Baby cereal

#porridge#baby#meal

Porridge is often the first real food, and for a small child both the texture and the spoon are new. When the same pictures show the same steps every morning, mealtime becomes familiar. The pictures are below.

Baby cereal

A bowl of porridge with a spoon.

A woman eats porridge from a bowl with a spoon.

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Eating porridge

A woman eats porridge from a bowl with a spoon.

About this visual support

That little bowl of porridge holds a lot that is new all at once. The texture is neither runny like milk nor firm like a biscuit, the spoon approaches the mouth from a direction the child does not control, and it smears across the chin, the hands and the high chair. A child who has just started solids can become hesitant simply because everything happens at the same time.

A few simple pictures turn the meal into a short, repeated story: bib on, up into the chair, porridge in the bowl, eat with the spoon and finally wipe the mouth. Even a child who is not talking yet recognises the order after a few days and knows that the messy part ends with a soft cloth. The pictures also help other adults, such as a grandparent, do things the same way.

A practical tip is to give the child a spoon of their own to hold while you feed with another. The hands get something to do, and the child practises the movement without any pressure. If you want to link breakfast, nappy changes and naps into one schedule, you can try Routined for 14 days at no cost.