Why do babies eat with their hands? Should parents stop them?

When babies are young, they will grab food with their hands because they are not proficient in using spoons. But many parents are very disgusted with this, thinking that such behavior is unhygienic and unsightly, and it is everywhere and difficult to clean up. But in fact, eating with your hands is a necessary stage for your baby\’s growth, and it is also a major progress in your baby\’s physical and mental development. There are many benefits of using hands for babies to eat: 1. It helps the development of touch. The younger the baby, the more he likes to touch everything he sees with his hands. This is a way for children to understand the world. Using your hands to grab/take food not only allows your baby to better grasp the shape and characteristics of food, but also promotes the development of your baby\’s sense of touch and finger flexibility. 2. Cultivate an interest in eating. Learning to \”eat\” is essentially a kind of interest cultivation. The baby will become more and more familiar with food through \”hands-on\” contact, and at the same time he will become more interested in eating. 3. Promote appetite. The pleasure of eating food with your hands can not only enhance the baby\’s self-confidence in eating, but also increase appetite. Therefore, it is not useless for babies to grab food with their hands. What should parents do? Pay attention to hygiene and be sure to wash your baby\’s little hands before eating. After all, your baby\’s little hands have to \”personally\” touch the food. Then put a smock or bib on the baby to prevent the baby from soiling the clothes. Pay attention to safety and try to cut the food into small pieces or long strips to make it easier for the baby to grasp/handle. Keep foods with higher temperatures out of your baby\’s reach as much as possible to prevent them from being accidentally scratched and burned. Foods such as nuts and grapes should be handled as simply as possible before letting the baby eat them to prevent the baby from getting stuck in the throat or accidentally inhaled into the trachea and causing suffocation. In fact, as long as the baby\’s hands are washed, there is no need for parents to prevent the baby from grabbing food with their hands, let alone worry and tension about it. When the baby grows up (usually around 2 years old), the finger muscles develop to a certain extent and can use tools to eat, and the baby will no longer grab food with his hands.