Promoting Self-Feeding to a Baby: The Small Puffs

I'm so amazed on how baby could develop her skills over the months. Particularly while observing Alula and her self-feeding activities. During almost three months, her skill develops tremendously.

I still remember the first day she took solid, she struggled handling the food in her hand. Not to mention aiming the food into her mouth. Everything is messy. Well, it's expected. I'm totally okay with it. I mean, I'd rather cleaning up her self-feeding mess than going through the hassle of preparing puree, spoon-feeding her and cleaning up the utensils afterwards :D

So, Alula is now developing her pincer grasp. She is now able to pick up small objects even though with a little bit of efforts. Knowing this, I start to adjust her finger food into smaller cuts. Also, I intentionally change her snacks that allows her to practice the pincer grasp further. Practice makes perfect, right?

So, I bought Gerber Graduate Baby Puff. The snacks are in the form of small stars, which are very appealing to babies. There are several variants of taste that can be chosen from.

This morning I did a trial: giving the puffs to Alula. Her first impression was confused! Why would mama offers this cute little toys to eat? She keeps looking at the puffs and looking at me simultaneously. What's this? Can I eat this? Looking at her jumbled look, I explain to her that this is food. It is save to eat. She isn't convinced yet. Then I took one puffs, eat it and chew it in front of her. She paid attention closely. Then she reach the puffs slowly, touch it with the tip of her fingers before finally she grasp it with her thumb and index finger. Not long after that, she put the puff into her mouth. Yeay! Then we tried again for the second piece and she did great. Great practice Lulu! We'll practice it over and over again :)