Here’s another mom hack coming to you to help with one of the messiest parts of your day: mealtime. Mealtime with kids can be extremely stressful, whether it’s getting picky eaters to sit still and eat anything, or getting impatient eaters to calm down and wait for their food. They make a mess and you’re left to clean it all up, just to do it again in 3-4 hours.

My son is one of the impatient ones. If he realizes he’s hungry and doesn’t have food going into his mouth as quickly as he can inhale it, he gets mad. Which only elevates your stress level as you’re trying to make sure whatever you’re giving him isn’t too hot or too cold or too runny or too whatever so he’ll eat it! What’s a mother to do??

Here are my best hacks on making mealtime not so stressful and keep your little ones happy. Trust me, some of these tips are lifesavers and you’ll be glad you tried them!

1. Prep Their Meals

This is one of the easiest ways you can take the stress out of mealtime. Preparing meals for your children ahead of time makes it so much easier to just grab and go when they’re screaming because they’re hungry. The less time it takes you to get it ready, the better. Here are some easy ways to get their meals ready ahead of time.

• Buy simple things like fruits and veggies and wash and cut them ahead of time into portions your child can eat. Store them in small containers so they’re ready to go when you need to build a quick meal.
• Precook protein and cut it up so that it’s ready to go. I do this a lot with chicken or small burger sliders so that you can just warm it up and they can chow down. Besides, protein is often something kids are lacking and this will ensure that they at least get the right amount of protein they need.
• Cook pasta, rice and quinoa ahead of time and store it in the fridge. This is an extremely easy way to prep their food ahead of time and it stores really well for at least a few days. If you cook the pasta plain and put olive oil or something similar on it to prevent it from sticking together, you can use it with a variety of sauces and be good to go for multiple meals.
• Cook breakfast ahead of time. This is probably one of the best things I’ve done recently to help with getting breakfast on the table fast. My son loves oatmeal and banana pancakes, both of which you can make ahead of time. Things like pancakes and waffles are extremely easy to make ahead and freeze until you need them. I like making my Baby Banana Pancakes and freezing them. Then when you’re ready to eat them, all you have to do is pop them in the microwave for a minute and they’re ready to go. You can follow my recipe for overnight oats in Easy, Healthy, Make-Ahead Breakfast.
• When your child is eating most table food, you can easily make up small meals for them with your leftovers. My son doesn’t always eat the same thing we do for dinner, because he usually can’t stand to wait until it’s ready, but very often, I will cut it up into bite-sized pieces for him and store a smaller amount in a separate container so that when I’m looking for something to give him for lunch the next day, it’s already ready to go.

2. Use Your Kitchen Tools Wisely

There are so many kitchen gadgets out now that are supposed to make your life with small children easier. While some of them are amazing and totally worth your time and money, there are much simpler, much cheaper gadgets you can use that you probably already have.

• Pizza Cutter – My wonderful mother was actually the first one to show me this trick and it’s so simple, but it works so well. Whenever we make toast or pancakes for my son, we use a pizza cutter to cut it into small pieces he can pick up with his fingers. it’s amazing how much time it saves when you have a hungry kid screaming at you and you don’t have to take a butter knife and cut each individual bite. Plus, it washes off quickly and you can use it again right away if you need to. I’ve never gone back to cutting up toast or pancakes with a knife.
• Blender – Now depending on how old your child/children are, you can use your blender or food processor to make pretty much anything into baby food. My son is 14 months, but we still give him some baby food, especially fruits and veggies, because he was a late bloomer in getting his teeth so he still doesn’t have a full set of chompers to mash up all his table food. You can take leftovers and essentially turn them into mush for them to eat in no time. This also works well when you’re first introducing table food to your baby. You can expose them to more foods they normally couldn’t eat because they can’t chew it, but in a safe way they will be able to eat. If you don’t need to puree their food, you can also use a food processor to just break it up into smaller pieces in no time. You can make pureed food ahead of time and freeze it, but I would stick to the fruits and vegetables for that.
• Chopper – If you have any kind of chopper or slicer that cuts an entire fruit or vegetable at once, it can be a lifesaver when it comes to mealtime and getting food on the table fast. Sometimes I’ll use ours to chop a hardboiled egg quickly to go with his toast, or fruit like strawberries or grapes because slicing every single one of those little buggers can take forever!

