When your baby is 2 or 3 months old, he begins to learn about love. He watches, smiles, jabbers, and reaches out to get your attention and to keep you close. Go by information coming from your baby to guide feeding. That shows him you love him and teaches him to love you back. Don't worry about spoiling him. You can't spoil a tiny baby. Continue to feed on demand. Wait until he is near six months to start solids, then start based on what your baby can do, not on how old he is.

• Feed your baby when he wants to eat, when he is wide-awake and calm.
• Let him eat his way - much or little, fast or slowly, steady or start-and-stop.
• Bring him to the table with you when you eat. He loves being with you, and he begins learning what eating is all about.
• Start solids when he can sit up, open his mouth when he sees something coming, and close his lips over the spoon.
• Talk or play awhile after feeding. Put him to bed when he's calm and drowsy and let him put himself to sleep.

Your baby will eat and grow in the way that is right for him if you maintain a division of responsibility in feeding. You are responsible for the what of feeding - breastmilk or formula. Your baby is responsible for everything else - when, where, how much, how fast.

For more about feeding your baby (and for research backing up this advice), see Ellyn Satter's Child of Mine; Feeding with Love and Good Sense, Bull Publishing, 2000. Also see www.EllynSatter.com to purchase books and to review comprehensive educational materials that teach stage-related feeding and solve feeding problems.

See also: Division of Responsibility in Feeding and Division of Responsibility in Activity