, has figured out the solution this question: if it's on the floor it's edible!Siiri likes going treasure hunting for food. When she gets tired of her toys she sometimes crawls to her feeding chair. The floor there is often covered with food crumbs. Siiri is quite a neat eater but still the floor often has something to discover. That's because Siiri makes sure to maintain her secret food stash. Almost like a squirrel hiding nuts in the soil, Siiri casually throws bits and pieces of her food on the floor. Just a couple of days ago she spent minutes eating half a slice of bread and then she asked for the other half. I looked away for a moment and suddenly the bread was gone! "Siiri, what happened to the bread I gave you?". She gave me an innocent look
, as if she had never even seen that bread. I went closer and stepped on something - then I saw that she had carefully ripped the bread into inch-by-inch pieces and tossed them all around her feeding chair. I laughed, collected all the pieces and asked her with a smirk if she knew why there's bread on the floor. She stretched out to see the floor and started to giggle.She has obviously already learned that you reap what you sow because she often finds a moment during her eating time to sow some of her food for future need. I check that part of the floor at least twice a day. I'm usually not that fond of cleaning floors but I need to make sure she doesn't eat any spoiled food. A day old bread is dry and crunchy but otherwise perfectly okay. Even a week old cereal puff is still a cereal puff. However, if she finds anything moist with meat in it that's been kept at room temperature for more than 24 hours she is likely to get food poisoning.
She finds food elsewhere as well. I keep raisins, nuts and dried fruit in a drawer that Siiri can reach. She likes to take out the packages and shake them. I make sure they're all properly sealed and if she does manage to get her hands on any raisins, I simply confiscate them. My babysitter (the one I found on the Internet) is less skilled it seems. I came home and found some nuts and raisins on the floor. She didn't comment any of it but one bag was ripped open seemingly in an attempt to confiscate it. I didn't think much of it. I collected everything in sight and forgot about it. Until later that day. I was cooking and Siiri was free roaming on the floor. I noticed she was quite concentrated and she was eating something. I jumped to her and asked her, "Siiri, what are you eating? Please open your mouth." I pried open her mouth and retrieved one complete hazelnut and another one chewed in pieces and half gone. The American Academy of Pediatrics suggests avoiding peanuts and tree nuts until the child turns 3. Hazelnut is the food that Erkki is most allergic to which means Siiri is in the risk group for also developing an allergy to hazelnuts. I was planning to wait for a LONG-LONG time before I offer any hazelnuts to Siiri but apparently she had other plans.
Obviously, not everything on the floor is what I'd call food. She likes to try anything she gets her hands on, even if it's a lamb wool tuft or a piece of paper tissue. When she finds anything odd she picks it up, shows it to me from across the room and quickly flips it in her mouth. Then she turns around and crawls away as fast as she can while I go after her. I thought she's only eating such things to get me to chase after her so I taught her, "no, don't eat it" and I pointed at the trash she had found and I shook my head. She knows head-shaking means "no". She looked at me, looked at the piece of trash in her hand and shook her head, then gave me another glance, flipped the trash in her mouth and turned around to crawl away as fast as possible.
I only wish she was that adventurous about food when she sits in the feeding chair. In my opinion her menu seems a bit too bland. She likes cereal puffs (Estonian product called "Kamapallid") but she doesn't want them them with milk or yogurt so she eats them plain and dry. She often likes yogurt as well but only plain yogurt. She is suspicious about any new foods that I offer her.
Perhaps I should just leave any new foods on the floor for her to discover on her own. Perhaps I would if it wouldn't be so similar to how people feed their dogs! Although I myself would never try eating random bits from the floor I've heard such behavior is great for the immune system. Bon appetit!
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