Perfect Posture to Help Kids Eat

Perfect Posture to Help Kids Eat

A must read if you are starting solids, have a picky or fussy eater, or a child that has difficulty in chewing hard textures like meat.

If you’ve had anything to do with feeding young children, you wouldn’t be surprised to know learning how to eat is a complex (and messy!) process. One that takes at least 2-3 years. Sitting comfortably at the table with proper posture is one of the most important things you can do to help make it easier for them. Even for fussy eaters, improving their posture may be just the trick to help improve their eating behaviours.

Just for a moment, imagine this: have you have ever tried sitting to eat on a bar stool without foot support? It’s not very comfortable, you might fidget on your seat trying to get comfortable looking for where to place your feet and may not want to eat as much as you normally do. It can get tiring trying to keep your posture strong when your chair doesn’t support you properly.

It’s the same for babies, toddlers and kids. They can get tire quickly and become fussy with their food if their perfect posture is not supported properly. It’s also harder for them to chew properly and safely without ideal body alignment. They’re too busy concentrating on getting comfortable rather than concentrating on eating and chewing.

**10 reasons why eating posture is so important**

So what’s proper posture? 

• Ideal sitting position for eating requires the hips, knees and feet to be at 90° with weight evenly distributed
• The chair seat and your child’s back should be at 90° to support and maintain an upright position
• Choose a highchair with a foot rest or position one under the table to support the 90° positioning of the hips, knees and ankles
• Feet should be sitting comfortably apart, resting on the floor or footrest
• Use towels, cushions, and wedges to help support good posture and eating position
• Seat belts can help to stabilize the pelvis encouraging symmetry and stability (ensure seat belts don’t interfere with their breathing or sit across their abdomen)
• Provide a solid table surface, ideally positioned between the child’s belly button and breast level.

*Disclaimer: we were gifted with 2 x Stokke Tripp Trapp Chairs for our youngest babies to sponsor this post. However we genuinely love and recommend these chairs for supporting proper eating posture. We have purchased Tripp Trapp Chairs as paying customers for our older children when they started solids. We highly recommend these chairs for your own children – they will last for years and years (and years…) and will take them comfortably through into their teen (even adult) years.