Helping Children eat food on their own

Contributed by : Palak Vyas, Dr Aliraza Khunt

When a child is ready to eat food on its own, (s)he will give you signals. Look for the signals and you will know how to help your baby.

When a grownup child of 4 or 5 years does not eat food on their own, it is a matter of concern. Actually, the training of a child eating on their own should begin in early years. When a child in of 6^th or 7^th month, (s)he tries to put everything in the mouth and that is the age when the child is eager to eat on his/her own.
At this time, the parent doesn’t allow thinking that the child is too young to eat on his/her own and will create mess like making their clothes dirty or floor and because the child will take longer time. So the child is being spoon fed and later when they get habituated to be fed by the parent, the parent starts complaining.
So the whole approach towards feeding needs to be changed. Child should be allowed to eat on his/her own even when (s)he creates mess or takes time.
Finger food which can be put on their fingers like fryums, cucumber or toast sticks, fruits are the kinds of food children like to eat on their own. Make food interesting for them and gradually they will develop the habit.
Of course developing a new habit is going to take time and you will need to be patient with your child.

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