3 Feeding Essentials For Your One-Year-Old
Doesn’t it seem as if your baby was just coming home from the hospital?
Now here she is hitting another milestone by turning one and enjoying all of the tasty food and snacks that her little stomach wasn’t able to handle not too long ago. Now that your baby has turned one, you may notice that she’s becoming more and more independent.
One area that you may have noticed is during meal times when she’s trying to feed herself. Either by holding her bottle or picking up those teething crackers she loves to snack on.
It’s important to support that independence by providing her with the proper tools. If you’d like to help your little one develop the skills to eat on her own, here are a few must-haves to help you both along the way.
Bottle feeder
Holding a spoon or a fork may be too early for your little one. If this is the case, a baby food bottle feeder is just what you need — especially if you puree a lot of what your baby eats.
These bottles are meant to promote self-eating by allowing you to put the pureed food inside so that your little one can enjoy their meal or snack by sipping it through the spout.
Not only does this promote independent eating, but it also makes it mess-free so that moms don’t have to clean up a messy high chair. Whether it’s apple sauce or that yummy tomato basil soup, you’ll love how convenient it is for you and your little one.
Silicone bibs
By now you’re little one-year-old has been eating solids for about six months. If you’ve tried regular cloth bibs then you know that they aren’t the best at catching everything and at other times allow liquids to leak through, staining your little one’s tops.
Not only that but they contribute to the already endless pile of laundry that you try so hard to stay on top of. Silicone bibs are such a game-changer because they are so easy to clean up as well as keep your little one’s outfit clean by catching anything they drop.
Once she’s done eating, simply wipe it off with soap and water and let it air dry. When shopping for a silicone bib be sure that they are 100% BPA and phthalate-free.
Suction bowls and plates
One of the best inventions for little ones learning how to eat is suction bowls and plates. When we first introduce food to our babies we use the tray on the high chair to get them comfortable enough to pick up their food.
Once they have mastered that, they are ready to level up to using actual utensils, bowls, and plates. If you’ve tried serving them on a plate without suction then you’ve probably had some pretty gruesome messes as they go flying off the high chair.
The suction feature is definitely a must as your baby learns the skill of eating from dinnerware. Pretty soon she’ll graduate from using the suction needed to keep the plate in place and will be having dinner on the grown-up table eating on her own, contributing to table talk giving you the latest gossip from preschool.
Independent eating is such an important part of your child’s early development. Don’t be afraid to promote it as early as you can. The earlier she learns the better she will be at healthy eating and developing her motor skills.
