When your baby's around a year old, they're probably figuring out that there's more to life than just milk.
Touching food and messing about with it is just as important as getting it down the hatch.
They're learning a huge amount all at once.
What they like, how things taste and feel and how to use their hands, and this little hand has a lot to get used to.
With twenty-seven bones and thirty four muscles to train, picking up food is great for their hand-eye coordination and when they'regood at that, let them try handling a spoon, it's just the trick for improving their fine motor skills: those tiny movements that use muscles in their fingers, hands and wrists.
Oh yeah, and it's great for learning to throw stuff.
But don't forget, keep chatting to them about what they're eating, they don't just want to know how to throw food all over the floor, they want to know how to talk about it too!
Your baby might make a huge amount of mess during mealtimes, but it's all a part of learning.
Mealtimes can be just as much about improving their ability to deliver food to their mouths as they are about learning different tastes and textures. And if you can talk to them all about the things they're doing and tasting, they'll be learning new words too.
Image caption, As your baby gets older, they'll soon realise that there's more to life than milk.
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