Hi Katy! Welcome to the BLW adventure
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I found the mess to be much less than I expected, but it does go in phases around here. After about a month she had great control and could eat with very little mess - but if she's especially tired, teething etc, she might still have a meal when she throws as much as she eats. Some foods are messier than others, and I think that's child dependent to a certain extent, so you'll soon figure out what are the safest bets to bring along/choose if you're going somewhere where you're really concerned about it. Pelican bibs are great for catching dropped food, and you can teach your LO to fish bits of food out of it again (which is incredibly cute). And hey, maybe your friends will be so impressed with his eating skills that they won't mind so much
12 months seems a little early to me to be dropping down to one feed per day, if you want to keep going for a while yet? We're still on four atm, I'm thinking by 12 months we'll be on 3, maybe moving to 2.
We introduced an open cup before a sippy cup, about 4 months, so that we could give F expressed milk - she never took a bottle. We used a sippy cup without the lid, so with handles. Now she generally has the lid on as it's easier for her to do on her own - but she can still drink out of an open cup with a bit of help, handy if we forget hers! I think it'd be a quite a while before she'd be able to manage it completely herself though.
Sorry to hear that LJ's still not well, snowbird. Don't forget to take care of yourself too
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