Give Your Baby a Kick Start to Healthy Eating and Fitness

Your baby is beginning to hold her head up, but her tongue cannot manage food, not even cereal. If you try to feed your baby with a spoon, she will push the spoon and food out of her mouth with her tongue. She could choke if you put cereal in a bottle and try to feed it to her.

Your baby uses signals to “talk” to you. Learn the cues she gives when she is hungry and full. This will help set the stage for a lifetime of fitness.

When your baby is hungry, she may:

• Begin to move her mouth
• Rapidly move her eyes in her sleep
• Try to suck on her hand or tongue, your shoulder, or anything she can touch
• Bob her head and search around
• Be fussy, squirm, stretch, clench her fists or toes

When your baby has had enough food, she may:

• Push the bottle or breast away
• Turn her head away
• Put her hands in front of her mouth
• Cry and fuss
• Forcefully move her entire body away from you
• Smile and relax her body
• Fall asleep with the nipple in her mouth

Help your baby learn to enjoy moving. Encourage her to turn over by placing toys just out of her reach. She may try to twist toward them.

Help your baby stand up on your lap. Hold her up under her arms and bounce your legs. Dance with and sing to your baby. She loves to move to music.

Watch your baby. She may propel herself up on her chest. Encourage her to try.

Gently massage your baby. She still loves your tender touch.

Want to Learn More about Child Care and Development?

Check out this Web site: Zero to Three for Parents on development in the first three years of life.

If you have questions, contact your local Extension office.

When reading this newsletter, remember: Every baby is different. Children may do things earlier or later than described here. This newsletter gives equal space and time to both sexes. If we write he or she, we are talking about all babies.

Credits: This newsletter was adapted from Extension Just In Time Parenting Newsletters in California, Delaware, Georgia, Iowa, Kentucky, Maine, Tennessee, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Mexico, New Hampshire, and Wisconsin.