Feeding Your Baby

While you are feeding your baby, your baby may be feeding the floor. Most babies don't learn how to use a spoon well until after their first birthday.

If your baby is interested, now is a good time to begin letting her practice using a spoon. Here are some foods that will stick to the spoon when scooped up:

• Yogurt
• Applesauce
• Cooked cereal (oatmeal, cream of rice, or cream of wheat)
• Cottage cheese
• Macaroni and cheese
• Mashed cooked beans
• Mashed sweet potatoes
• Pureed or mashed vegetables and fruits

If you are worried about your baby not getting enough food, try two spoons — one for you and one for her. If she will let you, give her a mouthful in between her efforts.

Include finger foods with your baby's meals. Although your baby may not be good at using a spoon yet, she likes to feed herself. Having some finger foods at mealtime gives your baby some easy foods to eat.

Good finger foods are:

• Unsweetened round cereal and cereal puffs
• Cooked vegetable strips or slices (carrot, green beans, and potato)
• Peeled, soft fruit wedges or slices (peach, pear, melon)
• Small, tender pieces of cooked and ground or shredded meat

Question and Answer: How Much Time Is Enough?

Question: Sometimes I feel guilty. Am I a lousy parent because I have to be away at work all day?

Answer: Of course not. But it is hard to be both a good parent and a good worker. If you find quality child care for your baby, and if you do your best to be a sensitive parent, your baby will usually do fine.

The research shows that what you do with your baby when you are together is more important than the number of hours you work outside the home. For example, babies usually form their first strong attachments to fathers and mothers during the same period (about 6 to 8 months of age), even when one parent works full time and the other is home with the baby.

From your baby’s point of view, the important thing is to have quality care all day long, whether at home or elsewhere, or with a parent or a child care provider.

Question: So it doesn’t matter how much time I spend with my infant? Answer: We wouldn’t say that. For example, some fathers spend almost no time playing with their babies. That is not enough. Research indicates that infants benefit from more stimulation and care from their fathers.

Researchers believe that babies benefit from having a close bond with more than one person. If your baby has one parent, other people can be important in your baby’s life, including grandparents, brothers and sisters, and child care providers.

No parent should think they must be with the baby all day, every day. This is hard on the parent, and may not be best for the baby.