Using my tiny hands

At the time you are introducing solid food to your baby, you will see that he is exploring food in his own way, he will explore its texture by smooshing it in his hand and or trying to adapt his grasp to pick up a spaghetti from his plate.

Transitioning to solid food is an exciting time for parents and baby. You can see this excitement when she sees the spoon full of food coming towards her mouth! She begins to anticipate this by opening her mouth to accept the food or closing it in rejection.

And as your baby grows, she will want to pick up food pieces off her plate with her hand. This is what we call finger feeding and it is when you start noticing the development of the skill of eye hand coordination.

Food festival

In order for your child to have an enjoyable eating experience at every meal, he/she needs to have an acceptable level of tolerance for all the sensory inputs related to food. Sensory input includes smell, sound, texture, taste, color, and temperature.

If you find that your child is wanting to always eat the same kind of food, sticking to one taste, always sweet or sour…, or one texture, or refusing some types of food, this may mean that your child has a problem with tolerance to one or more of the sensory inputs mentioned above.

As your baby is growing, mealtime always provides the opportunity to enrich and expand your child’s vocabulary span and their overall language skills. As a parent you can boost your child’s language by engaging him/her in a conversation using simple sentences by naming the food, the utensils, the food color…

You can use meal time to talk about feelings such as: humm … I’m hungry, I want to eat… or I’m full or I like or do not like this food. All those aspects can be targeted indirectly while sharing a meal.

Around 12 months your child can understand around 100 words which he can point at and understand simple directives such as “open your mouth”, “give me the spoon”. He is able to name familiar objects and use two words together. You should benefit from mealtime to provide him with choices so he can practice his expressive skills, for example do you want a banana or an apple?

These examples could raise some red flags that may be of concern regarding the phase of transitioning to solid food. If you are finding challenges during this phase of your baby’s development, it is advisable to talk to our professionals.

Finger Foodprints

For both parents and newborns, the switch to solid foods is a significant and exciting milestone. Oftentimes, this transition is very smooth however, some children find difficulty in adapting to this change. The difficulties of not being able to transition to solids can result in increased anxiety for the child and family at mealtimes, and a risk of poor nutrition.

Although in this phase, most problems stem from different underlying problems, it is important to break down why children struggle with transitions.

Why Do Children Struggle with Transitions?

Sticky Situation

As adults, any upcoming changes to our daily routine create an unbearable sense of anxiety and stress, it is no different for your little one!

Change requires a lot of effort, learning and adapting, therefore, it might not be surprising that switching between activities, locations, and routines can be challenging for young children.

Problem behavior is usually triggered by being asked to stop one thing and start another, especially in children who present struggles with emotions.

What to Look For?

• Resistance
• Avoidance
• Distraction
• Whining
• Melt-downs

If you notice any of the above repetitive behaviors while on this journey, this is because your child might be finding difficulty with understanding and expressing emotions, which often leads to feelings of frustration and anger.

If your child is showing any of the above signs and you’re finding this transition phase too challenging, Onesti can help pinpoint the root of your child’s problem with transitioning to solid foods. Get in touch with our professionals and benefit from our free consultation. We will offer you a better understanding of your child’s emotional responses, cues, as well as struggles that might affect transitioning, while also providing solutions and strategies to promote a healthy transition.

Weak oral motor skills

Just as your child will develop his motor skills, he will develop his oral motor muscles which are the muscles of the mouth, lips, tongue, jaw, the hard and soft palates. At this stage, motor control in this area is necessary for eating, drinking and swallowing.

Starting 5 months, your child’s oral motor muscles are stronger and he can now eat more solid food such as fruits and vegetables purée. Trust your mommy instinct, as for when to start solids. Look for readiness signs, such as when your baby starts putting his fingers or anything you give him in his mouth, when your baby looks at you eagerly when you are eating. Give your baby small spoonfuls but remember that it is ok if the food comes back out of his mouth the first couple of times as he learns to swallow new textures and adjusts to new tastes. Try to expose your child to a wide variety of food as this will help him to get familiar with new flavors later on. Gradually the food texture should become more like the food the adults eat. Some children develop food preferences by early age. However, children with weak oral motor muscle tone, have a hard time chewing the presented food. So they will have difficulty accepting new textures; they will either refuse the food, or will spend an extra long time chewing it, and may even frequently spit it.

