How to Teach a Baby to Chew (2 Simple Tips)
One of the many joys that a parent gets to experience is seeing their baby eat food for the very first time. In the first six months, though, your baby only requires milk for all of their nutritional needs. After six months, if your baby is showing signs of readiness, they can then begin their food journey!
As stated above, your baby must show signs that they are ready to eat food. If you give them food before they are ready, they may choke on the food or have a problem digesting it as their stomach is not developed enough. Continue reading to learn about two simple tips to teach your baby to chew.
Signs Your Baby is Ready to Eat Solids
Before you begin offering your baby solids, they must show signs of readiness. If your baby isn’t ready to eat, it will be a difficult (and messy) experience! Your baby may show interest in food, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that they are ready to eat. Here are some signs that show your baby could be ready to eat solids:
Your baby can sit alone or with minimal assistance
Your baby can hold their head up
Your baby has doubled their birth weight
Your baby no longer pushes food out by thrusting their tongue
Instead of making the call on your own, you can always wait for their six-month pediatrician appointment to get the green light from their doctor.
Tips to Teach Your Baby to Chew
If your baby isn’t getting the hang of learning to chew, there are a few things you can do to help them learn. Textures can be confusing to babies, but exposing them to new textures is beneficial for their development.
Here is what you can do to encourage your baby to chew:
Offer Teething Toys
Teething toys are typically used for sore gums, but they can actually be used to acclimate your baby to learn how to chew!
These toys are great for helping your baby develop their tongue and jaw muscles, which is exactly what they need to successfully chew. The textures of these sorts of toys also help babies get used to eating lumpy foods.
An important thing to keep in mind is that you can’t just toss a teething toy to your newborn baby and expect them to start gnawing on it. These toys come in handy once they are three or four months old and can be introduced before food so that they are not shocked by the unexpected textures from various foods. How weird would it be to have eaten out of a bottle your whole life and then suddenly eat foods with tons of different substances?
Give Your Baby a Variety of Foods
When your baby is learning how to eat, it’s best to stick to a couple of foods at a time until you know they aren’t allergic to the food. But once they start picking up steam, it’s time to expose them to a variety of different flavors and textures so that they have a cooperative palate!
After they master pureed food, they can then move on to mashed foods, like bananas and potatoes! While they are still soft and safe for your baby to eat, the chunky texture will help your baby practice their chewing skills.
What to Consider When Teaching Your Baby to Chew
Your baby is new to this world, so everything that we know already, your baby has to learn! This includes chewing and swallowing solid food. Your baby can’t just jump from a baby bottle to a juicy ribeye, as they will need to strengthen their jaw muscles and practice eating soft foods first. Here are a few ways that you can encourage your baby to eat and chew efficiently:
There’s no better way to teach than by example. Show your baby how to chew with their mouth closed by demonstrating this yourself.
Show your baby that they should chew for longer periods of time. This will help them digest their food properly.
Be sure to always offer positive reinforcement when they chew correctly. This encourages them to continue chewing the right way!
Not every baby will learn how to chew right away and may have difficulty doing so at first, and that’s okay! Every baby learns at their own pace. Another important thing to note is that if your baby is thrusting out their tongue while you try to feed them, they are not ready to start solids! If you try to force it, they may end up choking on the food.
Eating is not only a way to get the nutrition we need but also a fun experience and your baby will eventually want to join in! Be sure to start them out slowly with pureed, mashed foods, soft foods, and then, finally, solids. Before moving on to the next stage, monitor their eating progress to ensure that they are chewing and swallowing properly and are ready for the next phase of their eating journey!
Your baby, at this point, will likely eat with their hands, but you can offer the utensils for them to get used to holding them.
Track Your Baby’s Meals with Baby Connect
Eating is one of the many joys that we have in this life. Food is not only a way to receive the sustenance we need to stay alive, but it is also enjoyable and a way to bond with other people. Using mealtimes is the perfect way to help you bond with your little one!
When your baby first starts to eat, it’s important to slowly introduce new foods to ensure that they don’t have an allergic reaction. Baby Connect allows you to input any information you need, including all of the foods that they’ve tried already and whether they liked them or not! After your baby has tried a wide variety of food, you can easily plug in their favorite meals and allergies.
Download the app now to track all your baby’s mealtime fun!
