MOMMY MINUTE ✼ Healthy eating habits for babies

Let us take a Mommy Minute to learn how to apply healthy eating habits for our babies!
Yes, you can learn to apply healthy eating habits for your baby in very easy steps!
Do you ever feel challenged when feeding your little ones? Fret not because if you apply these simple steps, you will find liberty in your feeding struggle!

Here are simple questions you need to ask yourself to help you establish healthy eating habits for your babies:

1. When will you feed?  Decide on your feeding philosophy when it comes to the schedule of feeding.  Whether it would be a flexible feeding schedule or demand, the most important thing is to decide what it will be and keep at it.  A flexible schedule means regular intervals of feeding breakfast, lunch and dinner.  Just as adults follow more or less a schedule on this, we should be able to guide our children to get used to a time to expect a meal and one that coincides with his or her hunger and sleeping pattern.  Feeding on demand means feeding the baby when he or she is hungry.  This may be ideal for parents who have the liberty of time to prepare at their child’s whim but not applicable to all especially for working parents.

2. Where will you feed? Establishing on an ideal location for feeding your baby will help him/her get accustomed to frequenting that place or area for nourishment.  It would be good to start babies used to sitting on the high chair when it is time for a feed and then slowly transition to the dining table where they can join the rest of the family for a time to eat together.

3. Who is the boss? A big part of helping our children in familiarising themselves with what habits to get used to when it comes to eating stems from identifying who is in charge of their nutritional needs.  Hopefully, we are taking the lead because they have no clue at this point as to what they need to grow and be healthy.  The sooner we establish who is boss when it comes to eating, the sooner we can set a stable set of foundations for our child’s growth and development.

4.  How will you feed?  As parents, we need to be clear about the ultimate reason why we feed our children.  Would it be just to get them fed or would it be because we are intentional in building memories in their tiny brains about the joy of coming together?  Hopefully, we make eating a fun memory and not just a task one has to get over with and quickly.

5.  What is the bottom line when it comes to feeding our babies? When we create the environment for fun, comfort and learning. That way, feeding becomes something both parents and children can enjoy together rather than a chore to get over with.