Age: 8-10 months

Oral-motor and self-feeding skills and behaviors

• Transferring food laterally (from center to sides of mouth)
• Voluntarily biting on foods and objects
• Closing lips briefly on cup
• Finger-feeding more precisely, still primarily with palmar grasp
• Beginning to feed self with spoon
• Holding bottle

Positioning

• Seat back at 90 degrees
• External support required for sitting
• Feet supported
• Hips flexed and trunk and head in midline
• Highchair seatbelt used for safety, not support

Appropriate foods

• chopped or mashed table foods
• liquids (e.g., juice) from a cup
• finger foods
• breastmilk or infant formula
• ground foods, soft semisolids

At this stage, the infant is indicating a readiness for the introduction of liquids from a cup and for increased textures of solid foods to include more table foods. It is also appropriate to encourage an infant to feed himself with a spoon at this stage.

You can view a video of feeding skills at the 8-10-month old stage here:

• video for broadband (2.34 MB)
• video for modem (1.08 MB)

(These links will open a new browser window; close the window when you are finished viewing the video to return to this page.)