3. Anticipate Mealtime and Be Ready

One of the easiest ways to be prepared for mealtime is to get your kids on a schedule so you can anticipate when they will be hungry. Now this may be easier said than done for some kids, but if you are consistent, it can be achieved. My son is on a fairly regular schedule of eating every 3-4 hours. We always make a mental note of what time it is when he’s eating so that we know when he’ll likely be hungry again. That way, if we want to go anywhere or make plans to do anything, we can have everything we need with us, or know when we need to make a pit-stop.

Another way to anticipate mealtime is to watch your child and learn their hunger cues. Some children indicate this better than others, but often children will have certain habits they repeat every time they’re hungry, almost like a secret language telling you that you better get ready. For example, my son makes a certain sound when he’s getting hungry. It’s almost like a pouty or whiny noise that sounds like “i-e-i-e-i.” It may sound silly but it is helpful for me to know that it’s his way of telling me he’s hungry, especially because he doesn’t talk much yet.

It’s also important to feed your children regularly. That may sound obvious or even funny to mention, but if you always wait until your child tells you they’re hungry, it can be very difficult to plan ahead and determine when they will be hungry. As bossy and impatient as my son can get when he wants food, he can get distracted by playing or napping and not tell me he’s hungry. But if he doesn’t at least have a snack, then later on, he’s starving and it can be very difficult to have a calm eating experience at that point.

If you do get into a situation where your child is starving, I have found it useful to give them something to snack on until you can get the rest of their food ready. Organic puffs and fruit and vegetable pouches work great for this. The fruit and vegetable pouches work especially well if you have kids like my son who tends to inhale his food. It helps him to feel a little fuller and not choke when he eats the rest of his food.

4. Sit Down As A Family and Focus

One of the most important things you can do during mealtime to establish good eating habits is to eat together with your kids. Eating with them demonstrates the eating behavior you want them to copy and encourages them to eat while you eat. This can improve their behavior when you’re out to eat, at picnics or family functions and just every night at the dinner table. It also encourages healthier eating habits, by showing children that you should prepare a healthy meal, sit down and take time to eat together, rather than always eating on the go.

Another part of this is to focus as a family. Yes mom and dad, that means you have to focus, too. Put down your electronics, remove the distractions and focus on the time you’re sharing together. For children, this means removing toys, books, and other distractions as well. Many people don’t realize that when you give your children distractions while they are eating, you train them to think that it is a part of mealtime. Or in other words, if they are used to toys and distractions and you go to a restaurant and forget their beloved toy, you’re in for a royal fit in the middle of the restaurant. It can be challenging, but kids are better off when they focus too.

As a side note, food can also be a distraction, especially with babies. My son loves his fruit and vegetable pouches and puffs so much that if he even sees them across the room when he’s eating, he’s going to fight you on eating his meal because he wants the snacks. You’ll save yourself some headaches keep all other foods out of sight and give them the foods they love last, almost like they’re dessert. Otherwise, if they’re anything like my son, once he has fruit during a meal, he will only want to eat fruit and not the rest of his food.

5. Keep Clean Up As Easy As Possible

Now I know this one sounds completely ridiculous, but I’m sure every mom can relate in that you almost dread mealtime just because of the clean up. Well, there are a few things you can do to make your life much easier.

• The Right Bib – Bibs come in all shapes and sizes with different textures and materials. Many of them have their pros and cons, but one of my favorite brands is Neat Solutions. They make an easy wipe bib that rinses off with water and is long enough to catch whatever food my little guy doesn’t seem to get in his mouth when he wants to feed himself. It makes all the difference in keeping his clothes and his highchair seat clean.
• Neat Solutions also makes these awesome table toppers that basically cover a table top at restaurants or even to use at home and your baby can make a mess with their finger foods and all you have to do when you’re done is peel the table topper off and rinse it off. Or get the disposable ones and just throw it away. i especially like these toppers because you never know how clean restaurant tables really are and kids are almost always going to eat off the table. Using table toppers provides a safer way to eat out.

There you have it. My best Mom Hacks so far to make mealtime easier for you and your family. If you have any ideas on how to make tips or tricks, let me know! I’m always looking for new Mom Hacks to make the mom life easier.

Disclaimer…This post contains affiliate links, which means that I may be compensated if you make a purchase through one of these links. But don’t worry, I never recommend products or services that I don’t use myself.