In the book “The boy who was raised as a dog” (《狗一样养大的男孩》), the Chinese name is also translated as “Stairway to Heaven”, it is said that the process of the infant brain’s initial formation of memory is to constantly repeat and regularly accept external stimuli, and then form memory patterns, which make the infant brain and external things to produce ” Association” (Association), and has an impact on behavior. When the next external stimulus appears, the brain will automatically be associated with the corresponding memory pattern. So, if you want your baby to eat happily in the end, you should let your baby’s brain associate “eating” with the emotion “happy”. On the other hand, if the brain associates “eating” with an “unpleasant” mood, it will make the baby have an aversion to eating, destroying the appetite and bringing about a series of problems in the baby’s eating. Therefore, when we expect our children to do something, we must make sure that they associate it with happy emotions rather than negative resistance. For this reason, in guiding your baby through the process of eating, you need to adhere to and implement the principle from the very beginning of adding complementary foods: no force-feeding, if you don’t eat it, don’t feed it! Here are some coping strategies for each stage of your baby’s behavior. First, 6-9 months This is the baby’s first trial of complementary food stage, food is mainly puree, parents feed. Adhere to the following principles: 1. Breastmilk/powdered milk is the mainstay, with solid food as a supplement, and complementary foods are added in the middle of the baby’s two milk meals. 2. Wait patiently for your baby to accept the new flavors. For each newly added complementary food, the baby may instinctively reject the new flavor, then, the baby refuses to take away, do not force feed, do not coax to eat. After a few days to try again, perhaps love to eat, if still refused, still decisively take away. 3.Stop feeding when your baby spits out the food. Don’t coax and trick your baby into taking more bites when he or she doesn’t eat. 4. Don’t stick to using only plastic spoons, try feeding tools made of different materials. Babies are very curious, even when the baby is eating complementary foods, but also with the tongue to feel the different materials and shapes of feeding tools, so respond to their needs, try plastic, porcelain, stainless steel and other spoons to feed, increase the baby’s interest in eating. 5, from the beginning, do not put any toys on the dining chair, some dining chair comes with dining chair toys do not use. From the short-term effect, toys can attract the baby’s attention, so that he is willing to stay in the dining chair, convenient for parents to feed. Then over time, the baby will play with toys and eat two things associated with a meal, the hands should have toys, and develop the habit of playing while eating. 6, insist that the baby eat solid food in the dining chair. Do not hold it in your hand for feeding. Second, 10-12 months Through the first stage of the continuous introduction of new complementary foods, and the baby’s digestive function continues to improve, in the second stage of the baby can already eat more food. At this point, if one day your mother finds that your baby, who used to eat with a big mouthful of food, suddenly refuses to eat the food you feed him or tilts his head away from you, she can carefully observe whether your baby has the following characteristics: Interested in adult food? Always trying to reach for the food or spoon you feed him? Refuses to eat when you feed him? If so, the baby is telling the adult, “I’m going to eat by myself!” Mothers can do this to respond to their babies’ needs: 1. Prepare foods at every meal that your baby can grab and eat on his or her own. Carrots, sweet potatoes, potatoes, pumpkin, broccoli, fish, etc. cut into finger-sized easy for babies to grasp; spiral pasta, semolina, bread, cheese, etc., cut into small pieces, are babies learn to grasp the good food. 2.While the baby is grasping for food, the mother can feed the baby from the side to ensure that the baby can eat enough. 3. Maintain great patience! Maybe let the baby try to grab food, meal time will be delayed longer, eat a bite to wait a long time, will also be spilled everywhere, however, every baby in the search for independence on the road to take the first step is to learn to eat by themselves, please moms must patiently wait for the growth of the little babies! 4, food spilled everywhere, do not loudly blame the baby, and do not show upset and angry look, which will make the baby anxious, irritable, at a loss for words, and even afraid to try. 5, spilled food on the floor, wait to eat, together with clean up. Cleaning up while eating will only strengthen your baby’s sense of throwing food, and he will think it’s a fun thing to do. 6. Put only a little food in your baby’s bowl at a time. If you put too much food in the bowl at once, your baby will be overwhelmed with choices and will start playing with the food or getting it all over the place. 7. If your baby is interested in a spoon, give it a try. Obviously she’ll get it everywhere, but she’ll be happy that mom gave her the chance to try it. 8. When your baby starts throwing food on the floor, refuses to eat any more, or struggles to get out of the dining chair, remove the food. Don’t use any toys to entice him to stay in the dining chair or coax him to continue feeding. 9. Don’t eat solid food immediately after drinking milk. The baby’s stomach is full, of course, will not have a good appetite. 10, still insist that the baby eat in the dining chair. 11, do not let the baby until the very hungry state and then give him food, in order to force the baby to eat on their own. Warm tips: ① reverse clothing. You can let the baby eat at will, do not worry about dirty clothes. ② Put newspapers or disposable plastic tablecloths under the baby’s dining chair to prevent food from falling to the ground and being difficult to clean. III. 12-16 months After 1 year old, solid food replaces breast milk/formula as baby’s staple food. After the first and second stages, babies have fallen in love with eating on their own and are able to grasp food well, and put it into their mouths with precision. And in the baby’s brain, he/she has initially associated the dining chair with eating and knows that sitting on the dining chair is eating, instead of asking to play with toys. In the third stage, the baby’s sense of autonomy, independence will be further enhanced. Mothers can try to do this: 1, boldly give the spoon to the baby’s own mastery. This is another slow and arduous process that requires great patience on the part of the mother. At first, the spoon is just a toy for the baby, will hold and bite and gnaw, knocking the bowl knock table, waving in the air, will get food everywhere. As your baby starts to get familiar with the spoon, he will also realize that the spoon is a tool used to pass food to his mouth, and he will start to try to eat with the spoon. 2.Prepare some finger-sized food, so that your baby can use both hand and spoon to put the food into his mouth without getting anxious and irritated because he cannot grasp the spoon and cannot eat the food. 3. Put several kinds of food in the baby’s bowl at one time and give him the freedom to choose which kind of food to eat. 4.While giving your baby the freedom to eat on his own when he is old enough, the mother will still do some assistance to help your baby to eat. As the baby gets better at grasping the spoon, the mother gradually reduces the frequency of assistance from the side. 5. Don’t blame your baby for spilling food everywhere. 6, still wait until after the meal to do cleaning together, do not eat while the baby, adults clean up. 7.When the baby refuses to eat again, throws the food or struggles to leave the dining chair, remove the food decisively. 8, 1 years old after the baby’s understanding of language is getting stronger, in the baby to throw food to tell mom “I do not want to eat again” when the mother can try to tell him “do not eat, shaking his head”, and to shake his head to demonstrate to him, and slowly the baby will be Through “shaking head” to express their own do not eat again. 9. Don’t let your baby eat alone, try to eat with your family to increase your baby’s sense of participation. When eating, family members should not pay attention to the baby all the time, but casually chatting and eating, the baby will feel like an adult, sitting together with all the people on an equal footing! Lastly, some moms may say that when their children go to kindergarten, they will naturally eat on their own. However, most of the cases I have seen are that even if the baby eats by himself in kindergarten because he is not being fed, once he returns home, he will still change his old habits and have all kinds of eating problems. Therefore, letting your baby eat on his/her own is not only the first step towards an independent life, but also the beginning of a good habit!