etc. will help manipulative skills and you can move it around on a tray to make it into shapes etc. Bonus is it is easy for the child to shake off hands.

[buzzy bee]

Wow, thanks everyone - these are some great ideas which I'd never have thought of!! Will give it a go and see how I get on

[flowerpots]

wow, those are fantastic ideas, i never thought of trying things like the sandwich bags and cling film, il try those with my mindee. Thank you

[The Juggler]

i had a child who hated doing messy play but it wasn't the messiness it was wearing the apron. in the end I found a big old t-shirt of my sons and bingo he was happy.

some good suggestions, give them all a go