Teach table manners.
Babies are born clowns. When a baby drops a
utensil or a glob of food, everyone quickly reacts. Baby soon realizes that he
is in control of this game and continues to put food everywhere but in his
mouth. Shoveling is a familiar dinner-table-clown game. Sometimes the otherwise
adept self feeder becomes impatient, shovels up a whole handful of food, and
splats the palm full of food half into his mouth and half on his face. Baby
continues to gorge and smear until his clowning gets the expected audience reaction.
Laughter not only reinforces habit but can be dangerous since baby may laugh
with a mouthful of food, take a deep breath, and choke.
The ability to stimulate caregivers to react to one's antics is
a powerful enforcer of baby's emerging sense of competence. Enough is enough,
however. Reacting too quickly to the messer and flinger only encourages this
mealtime clown to continue his performance. Whether you laugh or scold, either
way baby takes this as a reaction from the audience, and the performance continues.
No comment is the best way to keep this little ham off the stage. If his antics
get out of hand, assume he's not hungry and remove his food. Don't expect him
to sit still as long as older children can. Even at this early age table
manners are learned by example. If he sees the other children (or adults)
laughing with a mouthful of food, flinging food, banging utensils, and enjoying
all of it, this little imitator will do likewise. Also, remember to praise good
manners.
Minimize the mess.
Each new developing skill has its nutritional
benefits and humorous nuisances. Baby's newly developing thumb and forefinger
pincer grasp and finger pointing stimulates him to want to pick up tiny morsels
of food and feed himself, yet it also creates an opportunity for more messes.
Allow baby the luxury of messing around a bit with his newly discovered
utensils. Believe it or not, baby is actually learning from this mess. While
some food makes its way into the mouth, other pieces scatter. Food flinging,
dropping, and smearing are usual mealtime antics parents can expect to deal
with. Allow a certain amount of mess, but not when it gets out of control. Too
much food on baby's tray leads to two-fisted eating and major mess making. To
discourage food flinging and give the food a fighting chance to make it into
baby's mouth, put a few pieces of O-cereals, cooked carrots, pieces of rice
cakes, and any other bite-size pieces of fruits and vegetables that baby likes
on his tray. Then, refill as needed. Placing a whole pile of food in front of
baby is inviting a mess.
Settle the squirmier.
This trick worked for a baby who would
constantly windmill her arms during feeding. Use three plastic spoons -- one
spoon for each of her hands to occupy them and one for you to feed her. Also, it's
a toy trick. Put toys with suction cups on a high-chair tray so she can play
with them with her hands while you spoon food into her mouth. Sometimes when
babies open their mouths to such on toys, this primes them to open their mouths
to receive food.
Make feeding fun.
Play games, such as the spoon-airplane game.
Say "Here comes the airplane" as the spoon makes its dive into baby's
mouth.
Overcome lip lock.
To relax tight lips that are refusing a
feeding, back off and over-enjoy the food yourself. Model the excitement by
replaying the old reliable "Mmmmmm gooooood!" As your baby watches
you open your mouth and savor the food, he may catch the spirit and relax his
mouth and his attitude. Use one of your child's favorite foods as a teaser. As
he opens his mouth for his favorite food, quickly follow with the food you
wanted him to try.
Use camouflage.
Cover more nutritious but less liked foods with
one of baby's favorites. Try dabbing a thin layer of applesauce (or other
favorite) on the spoonful of vegetables. Baby gets the applesauce on his tongue
first and them a scoop of the more nutritious but less liked food on top of it.
If he still hates it, forget it for a while.
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