How to Encourage Children in Self-Feeding themselves?

How to Encourage Children in Self-Feeding themselves?

Children often show signs when they reach certain months of age, that invariably indicates their interest in self-feeding. They might try to grab the spoons or other utensils their parents are holding, or they might reach for food in the plates or take some random objects and bring them near the mouth.

When the child shows these signs, start age appropriate encouragement in aiding them for self-feeding. Some children with health issues might not show any interest in self-feeding even after reaching 11 or 12 months of age, this obviously induces panic in parents.

The best occupational therapists team are always at service for the worried parents assisting them with wiser tips in motivating children in developing self-feeding skills. Here are some of useful tips:

Encourage hand feeding: Children must be encouraged in using hands properly for feeding themselves. In order to expand the skill and mould it in the right way, parents can place food items in the hair or nearby tray where children tend to grab. The child at first will take it with the whole fist and push it into the mouth.

Then make the food items small and encourage them to grab it with their thumb and forefinger instead of using the whole fist. you could

Utensil Feeding: After successfully working on hand feeding, you could move the step closer to the utensil feeding by giving them tools they can hold and handle. Then using your hands on top of them you could imitate the motion of taking food from the plate and moving them straight towards the mouth.

Stay close during the meal times: Don’t expect children to eat as soon as you make them practice self feeding techniques. You might need to stay close to the child during feeding to monitor their style of eating, amount of food items put into the mouth, tolerance with different types and textures of food items etc.

Look out for choking: When children begin eating on their own, there are chances that they gag at the beginning. It is due to the larger amount of food items put into the mouth or the food portion might have gone to the back of the mouth.

Gagging is often the reflex signal to remove excess food from mouth or bring food into the front of the mouth for chewing, it is perfectly fine, yet choking is not. Choking it dangerous as the food particles might be blocking the airway thus requires immediate attention.

Embrace the mess: Children equipping themselves with self-feeding techniques are going to make it really messy. The mess extends with the floors having fallen food items, the dress of the child having food stains etc. Be patient, expect the mess and act accordingly by providing them aprons or spreading cloth on the floor.

Have family meals: Like all other skills and activities, feeding also modifies with observation and imitation. When the child is sitting with other family members, they tend to notice how others are using their utensils for eating and imitate it in their own ways.

Conclusion These are some of the tips that really get in the way of teaching children how to self-feed themselves. Make sure that all the food items, utensils etc are age appropriate. Thus always have advice and opinions from best occupational therapy centers in Ajman and other places for a detailed understanding.

THANK YOU PRESENTED BY, Best occupational therapists team

How to Encourage Children in Self-Feeding themselves?