Feeding our children can be an overly anxious and emotionally charged task. Mika Shino brings a calming clarity to the challenge.
Food is a rich medium with many tangents. Social and cultural norms influence beliefs and behavior. Science infuses the discussion with concerns about calories and essential nutrients. The medical world measures growth and other markers of development. With this book, Mika Shino opens the discussion to a richer and wider realm, bridging the gaps.
Babies and children learn through food and with food at every stage of their lives. Breast-feeding and bottle feeding begin the adventure.
Solid foods are typically introduced about 6 months of age. These early foods are a natural medium—and feeding time is a perfect opportunity—to explore each developmental stage. There is learning for everyone: baby, mother, father, and all other caregivers as well.
During feedings, babies, toddlers, and older children get to explore the rich colors, tastes, smells, and textures of food with their hands and their mouths, your hands and mouth, a spoon, a cup, and sometimes with their skin, their clothes, and even your clothes.
Babies learn to open and shut their mouth around their hand, a finger, and every object within reach. Older infants explore with food. Soon they learn to grasp at “finger foods” and begin to feed independently.
Each feeding lends itself to the large and small motor skills development needed for more sophisticated tasks that lie ahead, including verbal communication and play. Your baby’s brain is very busy creating new neuronal pathways and networks.
Feeding is a time for children to explore a mix of sweet, sour, salty, and bitter tastes of food. But they also get to explore wet, dry, sticky, lumpy, and slick. Children will explore cold, warm, and, eventually, hot. If we let them, this is a time for young children to experience mild and spicy, sweet or savory, crunchy, crumbly, and mushy. Visual presentation and colors expand their horizons. This is the essence of Smart Bites for Baby.
Introducing a new food, and every new feeding method, represents a milestone. Each attempt can be celebrated, no matter the outcome. Some babies readily accept different tastes, textures, smells, and colors. Others will benefit from enormous patience, repeated exposure, and carefully timed practice. Every new taste, smell, or texture constitutes a learning experience—especially those times when the food at hand doesn’t quite make it inside the mouth or actually get swallowed.
Each time we slow down the process and calm our expectations, we allow our babies and children to tell us about themselves. Feeding during these tender years is about much more than just quieting hunger. It is not always easy or possible to engage in the process, but it is helpful to appreciate the opportunity at hand.
We get to learn what our children like—and what they don’t. We get to observe what is easy and what is difficult. We get to see how they handle frustration. We get to encourage them as they build their resilience. We learn how to soothe and can help them learn how to self-soothe when they get overwhelmed. And we get to do it again and again. This is the essence of feeding our babies “brain food.”
Mika Shino’s recipes are fabulously varied and inventive. Each one contributes nutrient density with the goodness of whole foods and champions essential nutrients, especially the often elusive Omega-3 fatty acids. Experiment with different mixes of protein- and carboyhydrate-rich foods and vary the fat content. See what you learn about your child’s energy needs and metabolism. A balanced mix of foods provides our children the energy they need to grow and develop. A good mix can positively influence a child’s mood and disposition, while a poor mix of foods can contribute to an emotional tumble.
Smart Bites for Baby celebrates food’s rightful place during a child’s early years. How your baby responds to food is like a puzzle or code that you get to solve. All behavior is communication. Smart Bites for Baby is a warm and wonderful resource for the journey ahead.