1. PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY
Chapter 4
PHYSICAL DEVELOPMENT IN INFANCY
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

2. LO 4-1 How do the human body and nervous system develop?
LO 4-2 Does the environment affect early development?
LO 4-3 What developmental tasks must infants accomplish in this period?
LO 4-4 How do motor skills develop in infancy?
LO 4-5 What is the role of nutrition in physical development?
LO 4-6 What sensory capabilities do infants possess?
LO 4-7 How sensitive are infants to pain and touch?
Learning Objectives

3. GROWTH AND STABILITY

4. Physical Growth: The Rapid Advances of Infancy
Infants grow at a rapid pace over the first two years of their lives (see Figure 4-1)
5 months: average birth weight doubles to around 15 #
1 year: weight triples to about 22 pounds
End of 2nd year: average child weighs around four times as much as at birth

5. How they grow… Continuous Figure 4-1 Height and Weight Growth
Although the greatest increase in height
and weight occurs during the first year of
life, children continue to grow throughout
infancy and toddlerhood.
(Source: Cratty, 1979.)

6. Physical Growth: The Rapid Advances of Infancy
Not all parts of an infant's body grow at the same rate
At Birth:
head accounts for one-quarter of newborn's entire body
During 1st & 2nd year:
rest of the body begins to catch up

7. An Interesting Head Count
Figure 4-2 Decreasing Proportions
At birth, the head represents one-quarter of
the neonate's body. By adulthood, the head
is only one-eighth the size of the body. Why
is the neonate's head so large?
Not all parts of an infant's body grow at the same rate.
At birth the head accounts for one-quarter of the newborn's entire body size.
During the first 2 years of life, the rest of the body begins to catch up.
By the age of 2 the baby's head is only one-fifth of body length, and by adulthood it is only one-eighth.

8. There are gender and ethnic differences in infant weight and length
Girls generally are slightly shorter than boys
Girls weigh slightly less than boys
Gender differences remain throughout childhood
Asian infants tend to be slightly smaller than NA Caucasian infants
African-American infants tend to be slightly bigger than NA Caucasian infants.

9. Physical Growth: The Rapid Advances of Infancy 4 Principles

10. Nervous System and Brain: A Foundation of Development
Neurons are the basic cells of the nervous system
Nervous system comprises the brain and the nerves that extend throughout the body

11. Brain Development Prenatal
Neurons multiply at an amazing rate prior to birth.
At some points in prenatal development, cell division creates some 250,000 additional neurons every minute.
Birth
billion neurons
Relatively few neurons-neuron connections
During first two years
Billions of new connections established and become more complex
Adult
A single neuron is likely to have a minimum of 5,000 connections to other neurons or other body parts.

12. Babies are born with many more neurons than they need
Use it or lose it!
Although synapses are formed throughout life, based on our changing experiences, the billions of new synapses infants form during the first two years are more numerous than necessary
Synaptic pruning
Unused neurons are eliminated
Allows established neurons to build more elaborate communication networks with other neurons
Development of nervous system proceeds most effectively through loss of cells
Myelination
“Insulation” of the wiring
Protects & speeds information conduction
Activity-dependent effects on myelination cannot be considered strictly a developmental event. (Fields, D.,Myelination: An Overlooked Mechanism of Synaptic Plasticity? Neuroscientist 2005)

13. Neuron Networks Over the first two years of life, networks of neurons
become increasingly complex and interconnected.
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

14. Coming to terms with your brain…
Neurons
Dendrites
Axons
Neurotransmitters
Synapses
Like all cells in the body, neurons have a cell body containing a nucleus.
But unlike other cells, neurons have a distinctive ability: They can communicate with other cells, using a cluster of fibers called dendrites at one end.
Dendrites receive messages from other cells.
At their opposite end, neurons have a long extension called an axon, the part of the neuron that carries messages destined for other neurons.
Neurons do not actually touch one another. Rather, they communicate with other neurons by means of chemical messengers, neurotransmitters, that travel across the small gaps, known as synapses, between neurons.

15. Form and Function: Brain Growth
Neurons reposition themselves with growth, becoming arranged by function
Cerebral cortex
upper layer of the brain
higher-order processes: thinking & reasoning
become more developed and interconnected
Subcortical levels
Lower layers of the brain
regulate fundamental activities: breathing & heart rate
most fully developed at birth.

