Parent Questions:
In the process of communicating with parents, we often find that some children are three or four years old and are still accustomed to eating liquid foods or foods with small and soft particles.
Such eating habits are not conducive to the development of children's oral motor ability and will affect the child's language development.
Therefore, according to the age of the child, it is very necessary to adjust the characteristics of the food for the child!
Your child's diet can be divided into the following 4 stages.
The first stage
About 6 months: swallowing period
Food traits:
Slimy/mushy, liquid or semi-liquid
1. When the baby has the action of biting up and down, it means that it has the initial ability to chew, and parents should carry out targeted exercises in time.
2. The ability to swallow is the prerequisite skill for eating solid food. 6 months is the initial stage of your baby's learning to chew and swallow, which is more suitable for adding thin mud/paste foods.
3, when adding complementary food, you should use a small spoon to feed the baby, at the beginning the baby will more or less push out or spit out the food, this is a normal phenomenon, parents should be patient to feed more times.
The second stage
About 7-8 months: the peristaltic period
Thick slushy, thick noodles, semi-liquid or semi-solid
1. At about 7 months, the baby may have grown 2 teeth, and the baby's ability to chew and swallow will be more advanced than the previous stage.
2. More diversified complementary foods can be provided, and the characteristics of complementary foods are harder or thicker than at 6 months.
3. In addition to feeding the baby to eat food, if the baby has teeth, you can provide the baby with some food that can be held independently, such as fruit strips or raw vegetable strips.
The third stage
About 9-10 months: fine chewing period
Finely minced, semi-solid
1. The baby has grown 4 to 6 teeth, and the chewing ability and oral movements are more coordinated. At this stage, whether the baby can chew food well also has an impact on the development of teeth. Proper chewing can stimulate the growth of deciduous teeth and enhance the development of jaw and facial muscles. At the same time, it can also enable the baby to absorb the nutrients needed by the body through complementary foods.
2. You can choose softer and easier to chew foods in adult foods, and do not choose foods that are difficult to digest or too greasy.
3. In addition to adults helping to feed, you can also cultivate the baby's ability to eat on its own. You can prepare your baby's spoon and let him scoop up his own food to eat, which can also train your baby's hand-eye coordination and self-care ability.
The fourth stage
About 11-12 months: chewing period
Fragmented, solid
1, the baby has grown 6 to 8 teeth, can gradually handle adult food, while becoming more and more adept at the use of teeth. In addition, at this stage, the baby also has a good imitation ability, we can often do demonstration actions, remind the baby to bite and chew the food, so that the baby can smoothly convert to the general meal food.
2, give the baby some slightly harder biscuits, so that the baby is used to eating solid food.
3. Usually, you can provide some toys for the baby to train or stimulate oral movements, such as small horns, whistles, harmonica, etc.
It should be noted that after the age of one and a half, the types of edible foods for children are similar to those of adults, but the taste needs to be lighter, and the traits need to be relatively soft and fine.
After the age of 3, your baby can try to eat the same food as us