Teaching healthy eating habits
It’s not too early to start teaching your child healthy eating habits. Here are some tips to keep in mind when feeding your baby:
- Your role is to offer her a variety of nutritious choices—your baby’s role is to decide what and how much to eat.
- Being in tune with your baby's eating cues now can affect how she'll relate to food in the future. When your baby starts eating solid foods, watch for signs that she’s full. If she turns her head away from the spoon, covers her face with her hands, spits out familiar foods, or pushes it away, it’s probably time to stop. Never force your child to clean her plate.
- Avoid using food as a reward for good behavior—this can set up a negative relationship with food. Instead use praise or hugs to reward behavior.
- Offer a wide variety of foods that includes at least one you know your child likes. Let her choose, but if she decides to eat nothing, respect her choice. She'll make up for the missed calories at the next meal or the next day.
- Feed your baby a variety of foods. If your baby doesn’t like a food, try it again later. Babies aren’t used to the taste and texture of new foods, so it may take 10 to 15 tries before she figures out whether she likes it.
- Though you’ll be expanding your baby’s menu, continue feeding iron-fortified infant cereal. By feeding this cereal, you’ll also be helping to ensure that your baby gets iron, an important nutrient for healthy growth and development.
- Keep mealtimes positive by creating a relaxed meal environment.
Print the PDFs below for samples of what your baby may be eating for each stage of development:
4 month: Supported Sitter
4.5 month: Supported Sitter
6 month: Sitter
8 month: Sitter/Crawler
