by BabyCenter Featured Expert posted in Products & Prizes

By Dr. Alan Greene, Pediatrician, Author and Advisor to Plum Organics
When it comes time to feed your baby solids, it?s all about teaching her to love the flavors of healthy foods. Which makes sense. Most of baby?s caloric and nutrition needs are being met with breast milk or formula. The time between starting solids and when a baby learns to walk, i.e. becomes a toddler, is the magical window for enhancing nutritional intelligence. It?s the rare parent who even thinks about snacks until the toddler years, when they?re a valuable way to offer balanced nutrition to -- and stave off the hunger-induced meltdowns of -- busy kids who tend to prefer playing to mealtime.
Snacks for babies get far less notice. Time to pay attention, because snack time is a fantastic opportunity for babies to play with their food. You read that right. Research has proven it?s ok, even desirable, to play with food.
Now this probably contradicts everything your parents ever told you, but adventurous snacking can be important, because babies learn through tactile experiences. Before their first birthday, this means exposure to new sounds, sights, textures, smells, and tastes. Mealtime -- especially when they?re allowed to explore snack-like foods vs. being fed by an adult -- furthers this development. With snacks, babies can practice self-feeding, work on their fine motor skills, and learn from seeing, grasping, feeling, and, of course, tastin...