Feeding Milestones
Babies follow the developmental stages of feeding when developing their oral motor skills. It is important to match the foods being offered to their oral motor skills. If a baby is showing a suckling/sucking pattern, they should be feeding on milk and/or formula. If they are starting to show a munching pattern (up and down jaw movement), you can try introducing smooth purees. Once they start moving their tongue side to side (lateralization), you can start to try more thicker purees, dissolvable solids, and single consistency well mashed table foods. After this skill, you can try some finely chopped table foods and explore new textures. Little ones will continue to build and refine these skills throughout their first 2 years of life. During this process, it is important to ensure the baby is set up for success with good trunk and foot support with foods placed within their reach. To encourage self feeding skills, have your baby explore foods with their hands and use short, thick utensils.
Making sure feeding times are fun and stress free is essential for babies to build a positive and healthy relationship with food and eating.
Navigating Picky Eating
Navigating picky eating can be stressful for both the parents and the child. However, there are some tips you can incorporate into mealtimes to make exploring and trying new foods more successful. If the child is hesitant to try new foods, encourage them to explore foods with their other senses first. This includes looking, touching, and smelling the new foods. Use describing words while exploring the foods, like colour, texture, shape, smell, temperature, etc. Avoid adding pressure on the child like saying “just try it” or “one more bite” and talk about food in a neutral way such as “lets see what this tastes like” or “I wonder if this will make a loud crunch.” Encourage exploration in a touch-smell-lick-bite progression. Emphasis should also be placed on regulation and ensure everyone involved in the mealtime is calm and comfortable. A stressful environment will reinforce the stress the child feels around foods.
The parents’ role is to choose what, when, and where to serve food. The child’s role is to choose if and how much they eat.
