You can watch forever how a baby eats soup or vegetables with gusto. But few people are touched by a face smeared with porridge, hands in pumpkin puree or cookie crumbs on the floor. You have to pay for your child’s interest in food with cleaning and nerves. We tell you why you shouldn’t completely forbid your child to play with food.
Perception through play reduces anxiety
Children are naturally curious, but also suspicious. On the one hand, they wonder what this new green monster is that landed on the plate. On the other, it doesn’t look very friendly.
The opportunity to touch and sort raspberries or blueberries, to knead a boiled cauliflower inflorescence in your hands reduces the degree of anxiety . The main thing is not to forget to take off the child’s clothes and cover the surfaces around so that it is possible to play with food without consequences.
Touching food with palms, fingers, and even feet helps a child learn its features. He understands what to expect and how safe the food is. Remember how you first carefully test the water in the bath with your finger and only then dive into it.
Of course, a five-year-old smearing berries on the table will look strange. But for a child who has just begun to get acquainted with food, such behavior is normal. Etiquette training can begin later, when new products no longer frighten the child.
Helps to understand the world
In the first year and a half of life, a child tries out the world with his teeth: he puts toys, sleeves of clothes, and mother’s hair into his mouth. By allowing him to take food from a plate with his hands, you help him harmoniously live through this sensitive period of development.
If the sight of a toddler fishing out pieces of carrot from soup makes him feel sick, just give him a spoon. His coordination won’t allow him to use the cutlery according to all the rules, but you’ll be calm. But be prepared for the carrot to first end up in your hand and only then in your mouth.
Perception through play reduces anxiety
Children are naturally curious, but also suspicious. On the one hand, they wonder what this new green monster is that landed on the plate. On the other, it doesn’t look very friendly.
The opportunity to touch and sort raspberries or blueberries, to knead a boiled cauliflower inflorescence in your hands reduces the degree of anxiety . The main thing is not to forget to take off the child’s clothes and cover the surfaces around so that it is possible to play with food without consequences.
Touching food with palms, fingers, and even feet helps a child learn its features. He understands what to expect and how safe the food is. Remember how you first carefully test the water in the bath with your finger and only then dive into it.
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Of course, a five-year-old smearing berries on the table will look strange. But for a child who has just begun to get acquainted with food, such behavior is normal. Etiquette training can begin later, when new products no longer frighten the child.
Helps to understand the world
In the first year and a half of life, a child tries out the world with his teeth: he puts toys, sleeves of clothes, and mother’s hair into his mouth. By allowing him to take food from a plate with his hands, you help him harmoniously live through this sensitive period of development.
If the sight of a toddler fishing out pieces of carrot from soup makes him feel sick, just give him a spoon. His coordination won’t allow him to use the cutlery according to all the rules, but you’ll be calm. But be prepared for the carrot to first end up in your hand and only then in your mouth.
Trains sensory perception and fine motor skills
There are thousands of nerve endings on the tips of tiny fingers. And they are all connected to different areas of the brain. When a child picks up a banana, squeezes the sticky juice out of a tangerine, or crushes a cookie, his brain is developing .
The baby not only gets acquainted with the texture of food, he improves his finger grip and trains his gross and fine motor skills.
Allows you to study the properties of objects
In the first years of life, a child explores the world. Remember how a baby repeatedly throws a toy out of a stroller and waits for you to pick it up so that he can throw it again. These are experiences and experiments at an elementary level. And this knowledge will help the child in the future.
The parent’s job is to lead the process. What happens if you blow on hot soup? It will cool down. What if you blow on cold soup? Nothing will happen. What happens to broccoli if you dip it in a bowl of soup? Will it sink or not? Tell your child about everything that happens or will happen to the food during the game.
Develops thinking
Products can and should be used not only for food, but also for educational games.
- Sensory boxes with millet and beans, pasta beads, lentil and semolina appliques, salted pictures – all this is a safe way to develop creativity.
- You can hone your mental arithmetic skills on berries, turning afternoon snacks into an entertaining arithmetic lesson. It’s much easier to master subtraction when you see an apple disappear from your plate. “You had two apples, you ate one. How many apples are left?”
- Vegetables and fruits help to master the concepts of “long”, “short”, “soft”, “hard”. Food can be sorted by size, shape and color. Such games develop speech and increase vocabulary.
- Play tasty lotto. Blindfold your child and ask him to identify the product by taste. It is especially interesting to compare how the baby copes when he takes a piece of food himself and when you do it for him.
Fosters independence
There is no need to scold a one-year-old for every spoon that passes his mouth. This will only make him ask to be fed to avoid reproaches. Eating will be associated with something bad.
Getting to know food should not cause stress – then the interest in food will not fade and the baby will be willing to get to know new products. The same goes for encouraging independence. If you allow the child to eat on his own, he will learn to control his body faster. Coordination of movements will develop at its own pace, and very soon parents will not have to use a roll of paper towels to clean the kitchen.
5 Tips for Parents Ready to Allow Play with Food
- Use cling film or a Teflon-coated tablecloth to keep your table safe.
- If you’re not ready to look at an upside-down bowl of soup, just buy a suction cup bowl. Your baby definitely won’t be able to tip it over.
- Cover the floor under the child’s chair with a tablecloth, cling film, put a plastic mat. This way you won’t have to clean the kitchen after every meal.
- Always keep a roll of paper towels on hand.
- Have several sets of baby spoons so you can have a spare when the first one falls.
What can be done?
Be patient. The period when the baby eats with his hands, bangs a spoon on the table, crushes berries and wants to play with them will pass – and then you will be able to teach him the rules of behavior at the table.
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