If your child present any of the following signs:

• If he drools
• Accepting new food
• If he keeps the food in his mouth a long time
• If he gags, or coughs a lot while eating
• If his face turns red while swallowing
• If he has difficulty keeping the food in his mouth
• If he has difficulty with certain types food

Sensory Intolerance

When a child resists eating certain types of food because of their smell, sound, texture, taste, color, and temperature, it means that he/she has some kind of what we call sensory based feeding difficulties. It’s a sort of a sensory problem when a child refuses eating food based on one or more of its sensory characteristics. The child may refuse eating puree food because he/she can’t tolerate its soft texture in his/her mouth, or the child may refuse foods that have a sour taste because they sting him/her on the tongue.

Transitioning to solids can be a challenging task in and by itself, if you are finding difficulty transitioning, your child is not exploring in the ways mentioned above, or showing any one or more of the signs of weakness in oral motor skills, or is resisting eating certain types of food, it is advisable that you learn more about your child’s feeding development by filling ONESTI’s Bon Appétit checklist and talking to our professionals.

ONESTI’s Bon Appétit program is tailored to cater for your child’s needs and yours too. The program’s goals are to provide you with recommendations and strategies to support you in this daily routine activity by suggesting steps to follow to improve feeding quality. The program will also offer modeled techniques and exercises to be repeated at home to help strengthen oral facial muscles and improve your baby’s feeding skills so you can maintain a healthy and enjoyable feeding routine.

Using my tiny hands

Picking up peas with fingers, poking banana pieces with a fork, or scooping the cereal with a spoon, to hold any of the utensils in order to eat needs grasping skills!

When your child is eating independently, he/she will need different types of grips whether eating with hands or using a utensil.

Weak grasping skills can make feeding time difficult! If the utensil is not held with the right grip, it will take your child several trials, extra time and energy to bring food to his/her mouth, which might be frustrating and discouraging!

We all feel delighted when we watch our little ones start to eat and drink independently. Yet, none of us look forward to cleaning up the mess!

Getting food into the mouth without spilling, reaching for a drink without knocking it over, or securing a piece of food on a utensil, such as a spoon or fork, requires good eye-hand coordination. Without this skill children may accidentally get food on their cheeks or chin as they are trying to bring food to their mouth. They may overshoot, undershoot, or not align their utensil correctly resulting in spillage or a total mess!

ONESTI will guide you on strategies which you can use to teach your child the best and easiest way to feed himself and coordinate hand movements with their sight to eat their meal independently with minimal spillage. As well as providing you with exercises to strengthen fine muscles, of hands and fingers, to improve the quality of grip. So, you can smile and enjoy their newly found independence without worrying about cleaning up the mess!

Food festival

Eating is one of the most sensory-rich experiences. You smell the aroma of a freshly baked batch of cookies, you hear the popping sound of kernels in a pot and enjoy the crunching sound of popcorn, you feel the consistency and texture of mom’s freshly cooked rice, you experience the taste of a yummy tablespoon of chocolate spread, and who doesn’t like to indulge in a scoop of chocolate chip ice cream!

In order for your child to have an enjoyable eating experience at every meal, he/she needs to have an acceptable level of tolerance for all the sensory inputs related to food. Sensory input includes smell, sound, texture, taste, color, and temperature.

If you find that your child is wanting to always eat the same kind of food, sticking to one taste, always sweet or sour…, or one texture, always mashed or crunchy… or refusing some types of food, this may mean that your child has a problem with tolerance to one or more of the sensory inputs mentioned above.

When it’s time for your child to explore the world of big kids’ food in it’s all real characteristics from texture to smell and taste, ONESTI can help you learn more about your child’s eating habits, whether he/she has sensory intolerances or it all has to do with sensory preferences.

Benefit from this daily activity to help your child improve his receptive skills. Give him/her a short, easy directive such as open your mouth, let’s chew this apple! Take one more bite and you’re all done!

When you give your child his food, leave out the fork or the spoon, this way you will create for him the opportunity to ask for it, or intentionally give him a small portion so he can ask for more food.

Between the ages 18 -24 months children have around 250 words in their vocabulary which they can understand and can use. They can ask for common foods by name, they can start to combine words, such as “more milk” and are able to use 2-word phrases such as “want cookie”.

