Advice for Feeding Solids
When your baby starts eating solids, it is advisable to develop good eating habits as early as now. While your baby will definitely make a mess and not be able to feed themselves for a while, good eating habits involve conditioning your baby for your solid food feeding sessions. For example, try feeding your baby solid foods at the same time and place that you and the rest of the family eats. Following this pattern, your baby will realize that it is eating time, and will eat along with you. Also, it’s probably much easier to clean a mess made in the dining room or kitchen than a mess made in the living room or bedroom.
Use a high chair so you baby can see you and the family. This will be good for your baby’s brain development, as well as the development of their social skills. Along with the high chair, use a bib when your baby is eating to prevent your baby from getting too messy. Know that feeding your baby solids will definitely be a mess, more so in the beginning when your baby isn’t used to swallowing well yet, and they are fascinated with their new foods and want to play with them.
Because a baby is used to sucking liquid and swallowing, which is a pretty easy process, having something with a firmer texture is very new for them, and they do have problems swallowing. Your baby is very used to sticking their tongue out, and they will do this often when you start feeding solids. Don’t take this as a sign that they are rejecting the food. They simply have problems swallowing. When feeding your child solids, you will not be able to stop the mess from happening; all you can do is prevent it from getting out of control.
Be ready for your baby to reject certain foods. It will take them a while to get used to the flavors. Also be ready for the fact that your baby may love one food today, but hate it tomorrow. They may also eat everything on one day, and have barely anything the next. This is all part of the feeding process, and you should try not to get frustrated. Your baby will normalize their feeding portions and likes soon enough.
If you want to feed your child a certain food for its nutritive value, but they always reject it, try mixing it with foods that they like. You can also feed them a few spoons of the food they like and then follow it up with a spoonful of the food they’re not too fond off. They’re likely to swallow it before realizing, unless of course the taste is very strong and they can tell right away that it’s something different. Remember that your child’s tastes can change and develop, and it’s usually just a matter of time before your baby starts eating everything, so there’s no need to force a certain food on them.
Page Two: More Tips on Solid Feeding (Advice for Feeding Solids continued)
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