Feeding Your Baby: Fat Does Not Equal Healthy

If you have a very active baby, you may notice a slowing down of weight gain. That’s because your baby is using more calories for his continuous activity. The fact that your baby may not be gaining as much weight as before doesn’t mean that he is not healthy.

A fat baby is not a healthy baby. At this age, babies should be developing muscle tissue, not fat.

Expect your baby to play at mealtime. Splashing in the cereal and dropping food on the floor is all a part of learning. Usually this starts to happen when your baby has lost interest in eating. If you don’t want this to continue, take the food away from your baby and let him play with something else.

Your Baby Is In Charge of How Much He Eats

Worrying about what your baby eats, or does not eat, will only make both of you nervous. Don’t expect your baby to clean his plate or to eat "just one more mouthful." Trust him to be the best judge of how much to eat.

As your baby moves around to explore his world, he will become more independent. He may be eager to try out this new independence by insisting on feeding himself. Or he may be a little scared of his new abilities and may cling to you at mealtimes. He may even refuse to hold his cup or spoon and demand to be fed.

Whether your baby is a clinger or a self-feeder, try to be calm and patient. It will pay off in fewer feeding problems now and in the future.

A Variety of Things to Play With Help Learning

Try to give your baby things to play with that will give her many learning opportunities. Make available:

• Things or toys that encourage movement, such as push/pull toys, balls

• Toys with pieces that fit together, such as shape boxes, simple puzzles, blocks, stacking rings, nesting bowls

• Toys that require pressure to put together or take apart, such as bristle blocks, pop beads, rubber puzzles, pegboards, plastic pegs

• Things with varied textures, such as textured rattles, balls, blocks, fuzzy puppets

• Toys that make noise, such as musical toys, rattles, squeaky toys

• Toys that involve cause-and-effect relationships, such as windup toys, busy boxes

• Toys with hidden parts, such as a jack-in-the-box

• Toys that encourage talking, such as toy telephones, puppets

• Things that encourage pretending, such as play dishes, picnic supplies, hats, dolls, cardboard boxes

• Things for cuddling, such as stuffed dolls and toys

Even the best toys are better when you and your child play with them together. Infants need time to play alone, but they also need your praise and assistance.