I had dinner with some friends in the restaurant the other day.
Next to him, a 2-year-old child ate very delicious food, [his ears did not smell anything but a bowl of lunch].
Another older child looked around. His mother did not eat until she was fed. She ran out to play in the middle of the meal. The parents said that the little ancestors were willing to sit down and eat one bite at a time.
They are also children. Why is there such a big gap?
I can see at a glance that the children do not eat well, and most of them have problems getting into the habit of adding supplementary foods.
If he cultivates his good eating habits from an early age, he does not need to chase after him to feed. More importantly, he must grasp the critical period of his baby’s independent eating. Once he ignores or makes mistakes, he must feed to the end.
Today, let’s talk about what as the golden period for babies to eat independently, and how to grasp this period and let babies eat obediently.
What is the golden period for babies to eat independently.
When the baby has the will to eat by himself, he will [emit] some signals. This is the most suitable time to cultivate the baby’s ability to eat independently. We call it the golden period of eating independently.
What are the specific signals? There are mainly three aspects.
Seeing parents holding what in their hands, they all want to grab one.
When the baby is about 8 months old, he will especially like to grab the food in adults’ hands, but he cannot consciously put things into his mouth or fall off as soon as he pinch them to his mouth.
Refuse your favorite food before
When an adult puts his favorite food in front of him, the baby will knock it out without hesitation, even if he looks at the food in your hand, his mouth will make a mum-mum sound, which is obvious enough-mommy, I want to eat too, give it to me quickly!
Imitate adults to eat
When adults eat, the repeated chewing movements of their mouths, the noise of lip friction, and the use of chopsticks to pick up vegetables are all the objects he imitates. He will exaggerate to hit their mouths and poke food with spoons.
After observing these signals, what can be done to make the baby better learn to eat autonomously? Let’s talk about it from two aspects.
During the golden period of self-eating, food should be prepared in this way.
Try a variety of combinations to give the baby a choice.
Sometimes I took pains to prepare a supplementary meal for my baby. As a result, people immediately turned their heads at a glance and lost face. The frustration was really heart-rending.
Later, I changed my [tactics]. You don’t like a kind of supplementary food. Then I’ll make a few more courses, and there will always be one that can catch your stomach, right? Practice has proved that it is really useful!
Especially when the baby’s appetite is not good, prepare more supplementary foods, use different ingredients, color matching, beautiful and interesting dishes to attract his attention, and the success rate will be greatly improved.
Finger food to satisfy the child’s wish to do it himself.
If the baby has just had the urge to grab food to eat, the result will be frustration because he cannot grab it or it is difficult to chew it, which will greatly reduce his willingness to eat autonomously.
Therefore, you can prepare some finger food with moderate size and hardness for your baby, which is convenient to take and can also exercise his grasping ability.
During the golden period of independent eating, the eating habit at 4 o’clock should be well done.
Establish a sense of eating ceremony
Prepare a set of special tableware for the baby, let him sit on the dining table with adults, and let the baby establish a sense of [eating by himself like his parents].
At the same time, don’t turn on the TV, don’t play with your mobile phone, and don’t let your baby eat while playing. The purpose of creating this ritual feeling is to tell your baby that eating is a very important thing and needs to be taken seriously by everyone.
Don’t feed while playing
The baby is still young and it is difficult to sit and eat properly. Even so, we must adhere to the principle of “sitting at the dining table when eating” and cannot easily compromise. The baby plays everywhere and the mother chases and feeds, which not only easily leads to overeating and overfullness, but also falls short of self-eating.
Moreover, once the wrong eating habits are formed, it will be even more difficult to correct them later.
After-dinner rewards? NO!
In the face of babies who do not eat, many parents will blurt out a classic line:
[If you don’t finish your meal, there will be no xx.]
In order to get this reward, the baby may finish the meal soon, but this is totally a deal! The following may be indigestion.
The baby does not want to eat, perhaps it is not interested in the prepared food, perhaps the cooking method is too monotonous, or it may not be able to bite or chew. For example, try using potatoes and sweet potatoes coarse cereals instead of white rice, cooking, stewing, frying and stewing to change the pattern, maybe the baby will have a big appetite!
Let the children do it by themselves
Noodles were burnt all over his face, rice fell all over the floor, and soup was sprinkled all over his body. This scene was estimated to collapse for some Virgo parents, who wanted to feed them one mouthful at a time. My mother-in-law also did the same. I really can’t see that she always likes to feed her baby. As a result, the baby will not eat more skillfully until 20 months later… … …
There are also some parents who worry that the food will cool if the baby eats slowly, and they can’t help feeding the food on their behalf.
But in fact, compared with letting the baby learn to eat by himself, these are really not important!
Eating disorderly and slowly is a common situation for most babies when they are just studying. As parents, we just need to relax and give our babies more time.
Afraid of cold food? Can be heated, don’t worry ~
Afraid of spilling everywhere? Put a plastic tablecloth under the dining chair and make a sucker bowl, no problem ~
If you want your children to eat well in the future, you need some Buddhism.
The less intervention, the earlier the day when he can eat on his own. The baby can choose and match food by himself in the process, and can also help him to be an independent person.