Teaching Your Baby to Eat

Your baby has been on solid food only for a few months, and yet the next phase is already starting: your baby wants to eat by HIMSELF or HERSELF! You are no longer allowed to help your baby or toddler, they want to do everything themself, resulting of course in lots of spilling and mess. But it’s so good for their development! Teach your baby to eat by himself or herself, how should you do that?

This “desire to eat independently” may seem like an impossible phase, but it is actually a really good development! Independence creates confidence, and that’s something you can help your baby develop from an early age.

When can you teach babies to eat by themselves?

That’s not up to you, it’s up to each individual baby. Your baby will indicate this automatically. As soon as a baby says, points out or otherwise makes it clear that he or she wants to do it himself or herself, you can create appropriate opportunities. This is how you facilitate your child’s development process. A fancy word for you helping your baby to properly develop skills in his/her own way.

A first tendency to “eat” with a spoon is often noticeable 11 months after the leap into the world of sequences (eating will not go smoothly at all, but it’s a first attempt). Once children have managed the leap of programs, you will see that they can take real bites and take food in their mouth, even several times in succession.

In addition to your baby developing his/her own taste in food and way of eating, your baby’s mental development will also continue. Did you know that our “The Wonder Weeks” app describes the mental development of your baby during the first 20 months of his/her life? Brimming with tips and insights!

Your role

Your job is to give your child the opportunity to learn to eat on his/her own once they indicate that they are ready for it. In concrete terms, this means that you cut your baby’s food in such a way that he/she is able to grab the bits of food by himself/herself (cutting is of course still much too soon for them). Your job is also to encourage your child. When your child is doing something difficult on his/her own, he/she really needs all the praise and encouragement you can give. Furthermore, it is up to you to provide your child with the right equipment for eating:

  • a deep plate with a raised edge,
  • a non-slip plate,
  • easy-to-handle cutlery.

A deep plate with a raised edge

Any newcomer to the fine art of transporting food from a plate to the mouth will push the food away with a spoon. That’s quite logical. That is why we also use two pieces of cutlery. One to scoop up and another one to hold the food while scooping so that it lands on the spoon. Understood? This is still far too difficult for our novice eater. So, you have to create other ways to stop the food from sliding off the plate. The simplest solution: serve up on a plate with a high rim or a bowl.

A non-slip plate

If you eat with one spoon or fork, you will push the food away with your spoon. If you push a little too enthusiastically or too hard, the plate will slide away. And that’s exactly what your child does. They want to do it themself, so they tend to push extra hard. Effect: the plate slides away. This is not very helpful for a little one eager to learn how to eat by himself or herself. After all, your child must experience success. So make sure that you somehow prevent the plate from sliding away. Some plates come with a kind of tray that prevents the plate from sliding away. Alternatively, you can get plastic mats that “stick” to the table. The matching bowl or plate will, in turn, “stick” to the mat.

Easy-to-handle cutlery

A child only begins to develop the fine hand muscles at the age of 2.5 years. Around this age, your child will also begin to be able to hold something in a pinch-like grip. That’s the hand posture you need for holding a pen. Any products that you expect your infant, pre-toddler or toddler to hold must therefore be consistent with this development and, accordingly, be thicker. In other words, appropriate toddler cutlery should be designed for children’s hands that cannot yet grasp and steer such a delicate instrument at the same time. After all, you don’t eat with skewer sticks either… which would be just as difficult compared to a baby hand.

Explore your child’s mental development and discover how you can boost his/her new skills with The Wonder Weeks app or book!

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