Feeding the baby: hands, fork, spoon, glass
Independence begins with mealtime. In fact, from the twelfth month of life, babies know a little slice of the world more every day, but the thing they want most is learn to eat alone: the time has therefore come to accompany them in this important moment of growth.
Starting from the use of the hands, up to a fork and glass, we therefore see how the child is learn to use cutlery.
In this article
- First step: the hands
- Second step: spoon and fork
- Third step: the glass
First step: the hands
Instinctively, the first thing a child does in front of a plate is take everything with your hands. This helps the little one not only to become familiar with various and varied tactile experiences (the warmth of the food, the different textures, etc.), but above all to improve their own motor skills.
Therefore it would be good to offer the child food quite small to handle without problems e sufficiently softi to encourage chewing (the teeth are not yet fully developed). Here are some examples:
- Small pieces of bread.
- Sliced noodles or noodles.
- Fruit and / or vegetables cooked and cut into small pieces.
- Small pieces of soft cheeses and crackers.
Second step: spoon and fork
As soon as the child will be able to eat more or less solid food without problems, the period of take with the spoon. After some time you will notice how the little one will try with increasing insistence on handle the spoon yourself.
So let's remember that:
- Babies can start eating baby food and solid food without more or less risk of suffocation from the sixth month of life.
- Babies begin to have the motor and coordination skills to carry the spoon to their mouth on their own around 10/12 months of life.
- Even if he will make some good messes at first, it is good to arm yourself with patience and allow the little one to experience first with the spoon and then, gradually, with the fork.
- When you start to use the fork, the first time you could skewer the food on behalf of the child, but leaving it for him to take the bite to his mouth. After some time, however, it will be up to the little one to do everything by himself.
Third step: the glass
The last step is to learn a use the glass without the aid of lids or bottles. Usually around the ninth month you can have the baby try to drink a few sips alone, even if for the first few times it is better to resign yourself to having to use the rag all over the room ...
Around the tenth / twelfth month then, the baby is then perfectly capable of hold up the glass with both hands and therefore the path could be complete.
Now it remains only to convince him to eat broccoli!
FONTE: Centers for Diseas Control and Prevention
Read also: How to make preschoolers eat vegetablesTAG:
- fork and knife
- educate to eat
