Social Eating for Babies and Children

Social Eating for Babies and Children

There are multiple key behaviours and habits that you can establish from the start of your little ones eating journey, which will help set them up with lifelong positive and healthy approaches to food. These skills can be significantly impacted by how often your baby and/or child is involved and included in eating with others, also known as social eating. Social eating is an essential part of a developing baby’s daily routine and is proven to impact growth and communication skills positively.

What is social eating?

Social eating essentially means how it sounds- eating socially! Eating together as a family or within a group of friends is a social experience involving communication and connection. The more we eat together with people, the more likely we are to establish stronger bonds with the ones we love, and this is especially true for our developing little ones.

Regularly social eating with your kids is a fantastic opportunity for increased vocabulary and communication skills and teaches them social cues and the typical ways your family eat. Overall, eating with people helps little ones learn how to interact with others. And the fact that mealtime happens three times a day (at least), your little ones will have multiple chances each day to both enjoy meals and learn with the ones they love.

How to incorporate social eating into your baby’s day

Even though it can be challenging for the entire family to enjoy a meal at the same time, try to encourage your family members to at least eat one meal together each day. For busy families with multiple kids and adults, the easiest meal to eat together could be breakfast before everyone departs and starts their day.

Regardless of the mealtime, the most important aspect is that your family communicates and enjoys food together. It’s an excellent time for babies and children to listen, learn, and observe conversations. Although it might be challenging to eat and feed your baby initially, mealtime will become easier once you begin introducing solids to your baby’s diet, or when your child becomes more independent with his or her self-feeding.

Tips for Social Eating

Even though it’s tempting and hard not to use your phones at mealtimes, try to avoid using distracting technology while practicing social eating with your little one and the family. Unfortunately, too much technology at the table causes us to be less likely to engage with each other, which will make mealtimes a less effective learning experience for your children (plus, it’s more fun for the entire family if no one is distracted by their phones!).

Another helpful tip for making social eating a pleasant and exciting time for the whole family is to get every person involved in helping your baby eat. For example, each day, your baby (or child) could sit by a different family member; that way, they can connect and learn with each family member. If you’re already introducing solids to your baby’s diet, encourage your family to take turns giving your little one new foods and talk to them about this new food item. Small conversations about what your baby is eating help them expand their vocabulary and learn more about what they’re eating.

Lastly, an idea you can use to encourage social eating within your family is by planning special days of the week for special foods the entire family loves and will look forward to. For example, if your family loves tacos, a taco Tuesday is the perfect idea to bring everyone together each Tuesday evening. Your baby might be eating differently, but just the fact that they are involved will make a huge difference in their eating journey.

Eating together is one of the small things to enjoy in life and can really bring a busy family closer together. No matter how busy the family may get, eating together at least once a day is both fun and beneficial for developing little ones and their food journeys.

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