16. Don't shake the baby! Shaken Baby Syndrome
Brain sensitive to form forms of injury
Shaking can lead to brain rotation within skull
Blood vessels tear  severe medical problems, long-term disabilities, and sometimes death

17. Brain Development: Influences and Definitions
Environmental Influences
Sensitive Period
Plasticity
a specific, but limited, time,
usually early in an organism's
life, during which the organism
is particularly susceptible to
environmental influences
relating to some particular
facet of development
the degree to which a
developing structure or
behavior is modifiable
due to experience

18. What do babies do all day?
Integrating the bodily systems: Life cycles of infancy
Rhythms: repetitive, cyclical patterns of behavior
Wake
Sleep
Eat
Eliminate
Initially like separate individuals all playing their own melody.
Eventually they become like a jazz band still playing their
own riff but weaving a single, harmonious, song.

19. Rhythms and States State One of major body rhythms
Degree of awareness infant displays to both internal and external stimulation
Change in state alters amount of stimulation required to get infant's attention
Electrical brain waves can be measured by electrocephalogram (EEG)
Some of the different states that infants experience produce changes in electrical activity in the brain.
These changes are reflected in different patterns of electrical brain waves, which can be measured by a device called an electroencephalogram, or EEG.
Starting at three months before birth, these brain wave patterns are relatively irregular.
By the time an infant reaches the age of 3 months, a more mature pattern emerges and the brain waves become more regular.

20. Primary Behavioral States

21. Primary Behavioral States

22. Sleep: Perchance to Dream
Major state
16-17 hours daily (average); wide variations
heart rates increase and become irregular, their blood pressure rises, and they begin to breathe more rapidly
Different than adult sleep
2 hour spurts; periods of wakefulness
Cyclic pattern
By 16 weeks sleep about 6 continuous hours; by 1 year sleep through night

23. Cycle of Infant Behavioral States
Awake
Non-alert
Fussing
Crying
Drowse
Daze
Sleep-Wake Transition
Transition between Sleeping and Waking
Active
Quiet
Sleep
Active-Quiet Transition Sleep
Transitional Sleep States

24. REM Sleep Period of active sleep
Closed eyes begin to move in a back-and-forth pattern
Takes up around one-half of infant sleep
May provide means for brain to stimulate itself through autostimulation
In Adults correlated with memory storage Why not in babies too?
Sometimes, although not always, their closed eyes begin to move in a back-and-forth pattern, as if they were viewing an action-packed scene. This period of active sleep is similar, although not identical, to the rapid eye movement, or REM, sleep, that is found in older children and adults and is associated with dreaming.
At first, this active, REM-like sleep takes up around one-half of an infant's sleep, compared with just 20 percent of an adult's sleep (see Figure 4-6). However, the quantity of active sleep quickly declines, and by the age of 6 months, amounts to just one-third of total sleep time.
Some researchers think it provides a means for the brain to stimulate itself—a process called autostimulation.
Stimulation of the nervous system would be particularly important in infants, who spend so much time sleeping and relatively little in alert states.

25. REM Sleep Through the Lifespan
Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep: Period of sleep that is found in older children and adults and is associated with dreaming
As we age, the proportion of REM sleep increases as the proportion of non-REM sleep declines. In addition, the total amount of sleep falls as we get older. (Source: Based on Roffwarg, Muzio, & Dement, 1966.)
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

26. Did you find examples in the text that suggest that cultural practices affect infants’ sleep patterns?
the Kipsigis of Africa, infants sleep with their mothers and are nurse whenever they wake.
They accompany their mothers during daily chores, napping while strapped to their mothers’ backs
Kipsigis infants do not sleep through the night until much later than babies in Western societies,
the first 8 months of life, they seldom sleep longer than 3 hours at a stretch.
In comparison, 8-month-old infants in the United States may sleep as long as 8 hours at a time
Much like US breast fed kids

27. SIDS: The Unanticipated Killer
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is a disorder in which seemingly healthy infants die in their sleep
SIDS strikes about 2,500 infants in the United States each year
Although it seems to occur when the normal patterns of breathing during sleep are interrupted, scientists have been unable to discover why that might happen

28. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
SIDS
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
Leading cause of death in children under 1 year of age
Back-to-sleep guidelines (AAP)
Differential risk
Boys
African American infants
Low birthweight
Low APGAR scores
Mother's smoking
Some brain defects
Child abuse
Don’t shut the nursery door!
Use your EARS!
Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is a disorder in which seemingly healthy infants die in their sleep
SIDS strikes about 1 in 1,000 infants in the United States each year.
Although it seems to occur when the normal patterns of breathing during sleep are interrupted, scientists have been unable to discover why that might happen.
American Academy of Pediatrics now suggests that babies sleep on their backs rather than on their sides or stomachs—called the back-to-sleep guideline. In addition, they suggest that parents consider giving their babies a pacifier during naps and bedtime.

29. Declining Rates of SIDS
In the United States, SIDS rates have dropped dramatically as parents have become more informed and put babies to sleep on their backs instead of their stomachs.
(Source: American SIDS Institute, based on data from the Center for Disease Control and the National Center for Health Statistics, 2004.)
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

30. Back-to-sleep is important!
SIDS is found in children of every race and socioeconomic group and in children who have had no apparent health problems
SIDS strikes about 1 in 1,000 infants in the USA each year.
Although it seems to occur when the normal patterns of breathing during sleep are interrupted, scientists have been unable to discover why that might happen.
American Academy of Pediatrics now suggests that
babies sleep on their backs rather than on their sides or stomachs—called the back-to-sleep guideline.
parents consider giving their babies a pacifier during naps and bedtime.
Back-to-sleep is important!

31. MOTOR DEVELOPMENT

32. Motor Development
Shape and proportions of newborn babies are simply not conducive to easy mobility
Young infants lack the strength to raise large heads
Movement is further impeded because limbs are short in relation to the rest of the body
Infant bodies are mainly fat, with a limited amount of muscle; the result is a lack strength

33. Motor Development
BUT
At birth newborns have an extensive repertoire of behavioral possibilities brought about by innate reflexes, and their range of motor skills grows rapidly during the first two years of life

34. Reflexes: Inborn Physical Skills
Learned, organized involuntary responses that occur automatically in presence of certain stimuli
WHAT?
No, No! Reflexes are wired up unlearned responses to stimuli!

35. Some Basic Reflexes in Infants

36. Some Basic Reflexes in Infants

37. Why do neonate reflexes come and go?
Evolutionary explanations of development: gradual disappearance of reflexes to result of increase in voluntary control over behavior that occurs as infants become more able to control their muscles.
It may be that reflexes form the foundation for future, more complex behaviors. As these more intricate behaviors become well learned, they encompass the earlier reflexes.
Perhaps reflexes stimulate parts of the brain responsible for more complex behaviors, helping them develop.

38. Intensive practice of motor behaviors
May produce earlier appearance of certain motor activities
No evidence the activities are performed qualitatively better
Even when early gains are found
Do not produce a child w/ better motor skills
Do not produce an adult w/ better motor skills.

39. Ethnic and Cultural Differences and Similarities in Neonatal Reflexes
Genetically determined
Universal
Cultural variations in ways displayed
Moro reflex
Serves
Diagnostic tool
reflexes emerge and disappear on a regular timetable
their absence—or presence—at a given point of infancy
a clue that something’s wrong in an infant's development.
Social function
Survival function

40. Moro Reflex: Some differences reflect cultural and ethnic variations
Moro Reflex (Startle Reflex) - stretch out the arms, flex the legs, and grab.
Caucasian infants show a pronounced response.
Also cry and respond in a generally agitated manner.
Navajo babies react much more calmly.
Arms do not flail out as much and rarely cry.

41. Milestones of Motor Development
Fifty percent can perform each skill at the month indicated in the figure.
Timing at which each skill appears varies widely.
24% walk well at 11.1 months
90% by 14.9 months
Young infants still are able to accomplish some kinds of movement.
When placed on their stomachs they wiggle their arms and legs and may try to lift their heavy heads.
As their strength increases, they are able to push hard enough against the surface on which they are resting to propel their bodies in different directions.
They often end up moving backwards rather than forwards, but by the age of 6 months they become rather accomplished at moving themselves in particular directions.
These initial efforts are the forerunners of crawling, in which babies coordinate the motions of their arms and legs and propel themselves forward.
Crawling appears typically between 8 and 10 months.
Walking comes around the age of 9 months; most infants are able to walk by supporting themselves on furniture, and half of all infants can walk well by the end of their first year of life.
Most are able to sit without support by the age of 6 months.

