Feeding Solids To Your Little One

Photo by hessam nabavi on Unsplash

Being a first time working mom, feeding solids to my son has been a herculean task given all the other challenges that I am battling with (work from home, no househelp, restrictions on travelling etc). There is this constant dilemma of whether the baby is full or not. Whenever I sit with my little one for lunch, he spends 90% of his time in playing (read as messing) with food, 8% in throwing tantrums which includes fake crying and balance 2% in attempting to self eat the food. Our meal sessions typically lasts for about 30-45 minutes followed by a 20 min deep cleaning session ( this includes cleaning self, my little kid, and obviously the surrounding where he had his meal). While I have heard and have received umpteen advices on how to feed your baby, I stick with what I found to be the best and the most effective for my sunshine. In this article, I will be sharing my experiences of how to feed your child so that they start enjoying food:

1) Maintain the correct posture of your child while feeding - Sitting upright is the best posture while eating. For babies who start solids and cannot sit on their own, need to be supported while feeding. Parents can also opt to invest in buying a good quality high chair or a booster chair. In case you don't want to invest in buying, you may also opt for a traditional approach of making the child sit on the floor (Traditional Indian way of having a meal). For someone like me, who loves being minimalist, I prefer to sit on the floor on a asana along with my kiddo for meals.

2) Traditional feeding versus self feeding - Traditional feeding refers to the practice of someone feeding the child in contrast to the self feeding where you let the baby explore and eats on their own. Initially, I started with traditional feeding till my little one got used to the concept of eating and familiarised with how the food needs to be eaten. This was for about 2-3 months and now I practice self feeding where the baby attempts to eat on his own. Let me highlight this to you that initially in baby led feeding they wouldn't eat much as they are trying to learn how to eat food which involves hand mouth coordination, familiarisation with different food textures. As a new mom this is worrisome but trust me this gets much better over a period of time and it is an absolute delight to see your tiny little munchkin slowly and steadily being able to eat on its own.

3) Co-eat with your baby - Although this might seem difficult mainly due to the mess that actually gets created while babies eat, this becomes an important milestone for them as they learn to a larger extent by observing what's happening around. In my case, my little one used to always ask us for food while we used to have our dinner despite he already having had his meal. That's when I decided, their appetite increases when they people around them also eating food.

4) Do not distract the baby while offering food- Being a mom, we have this undying need of ensuring our child eats well and we wanting to be 200% sure that their tummy is full. In the initial days, baby's main source of nutrition is milk and introducing them to solids is more to make them familiar. It is okay even if they don't eat much. Do not distract and feed them. Distractions in any form is a strict No No be it toys, showing any external surrounding or any sort of screen time.

5) Take it easy- Do not shout or scold your baby for food. The moment you display anger a d force the baby to eat they will start developing a negative association with food and will further more detest eating food. Hence, it is important for you to take it slowly, let the child decide how much he/she wants to eat. Remember one of the signs of ensuring that your baby is not hungry is the fact that the baby is sleeping well and is remaining active. As long as your baby is on track on these two dimensions, you need not worry.

6) Invest in buying good quality waterproof bibs so that it is relatively easier to clean the mess that gets created post each meal session.

As a mom, you are doing a fantastic job of taking care and ensuring the best of the best for your little one, so stay calm and enjoy the moment. It is just a matter of time till your little munchkins overcomes this milestone of learning to eat. Till then let's enjoy all the mess that gets created around. Do share your experiences too in the comments section!

Payoni is an HR professional working with a manufacturing conglomerate. She is fond of painting and is an avid reader. Being a mom to a little prince, she also likes to share her first hand  experiences through blogging. You can connect with her on insta at payoinsta and on Facebook and LinkedIn at Payoni Dhaker.

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Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this post are the personal views of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views of The Mom Store.