How to Spoon Feed Your Baby

Today, I'm going to share with you six things I want to make sure you're not doing when you feed your baby with a spoon. I'm also going to show you six things I want you to do when you feed your baby. So let's jump right in!

My name is Lindsay, and welcome to the Little Foundations Channel, where I help parents and caregivers create healthy habits for their babies from the very start.

Alright, two general rules before we get started:

First, if you haven't already, I want you to go and watch my video on the Six Steps to Get Your Baby Ready to Start Eating. We want to make sure that before we even talk about spoon feeding, your baby is ready to start eating.

Second, I want to make sure that we are reading their cues. There are cues for when they're hungry, when they're full, when they're overwhelmed, or a little bit scared by all of this new feeding. So we want to make sure we're reading all of their cues.

Let's start with number one: No airplane. I know that this looks fun, but it is not a great way to start feeding your baby. For some babies, it can be funny and silly, and maybe they won't mind. But for many babies, especially when we're early on in this feeding journey, we want to make sure that we are not alarming our babies. We want to make sure we're not surprising them when they're not ready for a spoonful of food. Airplanes can be fun and cute, but really, they can catch a baby off guard, and that can make them more guarded when it comes to eating. We want to make sure that it's their decision when they're ready to open their mouth and eat some more. So unfortunately, especially in the beginning, there's no "Here comes the airplane."

And that goes right into number two: We're not sneaking in spoonfuls. Sometimes, parents will tell me, "Oh, sometimes when they're yawning or when they're looking the other way, I just try to get it in to see if they like it." That is not a way to build trust. And yes, I know your intentions are good and you want them to try this new food, but that is not a way for our baby to start enjoying feeding. We want to make sure that they are again making their decision when they're ready to eat. So we're not taking them by surprise and we're not sneaking in a spoonful.

Number three is that we're not going to have them chase the spoon. Sometimes, when our baby is eating and we're busy doing other things, sometimes it's easy for us to stand and just try to keep feeding them. But sometimes, it makes them stretch out or be put in an awkward position to try to swallow. They're trying to follow the spoon, and they're not really connecting with you. I know that life is busy, and there isn't always time to sit down and eat with them. But as best as you can, you want to be at eye level so that their baby has your face to look at and to see your reactions. But also so that they're not stretching or straining or trying to chase the spoon, instead of working on how to get that food down and swallow it safely.

Number four is a hard one, especially if you like a clean baby, but number four is, I don't want you to keep wiping their mouth every time you give them a spoonful. Of course, when there's a big glob or when it's coming out as soon as you put it in, I understand that you want to clean up your baby. But sometimes, when we keep our babies so clean that there's not even a speck of food on their hands or their face, it makes them overly sensitive to the times when there will be food on their face. We want to make sure that we are exposing them to different textures, even if they're a little bit messy. So please resist the urge to wipe their mouth after every bite.

And number five is, don't overwhelm them. Even if you've been feeding for a little while, we don't want to load up the spoon with a ton of food. We still want to keep it a manageable size so that they're not overwhelmed. So that they have time to swallow and safely respond before getting another bite. Sometimes, when we think that they're able to tolerate it, we start to load up the spoons with a pretty hefty bite. We want to make sure that we keep them safe and that they're able to manage it.

And this goes into number six. This one, a lot of families do it, and I'm going to show you how to do it a different way. When we're first feeding our babies, we're not really sure how to get the food to stay in their mouth, and the baby isn't really sure either. They're still figuring out how to move their mouth and move their tongue and to get that new food back. A lot of families will put a spoonful and then they bring the spoon up and out. And this can actually make it much worse because what we're doing is trying to deliver the food, I understand. But sometimes, we trap the food up behind where their little teeth will be, their little gum line. Their food gets trapped, and babies will instinctively try to clear that. And what they do is they push it out with their tongue, and the food winds up coming out. So even though we're not really sure how to get the food to stay in, we don't want to come up and out with the spoon. But let me show you exactly what you can do instead.

Now, I'm going to share with you six important things I want you to do when it's time for spoon feeding. Let's start with two things that will help them keep food in their mouth. Alright, this first one I call "Side to Slurp". And what that means is when we're still new to this feeding journey, what we can do is fill up a spoonful of food, and we're going to offer it on the side of the spoon. We're going to put the side of the spoon up to their lips, and we're going to see if they're interested. And if they go to try to get their food into their mouth, we are able to lift the spoon up for them to slurp it off. And sometimes, that can help them to control the food a little bit more. So we can take a spoonful and offer it on the side of the spoon to their lips. If they're interested and they're ready, we can start to tilt that, pushing it up to their lips and see if they will slurp it off. That will help them to have more control over it, especially in the beginning.

This next one I call "Straight Wait Straight". We're going to put the spoon straight in their mouth, we're going to wait a second, and we're going to pull the spoon straight out. Remember, we talked about that. We're not going to pull the spoon up and out. We're going to put it straight in, wait for a second, and pull it straight out. The reason is that they will be able to have more control when we have the spoon in the middle of their mouth, resting on their tongue gently. It reminds them of what they do when they have a breast or bottle nipple in their mouth. This helps them to move their tongue around the spoon and slurp off the food. This is going to help to keep them a little bit neater, if that's important to you. But also, it will help them to control the food and get more food in than out. This helps them to be able to curl their tongue around the spoon and take the food back. This reminds them of when they're drinking breast milk or formula, so they're going to be really good at this. So we're going to do "Straight Wait Straight."

This goes into number three, start small. Not only in the very beginning when we're starting to teach our baby how to eat, but also for every meal. It's okay to fill up the spoon just halfway full to see if your baby is ready and excited for more. We don't need to put a giant glob on there. We can start out small so that they can swallow it back safely.

Alright, number four is, give your baby their own spoon. In the beginning, it'll look a little bit uncoordinated while they're just trying to figure out the movement, while they're just trying to get the spoon to their mouth. It can help with teething and getting that gag reflex to go back. But it can also help them to get that coordinated movement, and the bonus is, it can be a little bit of a distraction while you're busy getting your next spoonful ready. When your baby is ready to try to take more, you can also teach them to be a little bit more independent, and we can put some food on their spoon.

Number five, read their cues. Make sure that they're ready. Even if your baby has been eating with a spoon for a while and you trust that they're safe and they're doing a great job, we want to make sure we're still waiting for them to open their mouth, like we talked about on the things that we don't want to do. We don't want to surprise them or overwhelm them, even while they're still learning how to feed themselves. It's important that we wait for them to give us the go-ahead to give them another bite.

And number six, if you're interested in more baby-led weaning or independent feeding, you can also do this with a spoon. We can teach them from when they're very, very little how to take from a spoon, how to scoop that food, and how to get it to their mouth. So when parents and caregivers start this, I will say to them, give yourself a spoon and give your child a spoon. You want to give them a scoop and then start to hand it to them. Many babies, when they're interested, will try their best to grab it and bring it to their mouth, and you can be there helping them to guide the spoon to their mouth. It can still be baby-led in that way, and that's a great way for you to practice that independence and that movement, but it's also a great way for you to read their signals. So don't forget that you can still make this very much baby-led with their own spoon.

Alright, so let's get back to eating. Remember to make sure that you're following their cues and following their lead. There are no surprises, and it's okay to be a little bit messy. Please reach out and let me know how it's going. 

For more baby feeding tips, my top 100 foods, allergies, choking hazards and myths, check this out. 

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