Learning at the Table: Meal Time and Motor Skills

Learning at the Table: Meal Time and Motor Skills

March 4th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments

From the very first time your baby starts to eat solid baby food, a new opportunity is created to learn and practice new and important motor skills. Meal time isn’t just about eating! It’s also an important part of your child’s development.

Starting Early

Even though your baby is nowhere near ready to feed himself when he first starts on solid foods, there is no reason you can’t let him have his own spoon right from the start. Bring two spoons to each feeding, one for baby to hold and one for you to feed him. Soon he will start trying to imitate what you are doing with the spoon, dipping it into the food and bringing it to his mouth. It will be messy, but your baby is laying the foundation for feeding himself while learning new motor skills.

Finger Foods

Somewhere around 8 months old on average, your baby will be ready to start self-feeding in earnest. The right place to start is with finger foods that dissolve easily in the mouth but are fairly easy to pick up. Small chunks of banana or the classic baby snack, Cheerios cereal, are great choices for first finger foods. Using the thumb and forefinger to pick up small items, also known as the “pincer grasp” is an important milestone and finger foods will help to develop the fine motor skills required.

The Right Tools for the Job

When your baby is ready to really use utensils, she will need her own fork and spoon. Look for utensils with thick, easy to grasp handles made of a non-slip material. Plastic forks are good for early practice, but they will soon frustrate your little one as they don’t work very well. Instead, look for a metal fork with rounded tines to avoid potential injury, but enough of a point to allow easy spearing of food. When choosing a spoon, try to find one that is not too flat and won’t spill easily. Utensils should be short, as anything too long will be difficult for little arms to maneuver.

Getting Started with Utensils

Learning to use a fork and spoon are a great chance to work on manual dexterity and hand-eye coordination. Although the spoon is the first utensil a baby encounters, most children will learn to use a fork faster, mainly because the food stays on the fork more easily than on a spoon. Start with an easy to spear food like small pieces of melon or pear. Place the fork in your child’s hand and guide her through the motions of spearing the food, and bringing it up to her mouth. You’ll be rewarded by the sight of her face lighting up with joy as she realizes she can eat just like you do!

Using a spoon requires even more skill than a fork. Learning the scooping and lifting motion to get food onto the spoon, and then the careful balance required to get the food all the way to the mouth are difficult tasks. Thick foods like oatmeal and yogurt are a great choice for learning this skill, as they will be less likely to spill off the spoon. Encourage your child to lean forward, towards the dish so that the spoon doesn’t need to travel so far.

The process of teaching your baby to self-feed can be messy, but remember that you are developing motor skills and life skills too!

How to Buy a Good, Safe High Chair, Feeding Spoon, Bibs, etc

How to Buy a Good, Safe High Chair, Feeding Spoon, Bibs, etc

February 22nd, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments

When it comes to baby gear, especially baby food and safety related items, a spur of the moment decision should be avoided. Check reviews and always consider the safety aspects of feeding items as your child will be spending a great deal of time over the next years in the high chair – you want to be sure you have a safe one.

The High Chair

A high chair should be sturdy, well constructed and easy to clean. One of the hidden dangers of many high chairs is the amount of food that gets trapped under frills and flounces and encourages bacteria growth. Fashion should be a final consideration when it comes to a high chair with safety and ease of use coming in first and second respectively.

Safe High Chairs

The safest high chairs offer multiple levels of restraint. This means that your baby might be strapped with the safety straps around the legs, and then further prevented from movement by a t-shaped opening at the legs. When the tray is snapped on, she should be good and trapped. This seems outlandish when you first put your six month old in the high chair for a bite of carrots. But a toddler in a high chair can be a recipe for injury or at least disaster if he is able to get lose and climb or fall down when you turn to refill his plate.

A safe high chair also has a wide base which keeps the high chair from tipping. Again the active toddler can rock until he falls in a flimsy high chair or he might pull it on top of himself if he attempts to climb. A safe high chair also allows for easy cleaning to prevent trapped food and the growth of bacteria. Fluffy cloth covers and deep grooves make cleaning a high chair difficult.

The tray on a high chair is one of the most critical parts for keeping your baby in the right position and for properly displaying food. If possible, consider a high chair with a removable tray insert that you can wash in the dishwasher for sterilization after meals. This will also help with cleaning the chair. The tray should lock on strongly and not be knocked loose with an enthusiastic kick. A one-handed release is a nice feature as well when trying to handle multiple things at meal-time.

Longevity

A high chair is a large piece of baby gear, and ideally you can use it for a long time. To do so, however, you’ll need to find a high-chair that is versatile. Look for a deep reclining feature. While your child should be able to sit up to eat, you can use the high chair well before this point to offer your baby a higher view of the world around her. As your baby grows, you should be able to tip the seat back up and adjust the straps and tray to fit his growing body. A portable high chair can help you when it comes time to travel or just eat away from home, but never trade portability for safety.

Other Meal Equipment

Other meal items such as utensils, bibs and dishes should be purchased with safety and cleanliness in mind. Buy dishes that are sturdy enough to be thrown on a tile floor time and time again and utensils should be suited for small hands and mouths. Metal utensils pose more risk than plastic, so you may opt to save metal utensils for the toddler years.

All baby food items should be microwave and dishwasher safe to give you increased options for cleaning and sterilizing the items after every meal. Bibs should be made of a material that can be easily washed. Wash bibs after each use and if you use a plastic bib, use a mild detergent and a piece of clean cloth to wipe it off – a dishrag can introduce germs and other forms of bacteria.