Going Bananas Over Bananas

Our Early Childhood and Family Education (ECFE) classroom has everything a 14-month-old could want to play with - a cushioned pool full of plastic balls, a toddler-sized trampoline, play structures with ladders, slides and doors, books, puppets, and toys that spin, jingle and whistle and a play kitchen with miniature pots and pans and plastic food. When the parent discussion time starts, we sit cross-legged in a big circle on the floor and let the kids play with toys in the middle. I can't keep Oliver in the circle though, because he just wants to explore the room.

Last night I was happy to see him occupied with the play kitchen. For one, I hope he takes after me and likes to bake and cook. Second, at this age, they start to engage in "pretend" play, but I hadn't yet seen Oliver mimic real-life activities while playing. But then he saw the banana.

Oliver LOVES bananas. He salivates over bananas like anyone with a sweet tooth salivates over chocolate. Not only are bananas healthy, so I'm not worried about Oliver's obsession with them, but for a baby with only two teeth, they're incredibly easy to eat. They don't need to be washed, sliced or softened either - just peel and serve, so they're an easy snack and quick to eat. I haven't timed Oliver eating a banana, but I bet he can eat a large one in three minutes - and not leave a mess behind. But because there can be too much of a good thing, (bananas can cause constipation in babies, for one) we limit Oliver' banana consumption. We offer him one after he's eaten the rest of his breakfast or as a snack, but otherwise, keep them out of sight. If we offer him a banana before he finishes chewing, he'll fish out whatever is in his mouth so he's ready for that banana.

Oliver crawled over to me clutching the banana and deposited it at my feet. Uh oh. I've seen that look before. He's in the stage now where he sort of flings things at me - a book, his sippy cup, his Snack Trap stocked with Cheerios or Goldfish - and wants me to help him with it. In this case, he wanted me to peel the banana, because he wanted to eat it. Pronto! He actually thought the banana was real!

We were in the middle of a discussion, coincidentally, on guiding behavior, so I tried the first line of defense with babies - distraction. I jokingly pretended to peel the banana and take an exaggerated bite out of it, then offered it to Oliver to pretend eating it. I acted as if it were a big game. Well, that just made him more frustrated that I hadn't actually done what he wanted.

He threw it back at my lap, but one of Oliver's classmates grabbed the banana as he crawled by him, which sent Oliver into hysterics. A tantrum was about to ensue over a plastic banana.

While the other baby's parents tried engaging their son in another toy, the teaching assistant thought she was helping to calm Oliver by bringing him a different plastic banana to play with. He just became even more frustrated that he wasn't getting to eat his banana. When the other baby discarded his banana in favor of another toy, I grabbed both bananas and shoved them in the back of the drawer that held the plastic fruit. Oliver was a crying heap of a baby at this point, so I picked him up, fished his pacifier out of his diaper bag and desperately tried to comfort him after the massive disappointment he'd just endured.

While the parents in our class actually thought the incident was funny and Oliver's hysterical crying adorable, for all our sakes, I'm going to make sure those plastic bananas stay hidden from view. As for last night, Oliver recovered relatively quickly once that banana was out of sight, and, presumably, out of mind. When we got home and I went to prepare him his bedtime snack, I knew exactly what would satisfy him - a banana he could actually eat. Oliver was a happy boy.