Becoming independent

Transcript

Children's Health Queensland Hospital and Health Service acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of the land and pays respect to Elders, past present and future.

This video provides general advice about feeding babies. If you have any questions or concerns about feeding your baby, please contact your child health nurse or GP.

Always closely supervise your baby when eating.

To become independent at meal times, young children need to develop physical, cognitive, and social skills. Every child will develop these skills in their own time, but you can support your baby or toddler by providing a calm and responsive environment to learn and practice.

Children will be more capable eaters when their body is supported. Supporting your child's body in a high chair or booster seat will help your baby or toddler to feed independently. Having their body supported will also decrease their risk of choking as well as increase their ability to communicate their feeding cues to you.

The progression of textures is generally from purees, to mashed, to lumpy, to family foods. Every baby does not have to follow this progression by an exact age. Food needs to be developmentally appropriate for their skill level. You can also help in the transition to new foods by offering different colours, textures and shapes.

It is important for your baby to move to the next level of texture when they are able. Babies who stay with purees for longer than necessary are more likely to have issues transitioning to different textures. You will know that your baby is ready to move to the next texture by trying out small amounts. Remember they might not get this right at first and they may gag. Gagging is not choking. It just means your baby is still practicing with that texture. The way your baby will become proficient with the new texture is to keep offering small amounts as opportunities to practice.

After a few weeks of commencing solids your baby's mouth movements begin to change. They will be able to start to chew with their gums. With these new skills there is often increased interest in picking up finger foods and holding the spoon. If they will let you, this is a good time to start sharing the job of feeding by you having one spoon and your child the other. As their spoon feeding and self-eating skills increase over the next couple of months babies will be less interested in being fed and want to do this themselves.

Sometimes they may return to picking up food with their hands and this still might be the most efficient way to eat. Expect your child and their environment to get messy. Mess is an important part of learning to self-feed. As your child becomes more skilled at self-feeding there will be less mess. Becoming messy is also about children accepting new foods and textures. Research has shown that children are more likely to accept new foods if they have had the opportunity to explore the food first. Let your child look, smell, and feel the food when they are ready, they will bring it to their mouth.

Mealtimes are the perfect opportunity for your child to build their social interaction skills such as turn taking, listening to others, and showing their shared enjoyment of the meal through smiling and vocalisations. Children learn by watching and copying others. Eating together as a family provides wonderful opportunities for older members of the family to role model eating new foods and encourage the use of utensils.

When young children feed themselves, they will learn how much they can put into their mouth as well as how much they can fit onto a spoon or fork. Practicing with small sips of water from an open cup during meal times can commence with their first foods. By around 12 months babies will be eating family foods and feeding themselves independently with a fork or spoon. They will be drinking from a cup and no longer needing bottles if they were introduced. You can continue to breastfeed for the first two years and beyond.

If you're concerned about feeding your baby talk to your local child health nurse or GP. You can also call the 13 health number if living in Queensland and asked to speak to a child health nurse.