The amount of things we, as parents, have to worry about is endless and most of the time doesn’t warrant half the worry we give it. The challenges of eating, and getting your baby to sleep, all the while second-guessing yourself are huge. Are we doing it the right way? Are they getting enough? How do we change it if we feel what we’re doing isn’t right?
Despite having asked these questions countless times, I am so lucky to report that my son is an amazing eater! He will try most things and eats pretty well. But he is a terrible sleeper. He still wakes up, up to 3 times a night and rarely settles himself. I wanted to share my experience of my success with eating alongside our learning curve of sleeping!
So first up: food!
From the moment Finley could sit up, I would put him in his highchair and make it pure fun. We would blow bubbles, use toys and, being the best entertainers out there ;-), would pull funny faces, jump around and just be as silly as possible. Once he was ready for food we would let him play and throw, and on the odd occasion he would actually eat, we would eat along with him. When he did eat, we would react and cheer to show him it was a good thing. We did this pretty much every meal to keep things consistent, while varying his food so he had a wide variety of flavour and textures. We even gave him things like quinoa and couscous, which he now loves.
I’m not going to lie, I felt pressure (not from any one person) to get Finley to eat X amount of food at each meal sitting and found my self so stressed in the beginning. If he didn’t eat a lot, I would try and encourage him to eat rather than trusting that he had had enough.
I’d like to think these are normal experiences for most new mums and dads. Trial and error has led me to truly believe that trusting your instincts as a parent is most important. When it comes to food, I would use guidelines as a guide, and a good place to start, but not as a rule. Let your baby learn when he/she is hungry or full up. And trust it. As I’ve said in one of my earlier posts ‘Summer BBQs and a delicious recipe’, ‘a baby will never starve itself.’
For us as adults, mealtime isn’t purely about eating, but the whole range of experiences. Alongside being filled up, we experience: what the food looks like, the different colours and textures, and all the smells and flavours. All of these things work together and leave us feeling satisfied. This is what we should encourage from our children. What’s my best advice on food and mealtime for a baby?
1. Make it a fun experience and encourage the positives (use toys, games and food).
2. Let them lead. In the beginning it isn’t about getting x amount of food in them but about them learning to eat.
3. Always eat with your baby/child, they learn everything they do from us and that includes eating.
4. When they are done, don’t try and force more food in, trust them.
5. If they refuse to try something or spit it out, don’t rule it out as a distaste but continue to offer it another time. (Finley has always been funny with broccoli, I think it’s the texture, but he will eat it sometimes)
6. Try and make it all a routine, from getting into the highchair, putting on a bib and the way you give the food. A routine provides them with security and confidence.
