How to Promote Self-Feeding in Your Baby

Posted by Mia Tucker on February 28th, 2020

Self-feeding is an extraordinary mark in the development of your body. When your child becomes older than 6 months, he/she starts exploring food items via his/her sense of touch, smell, sight, and taste. Your baby starts taking his/her fingers in the mouth to lick, and as parents, you begin feeding meals to your child via his/her fingers.

Here are some helpful tips to facilitate your child in self-feeding:

Let your child practice

Whether it is his/her hands or utensils, your baby has several opportunities to exercise self-feeding. Your child’s hunger may encourage him/her to try a lot to feed himself/herself, so keeping the time on the side may assist you in encouraging the baby for self-feeding. Let him/her to tray eating without your assistance. However, you need to keep a close watch on his/her practice.

Support hand feeding

In the first step of self-feeding, your baby uses his/her hands to take the food in his/her mouth. To facilitate this, place a few small food pieces on his/her chair tray. You can move forward to pincer grasp when you notice your kid has started to successfully move the first fits in his/her mouth. After it, you can isolate one or two food pieces to encourage him/her using his/her thumb and forefinger for food moving.

Start using utensils

In the next step, you can encourage your child holding utensils, especially made for toddlers. You can use a set of baby feeding spoons and bowls or trays. Sit before your baby and begin taking your meals with the help of a spoon. Your child may start doing the same by imitating you. To do it well, you can show how to hold the spoon and use it to take food items in the mouth.

Have family meals

To boost self-feeding in your child, request all your family members to be at the dining set and dine together. Having meals together will facilitate your baby to know how elders are taking food and encourage him/her to imitate the same.

Stay close to your child during meals

It is crucial for you to monitor your baby even he/she starts eating independently. Apart from being used to a new way of eating, he/she is going to get a new taste and texture. By staying close to your child, you can easily and quickly monitor the amount he/she is placing into the mouth.

Expect and embrace the mess

It can be messy to teach your baby self-feeding. You need to invest apron type mocks or a few good bibs that can facilitate your child to catch the food better. To protect the food spread on the floor, you can place a clean old cloth underneath the chair or object your baby is sitting.

Conclusion

Making your child to learn self-feeding takes time. You need to have patience and to be supportive to your baby. Have a close look on what and how he/she takes foods and guide when you think your child needs guidance to avoid food waste.