42. Motor Progress
Young infants still are able to accomplish some kinds of movement.
When placed on their stomachs they wiggle their arms and legs and may try to lift their heavy heads.
As their strength increases, they are able to push hard enough against the surface on which they are resting to propel their bodies in different directions.
They often end up moving backwards rather than forwards, but by the age of 6 months they become rather accomplished at moving themselves in particular directions.
These initial efforts are the forerunners of crawling, in which babies coordinate the motions of their arms and legs and propel themselves forward.
Crawling appears typically between 8 and 10 months.
Walking comes around the age of 9 months; most infants are able to walk by supporting themselves on furniture, and half of all infants can walk well by the end of their first year of life.
Most are able to sit without support by the age of 6 months.

43. Dynamic Systems Dynamic systems theory
Describes how motor behaviors are assembled
Motor skills do not develop in vacuum
Each skill advances in context of other motor abilities
As motor skills develop, so do non-motoric skills
Theory places emphasis on child's own motivation (a cognitive state) in advancing important aspects of motor development
Motor development in a particular sphere, such as beginning to crawl, is not just dependent on the brain initiating a “crawling program” that permits the muscles to propel the baby forward.
Instead, crawling requires the coordination of muscles, perception, cognition, and motivation.
Theory emphasizes how children's exploratory activities, which produce new challenges as they interact with their environment, lead them to advancements in motor skills.

44. Developmental Norms Comparing Individual to Group Norms:
Represent the average performance of a large sample of children of a given age
Permit comparisons between a particular child's performance on a particular behavior and the average performance of the children in the norm sample
Must be interpreted with caution
Brazelton Neonatal Behavior Assessment Scale (NBAS)
Brazelton Neonatal Behavior Assessment Scale (NBAS): one of the most widely used techniques to determine infants’ normative standing; measure designed to determine infants’ neurological and behavioral responses to their environment; provides a supplement to the traditional Apgar test.

45. Nutrition in Infancy Fueling Motor Development
Without proper nutrition, infants cannot reach physical potential and may suffer cognitive and social consequences
Infants differ in growth rates, body composition, metabolism, and activity levels

46. So what is a healthy caloric allotment for infants?
About 50 calories per day for each pound of weight
Most infants regulate their caloric intake quite effectively on their own
If are allowed consume as much they seem to want, and not pressured to eat more, they will be healthy

47. Malnutrition Malnutrition
Condition of having improper amount and balance of nutrients, produces several results, none good
More common in children living in developing countries
Slower growth rate
Chronically malnourished during infancy
later lower IQ score
Do less well in school
Effects linger even after improved diet

48. Underweight Children
Percent under five years who are moderately or severely underweight.
Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

49. Are problems of malnourishment restricted to developing countries?
In the United States, some 12 million children live in poverty, which puts them at risk for malnutrition. In fact, although overall poverty rates are no worse than they were 20 years ago, the poverty rate for children under the age of 3 has increased. Some one-quarter of families who have children 2 years old and younger live in poverty.
Refer students to Figure 4.10 to discuss rates for African American and Hispanic American and single-parent families.

50. Undernutrition: Dietary Deficiencies
Undernutrition also has long-term costs, including mild to moderate cognitive delays
Up to 25% of 1- to 5-year-old US children have diets that fall below minimum caloric intake recommended by nutritional experts
1/5 of US children go to bed hungry.
Do you believe these “statistics”?

51. When Malnutrition Is Severe
Maramus
Malnutrition in first year
Infants stop growing.
Attributable to severe deficiency in proteins and calories
Causes the body to waste away
Ultimately results in death
Kwashiorkor
Found in older children
Child's stomach, limbs, and face swell
Body struggles to make use of few available nutrients

52. Nonorganic Failure to Thrive
Sufficient nutrition
but are deprived of attention and stimulation.
Symptoms
underdevelopment, listlessness, and apathy
usually occurs by age 18 months.
Reversal
possible through intensive parent training
or removal to emotionally supportive environment.
Infants receive sufficient nutrition Symptoms include
Reversal

53. “A fat baby is a healthy baby.” Really?
Not necessarily.
No clear correlation between obesity during infancy and obesity at 16 years
BUT - some research suggests overfeeding during infancy may lead to the creation of an excess of fat cells
remain in the body throughout life
may predispose a person to be overweight.
Weight gain during infancy may relate to weight at 6
Weight at 6 associated with adult obesity.

