Sing to your baby during bottle feeding, using the child's name. Name items such as “cup” and “spoon", point to and read aloud the letters on food labels, and write the names of items required on grocery lists.
Responding to the child as quickly as possible and having the caregiver explain the process of what they are doing during care routines is taking educational advantage of the fact that caregivers are in close physical contact with the child during most caregiving routines.
Expose babies to self-feeding. Mean ages for self-feeding fine motor skills showed children reaching for a spoon when hungry (5 to 6 months), using fingers to rake food toward self (8 to 11 months) and using fingers to self-feed soft foods (13 to 16 months). Findings suggest that infants develop at their own rates and a wide age range for achieving these behaviours should be considered for infant feeding practices.