Food: environment and feeding styles

Where to feed your child

At first you will probably feed your baby on your lap or in an infant seat, but once your baby's back muscles are strong enough to support him you'll probably want to get a highchair. Make sure the model you buy complies with safety standards. Chairs with a wide base are safest as they make it less likely that the chair could topple over if your child wriggles or jumps around. Check the chair regularly for any sharp edges or loose fittings. Always give the chair a good clean after meals so food doesn't gather in the nooks and crannies. When your baby first starts using a highchair you may have to prop him up with cushions. Most highchairs have harnesses to stop the child slipping or falling out. While these are important safety features and should be used, always make sure you know how to release them quickly in case your child should choke or gag while he's eating. If he does gag on some food, and he's almost bound to at some stage, pat your child firmly on the back until whatever food is caught dislodges itself. When you give your child a new texture, he may gag out of surprise. Talk soothingly and gently rub your child's back and he'll be able to swallow whatever was worrying him. It is essential that you know how to react quickly in any situation like this. Should the child's choking be severe, and especially if he loses consciousness, you must know what to do and the appropriate first aid procedures. Never, ever leave your child alone while he is eating.

Feeding your child

Your baby will soon look forward to solids - not only to eat, but to play with. Feeding times will become messier so it's advisable to put newspaper or a plastic sheet below the highchair or table to catch the worst of the mess. Keep your baby well away from expensively covered walls - remember, he can throw food now.

After a month on solids your baby will have grasped the technique of getting food successfully off the spoon, and by the time he's taking two solid meals a day he will be prepared to open his mouth ready to take the food.

Self-feeding

Your baby will leave you in no doubt when he wants to feed himself: he will simply take the spoon from you. Let your baby experiment and be prepared to put up with the mess. Encourage all attempts at self-feeding because it is such a huge step forward in your baby's development, both physically and intellectually, and also because it will give your baby a feeling of accomplishment and confidence. It will help your baby to become manually dexterous and to co-ordinate muscles and movements. There is nothing that will speed up the co-ordination of eye and hand faster than getting a spoonful of food to the mouth.

Your baby will take several months to become proficient at self-feeding. His food will be a plaything and you may also worry because most of the food seems to be on the floor and not in your baby's stomach. Nature has taken care of this. At a time when a baby starts to self-feed, the initial growth spurt is beginning to slacken off and so he needs less.

Until he can manage to get the food successfully into his mouth, have a spoon each. When he can't scoop the food up, swap your full spoon for the empty one.

Self-feeding tips

• Tuck a few tissues under the neckline of your baby's bib to stop his neck getting wet as he practises drinking.
• If a baby won't wear a bib, put a coloured scarf round his neck to protect his clothes.
• If your baby is going to sneeze get out of the way or you will be covered in food.
• Fit a kitchen towel holder on the back of the highchair or near it.
• Keep the highchair well away from your walls - your baby will be quite capable of throwing food by now.
• Get a non-slip bowl if you can as it will stay in place while your baby is trying to put the food on to his spoon.

Be flexible about feeding

Try not to get tense at mealtimes. This will be easier to do if you don't spend too much time preparing the food and then feel resentful if it isn't eaten, and if you take a few precautions so you don't have a lot of clearing up to do. The most important rule of all is not to pit your will against your baby's. In the end there is no way that you can force a baby to eat and you should never reach that point. Even if you are worried that your baby isn't taking enough food - he is. If he doesn't want to eat, his needs have temporarily shrunk. A child will always eat if he is hungry, and will eat to satisfy his needs. A period of eating very little will probably be followed by a period of eating a lot.

Balanced nutritional feeding styles

Think in the long-term. Don't think of your baby's nutritional intake as what has been eaten that day but rather what has been eaten that week, and try to balance it out in this time scale. You may find that for a couple of days your baby will refuse everything but cereal and then on the third day go on a fruit-eating binge, or want only cheese. A baby, like most animals, is self-regulating. He knows what he wants and when he wants it.

As with many aspects of child-rearing, take your lead from your baby on feeding. As a note of reassurance, a baby's chosen diet will be a balanced one as long as he has the correct foods to choose from.

Daily feeding patterns

Regardless of the guidelines already given, or what some baby books say about nutrition, your baby doesn't have to have every kind of food at each meal. He can take a whole day's ration of protein at one meal, and the ration of carbohydrate at the next. Try to let go of the urge to control your baby's diet, and not to think that being a good mother means that he has to eat “good” food at every meal. Think of a balanced diet over a week rather than worrying about every meal he eats.

Your baby won't need more than one or two big meals a day. In between times he'll simply need a snack. Don't confine eating to meal times; with a stubborn baby they can become pitched battlegrounds. Of course, encourage your baby to have regular feeding times, but if he is going through a difficult phase, bend a little and supplement a small meal with a snack later.

If he stands up or tries to get out of the highchair take your baby out and forget about the feeding. He will come back to the food or ask for it when he is hungry. If you argue you will get upset, your baby will get upset and mealtimes will become unpleasant. Your baby will come to associate mealtimes with unhappiness and this will lead to feeding difficulties.

Tips for food preparation

• Before steaming and puréeing fruit, peel, remove the seeds and any bits that may choke the baby and cut up into fairly small pieces. Do the same for vegetables.
• Give your baby meat, cooked any way you like and then puréed. Don't forget fish, chicken and chicken livers, which are cheap, quick and easy to prepare. Thin down the meat with vegetable water or soup.
• Always choose the freshest looking vegetables (not wrinkled or dull-looking ones), and cook them as soon as possible.
• Handle fruit and vegetables gently. Don't cut them until you have to and don't crush and bruise them as this destroys any vitamin C present.
• Cook vegetables and fruit in as little water as possible, with a tightly fitting lid, so that they are cooked by steaming rather than by boiling; this helps to retain the vitamins.
• Cook soft-skinned fruit and vegetables in their skins because this helps to retain the vitamins and it will also give your child fibre. You may have to remove the skin if it's tough and therefore likely to choke the baby.
• Use cast-iron cooking pots. A little iron is absorbed into the food and so helps to keep your child's iron supplies topped up.
• Always make the food a suitable consistency for your baby's age. For example, a thick milk for your six-month-old baby; a thicker cream for your seven-month-old baby and a slightly chunky mash for a nine month old.
• Don't use copper pans for green leafy vegetables as copper breaks down vitamin C.
• Don't cook tinned foods for too long - you will destroy the vitamins.
• Don't add salt or sugar to your child's food; the immature kidneys can't handle a heavy salt load and you will be doing your child a favour if you don't encourage a sweet tooth.
• Avoid using too many saturated fats in your cooking - use safflower or corn oil instead.
• Don't prepare vegetables or soak them in water a long time before you cook them or you will destroy the vitamins.
• If making food in advance, cover it and leave to cool slightly. Put it into the refrigerator as this will discourage bacteria from growing.

Safety tips

• You should take care not to give your child food of a size that might stick in his throat or be inhaled, so you should avoid nuts, fruit with pips and seeds, unpeeled fruit with tough skins and raw vegetables.
• Don't ever leave your child eating or drinking alone in a room. If he gags, chokes or vomits, he needs immediate help (see Emergency First Aid).
• Don't be obsessive, but be careful with mealtime hygiene. Use clean utensils, a clean highchair and a clean bib.
• When you are storing food in the refrigerator, cover containers with film, and never put cooked with uncooked meat.

Dr Miriam Stoppard

New Babycare
Copyright © 2009 Dorling Kindersley
Text copyright © 2009 Miriam Stoppard

Posted 30.06.2010

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