Messy play is great for children to explore new food and textures. This can give them confidence to try new things.

Here are some ideas to make it a little easier and get you started…

Things to know:

Messy play helps to:

• Develop all your baby’s senses: smell, taste, sight, hearing and touch.
• Support speech and language development, through the use of describing words, e.g. soft, rough, cold, warm, squidgy, etc.
• Develop a child’s mark-making (early writing), fine and gross motor skills, hand-to-eye coordination, and feeding themselves.

Safety note: Messy play activities must be supervised by an adult.

Things to try:

Food products:

• Cornflour
• Custard
• Pasta
• Baked beans
• Spaghetti hoops
• Porridge oats
• Mashed potato

Consider using other non-food objects with these foods, e.g. cars, toy bugs, paint brushes, animals etc.

For more information on helping your child to communicate, visit How can I help my child communicate with me? – BBC Tiny Happy People.

For more information on the importance of play for babies, visit Why is it important to play with newborns? – BBC Tiny Happy People.

For more information on how toddlers learn through play, visit How toddlers learn through play – BBC Tiny Happy People.