54. Is Breast Best?
Starting around the 1940s, the general belief among “child care experts” was that breast-feeding was an obsolete method that put children unnecessarily at risk.
Bottle-feeding argument:
keep track of amount of milk baby was receiving
could ensure that child got sufficient nutrients.
helped mothers keep feedings to rigid schedule of one bottle every 4 hours (the recommended at that time)
Mothers who breast-fed their babies could never be certain just how much milk their infants were getting.
Starting around the 1940s, the general belief among child care experts was that breast-feeding was an obsolete method that put children unnecessarily at risk.
Bottle-feeding argument: parents could keep track of amount of milk their baby was receiving and could ensure that child was taking in sufficient nutrients. Use of the bottle was also supposed to help mothers keep their feedings to rigid schedule of one bottle every 4 hours, the recommended procedure at that time.
Mothers who breast-fed their babies could never be certain just how much milk their infants were getting.
Today
Breast-feeding argument: For first 12 months of life, there is no better food for an infant than breast milk.
Breast milk not only contains all the nutrients necessary for growth, but it also seems to offer some degree of immunity to a variety of childhood diseases, such as respiratory illnesses, ear infections, diarrhea, and allergies.
Breast milk is more easily digested than cow's milk or formula, and it is sterile, warm, and convenient for the mother to dispense.
There is even some evidence that breast milk may enhance cognitive growth, leading to high adult intelligence. Babies are more responsive to touch.
For mother, may have lower rates of ovarian cancer and breast cancer prior to menopause. Hormones produced during breast-feeding help shrink uteruses of women following birth, enabling their bodies to return more quickly to a prepregnancy state. Hormones also may inhibit ovulation, reducing (but not eliminating!) chance of becoming pregnant, and thereby helping to space birth of additional children.

55. Is Breast Best? Breast-feeding argument:
First 12 mos no better food for an infant than breast milk.
Contains all the nutrients necessary for growth
Offer some immunity to a variety of childhood diseases
respiratory illnesses
ear infections
diarrhea
allergies.
More easily digested than cow's milk or formula
It’s sterile, warm, and convenient for mother to dispense.
Breast milk may enhance cognitive growth
Leads to high adult intelligence.
Babies are more responsive to touch.

56. Is Breast Best? For mother:
lower rates of ovarian cancer and breast cancer prior to menopause.
Hormones produced during breast-feeding help shrink uteruses of women following birth
enables mom’s bodies to return more quickly to a pre-pregnancy state.
Hormones also may inhibit ovulation,
reducing (but not eliminating!) chance of becoming pregnant
thereby helping to space birth of additional children

57. So What Is the Answer? Breast milk
Offers all nutrients infant needs for first 12 months of life
Is more easily digested than alternative
Provides some immunity to variety of childhood diseases
May enhance cognitive growth
Offers significant emotional advances for mother and child
Not cure-all for infant nutrition and health

58. Introducing Solid Foods: When and What?
Solids can be started at 6 months but are not needed until 9 to 12 months (AAFP)
Introduced gradually, one at a time
Cerealstrained fruits
Time of weaning varies greatly in developed and developing countries

59. Learning the World Sensation
is the physical stimulation of the sense organs
Perception
is the mental process of sorting out, interpreting, analyzing, and integrating stimuli from the sense organs and brain

60. Visual Perception: Seeing the World
Newborn's distance vision ranges from 20/200 to 20/600 distance vision is 1/10th to 1/3rd that of average adult's.
By 6 months, average infant's vision is already 20/20
Other visual abilities grow rapidly
Binocular vision
Depth perception

61. Infant Visual Preference
Preferences that are present from birth
Genetically preprogrammed to prefer particular kinds of stimuli
Prefer to look at patterned over simpler stimuli
Robert Fantz two- and three-month-old infants
Direct students to Figure 4.14.
Ask: How would you use this information to explain how heredity and environmental experiences are integrated to determine infant capabilities?

