Understand and Parent Your Older Baby

Infant Infant Understand and Parent Your Newborn Understand and Parent Your Infant Understand and Parent Your Older Baby Understand and Parent Your Almost-Toddler

Understand and Parent Your Older Baby Your older baby loves you as much as ever and wants you near, but her interests are expanding. She is becoming interested things in the world outside of the two of you. She loves to look around, and will interrupt a feeding to find out what is going on. Learning to eat solid foods goes right along with her interest in the outside world. Ellyn Satter’s Division of Responsibility in Feeding: The parent and older baby are in transition from the demand feeding of younger babies to the meals-plus-snacks routine of toddlers and older children. The division of responsibility is in transition as well. As before, parents decide what babies are offered to eat—breastmilk or formula, and semi-solid food when the child is ready. Older babies eat more regularly and at longer intervals, so feeding times are partly on demand, partly on a schedule determined by the parent. Your Child’s Growth and Development Your older baby is learning that there is a world outside of you and is taking an interest in the things in it. She is learning to do things on purpose. She is getting ready for solid foods. How to Parent Your Older Baby Understand and support your older baby’s interest in things. Understand baby’s development. She is ready for solid foods when she can: o Sit up o Open her mouth for the spoon Close her lips over the spoon Keep most of the food in her mouth. Swallow. Your child is working toward being part of the family with eating. How to Parent Your Older Baby with Respect to Feeding Feed her solid foods when she is ready. Feed based on what your baby can do, not on how old she is. When you feed her solids: Have her sit up straight in a high chair, maybe propped up with pillows. Sit right in front of her. Hold the spoon about a foot away from her mouth. Wait for her to open her mouth. Put new food on her lip. Put familiar food in his mouth. Feed the way she wants to eat: little or much, fast or slow.  Look at her. Talk to her kindly and quietly. Answer her. Stop when she shows she’s done, even after a taste on her lip or only one bite. Give her lots of chances to learn to like new food. For a comprehensive set of educational materials that teach stage-related feeding and solve feeding problems, see ELLYN SATTER'S FEEDING IN PRIMARY CARE PREGNANCY THROUGH PRESCHOOL: Easy-to-Read Reproducible Masters (4th grade reading level, English and Spanish) and ELLYN SATTER'S NUTRITION AND FEEDING FOR INFANTS AND CHILDREN: Handout Masters (7th grade reading level, English only). Copyright © 2005 by Ellyn Satter. For more about feeding your older baby, see Ellyn Satter’s Child of Mine; Feeding With Love and Good Sense or www.EllynSatter.com For permission to reproduce this handout, call (800)808-7976 or e-mail info@ellynsatter.com

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Ellyn Satter Associates
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