If your child is around 2 years and is still unable to ask for what he wants using words or always points instead of speaking. If your child has difficulty remembering objects’ names, for example he has learned the word spoon, then he would call everything used for eating, a spoon. If your child still requests using one-word sentences, so he says “apple” instead of “give apple”.

Remember a child who has difficulty expressing his needs or has little vocabulary to say what he wants, gets frustrated and is more prone to developing behavior problems than other children.

 Follow my lead 

Independent eating is a major event in the life of your little one! It serves as an opportunity for social engagement through both verbal and nonverbal cues. If you think about it, some of your fondest memories are around the dinner table, sharing the highlights of your day, making jokes, and bonding. Not only does eating provide nourishment, but it also offers a chance for your little one to learn more about social interaction and understanding other’s emotional cues.

Attitude towards independent eating is heavily influenced by temperament. This is the time for your child to assert their autonomy, and shine through their unique character. This is where it is time for you to take a step back!

Make room for experimentation and exploration. Children learn not from instruction only, but through experience. Allow them to play by stepping away if necessary. Your child may need to try new textures, utensils, or flavors at every stage. Remember that even if they fail, your child may want to try it themselves loads of times. Some children need to spill or drop food on themselves repeatedly, but with each mess they create, they become a step closer to gaining their independence.

Importance of Family Mealtime

Making memories

Not only does a regular routine for mealtimes strengthen the family bond, it can also help your child be more organized and promote their independence. Your little one can benefit from at least one scheduled and consistent family mealtime a day. This doesn’t only provide an opportunity for learning and imitating family members’ eating habits, eating patterns, and behavior, but will also promote the feeling of belonging by taking part in this daily ritual. Your child can observe and learn more about utensils, different foods as well as the social skills required for this routine. It might be messy at first, and you might fight the urge to just feed your little one  prior to the family’s mealtime, but by embracing the mess, you are providing endless learning opportunities for your child to grow, explore and eventually be a successful independent eater.

Social Influences That Affect Decision Making

Opinion overload

Being a parent is like a roller coaster ride, it is both complex, filled with ups and downs yet extremely exciting and rewarding. Parenting does not happen in isolation and therefore, a lot of external social and cultural influences might affect decision making. Grandparents and other family members, neighbors and friends can be of great help during the early stages of having a newborn baby, and while their experiences can be a learning reference, it is very important to be able to separate their parenting experience from your own. Settling into your feeding routine with your child is a very delicate phase, and everyone might have conflicting opinions when it comes to that. What works for one family or one child might not work for another. Try not to fall in the trap of social stigma, take decisions that benefit your family confidently, without fear or guilt, even if it means you are going to receive backlash. Remember that making the best decision for your family is your right, and while everyone around you is appreciated for their concern, you have the final say!

If your child is still dependent on you and is struggling to reach independence, do not hesitate to contact our professionals and benefit from a free consultation. We will provide guidance and tips for you and your child which promotes a healthy relationship with food, developing your child’s independence and skills as well as a consistent family routine that can benefit all members of the family!

Mealtime should be an enjoyable time for the family! Yet, why do some parents find it stressful? Some children may show challenging behaviors during meal times that may look something like this…

• Being picky about what food they will and will not eat.
• Pushing for independence by wanting to feed themselves, which can be very messy!
• Eating very slowly, to the point where it may get frustrating for some parents!
• Refusing to come to the table or to stay at the table until they are done eating, thus we see their parents running behind them to make sure their kids eat the minimal amount of food.

These challenging behaviors might be a phase that starts and ends in a specific time frame, but sometimes it might continue and escalate.

These examples could raise some red flags that may be of concern during the phase in which you child is growing to become independent in this routine. If you are finding challenges during this phase of your child’s development, it is advisable that you fill ONESTI’s Bon Appétit checklist  and talk to our professionals.

ONESTI’s Bon Appétit program is tailored to cater for your child’s needs and yours too. The program’s goals are to provide you with recommendations and strategies to support you in this daily routine activity by suggesting steps to follow to improve feeding quality. The program will also offer modeled techniques and exercises to be repeated at home to help strengthen oral facial muscles and improve your baby’s feeding skills so you can maintain a healthy and enjoyable feeding routine.