62. Neonate Visual Preferences
curved over straight lines
three-dimensional figures to two-dimensional ones,
human faces to non-faces.
Such capabilities may be a reflection of the existence of highly specialized cells in the brain that react to stimuli of a particular pattern, orientation, shape, and direction of movement.
Prefer their own mother's face to other faces;
Distinguish between male and female faces

63. Facing the World
Genetics is not the sole determinant of infant visual preferences
A few hours after birth, infants have already learned to prefer their own mother's face to other faces
Similarly, between the ages of six and nine months, infants become more adept at distinguishing
between the faces of humans, while they become less able to distinguish faces of members of other species
They also distinguish between male and female faces

64. Auditory Perception: The World of Sound
Infants
Hear before birth and have good auditory perception after birth
Are more sensitive to certain frequencies
Reach adult accuracy in sound localization by age 1
Can discriminate groups of different sounds
React to changes in musical key and rhythm
Can discriminate many language related sounds
Are born with preferences for particular sound combinations which may be shaped by prenatal exposure to mothers’ voices

65. Smell and Taste in a Small World
Well developed at birth
Helps in recognition of mother early in life
Used to distinguish mother's scent (only in breast fed babies); cannot distinguish father on basis of odor
Taste
Have innate sweet tooth
Show facial disgust at bitter taste
Preferences based on what mother ate during pregnancy

66. Ouch! Contemporary Views on Infant Pain
Today, it is widely acknowledged that infants are born with the capacity to experience pain
Developmental progression in reaction to pain
Infants born with capacity to experience pain; produces distress
Exposure to pain in infancy may lead to permanent rewiring of nervous system resulting in greater sensitivity to pain during adulthood

67. The Power of Touch
Touch is one of most highly developed sensory systems in a newborn
Even youngest infants respond to gentle touches
Several of the basic reflexes present at birth require touch sensitivity to operate

68. Multimodal Perception: Combining Individual Sensory Inputs
New area of study in infant research
Some researchers argue that sensations are initially integrated with one another in the infant
Others maintain that infant's sensory systems are initially separate and that brain development leads to increasing integration
It does appear that by an early age infants are able to relate what they have learned about an object through one sensory channel to what they have learned about it through another
Multimodal approach to perception considers how information that is collected by various individual sensory systems is integrated and coordinated.
Infants’ multimodal perception abilities showcase the sophisticated perceptual abilities of infants, which continue to grow throughout the period of infancy. Such perceptual growth is aided by infants’ discovery of affordances , the options that a given situation or stimulus provides.

69. What are affordances? Perceptible affordances
Exist where information on actions that are afforded are perceptible
These are dependent on language, culture, context, and experience and vary for different individuals
Bring a small collection of found object to lecture. Have student work in groups to brainstorm about the affordances of the objects. Encourage rapid, spontaneous responses.
Ask students to equate this experience with that of an infant's. What is different? What is the same?

70. Becoming an Informed Consumer of Development
Exercising Your Infant's Body and Senses
Attempts to accelerate physical and sensory-perceptual development yield little success
but
infants need sufficient physical and sensory stimulation.

71. Be Normal! Enrichment Carry a baby in different ways
Let infants explore their environment
Engage in “rough-and-tumble” play
Let babies touch their food and even play with it
Provide toys that stimulate the senses, particularly toys that can stimulate more than one sense at a time
Expose them to varied social environments
Be Normal!
Carry a baby in different positions—in a backpack, in a frontpack, or in a football hold with the infant's head in the palm of your hand and its feet lying on your arm. This lets the infant view the world from several perspectives.
Let infants explore their environment. Don't contain them too long in a barren environment. Let them crawl or wander around—after first making the environment “childproof” by removing dangerous objects.
Engage in “rough-and-tumble” play. Wrestling, dancing, and rolling around on the floor—if not violent—are activities that are fun and that stimulate older infants’ motor and sensory systems.
Let babies touch their food and even play with it. Infancy is too early to start teaching table manners.
Provide toys that stimulate the senses, particularly toys that can stimulate more than one sense at a time. For example, brightly colored, textured toys with movable parts are enjoyable and help sharpen infants’ senses.