How to Make Eating Solids Fun

By Kristi Patrice Carter 
 

To make sure a baby has a healthy start as they enter the process of growing, learning, and living, introducing major milestones in a positive manner will help establish habits that last a lifetime. This couldn’t be closer to the truth when it comes to the way children are taught about making healthy food choices. This is why weaning a baby from bottle to solid foods is a very influential and important time in their lives. The key is to make the introduction of healthy foods a significant and fun part of their developmental growth.  
 
Some children are naturally finicky when it comes to food, while others are constantly trying to satisfy their curiosity with new objects they can put into their mouth. If you influence your children at an early age to enjoy eating solid foods that are good for them, they are more apt to continue their affinity for such items as they age. This approach may also lessen your child's chances of suffering from obesity in the future. Since discovering solid foods is a new experience that takes your child further away from the security of their bottle, resistance may arise. By making this an enjoyable process, it will help build a much easier transition. Parents will have to dig deep and display a bit of creativity to make the introduction of solid foods fun.  

It may seem like a laughable approach, but transforming pieces of food into recognizable objects will make a child feel comfortable. Using action to gain interest in solid foods is a good way to capture the attention of your little one during mealtime and make them forget about the bottle. The time-honored tradition of turning a spoon into an airplane can be applied to solid food items like vegetables and fruit. Children also react to color so you may find the best results come when flashes of orange, red, yellow, and green are used. First introductions should also be pleasant ones, making a juicy pear or soft banana great candidates.  
 
When introducing solid foods, you could present the challenge like a fun party, using background music to sooth your anxious child. Dance may also entertain and calm your child as they wonder why you have a bowl of vitamin-fortified cereal in your hand and not their trusty bottle. When you exhibit the notion that eating solid foods is fun, happy, entertaining, and satisfying, they will soon warm up to the idea.  
 
As a parent, you should also be aware of when your child is ready to make the leap from bottle to solid foods. Knowing the kinds of foods that are appropriate according to their age is also important to learn. Usually, at six months of age, many parents will start to introduce solid foods to their baby. Soft rice-, barley-, and oat-flavored cereals are common, as well as acorn squash, sweet potatoes, apples, pears, and bananas.  
 
When a child is between the ages of six- and eight-months old, items like pumpkin, yellow squash, zucchini, apricots, peaches, and plums are acceptable. They may even enjoy their first taste of chicken. The older they get, the more options become reasonable. For instance, at 10-12 months old, children are often experimenting with graham crackers, crackers, hard "O" shaped cereal, broccoli, spinach, carrots, corn, kiwi, berries, pineapples, lean beef, nuts, and turkey.