Baby Cooking Games

Make cooking entertaining and safe for children.

Some babies are willing to try anything while others may be particular about what enters their mouth. Involve your baby in safe food preparation and cooking with activities and games. As she plays with food, she can explore how it feels, smells and be encouraged to taste it as well.

Where's the Food Hiding?

Most babies enjoy a game of peekaboo. At a young age, babies do not understand that items continue to exist even when they are out of sight. While cooking, use your ingredients for a game of peekaboo with baby. Show her an ingredient, such as a potato, and flip a pot upside down to cover it. Lift up the pot to reveal that the potato is still present and hide it again with the pot. You can also hide an ingredient behind a pot and say "peekaboo" as you show the ingredient pop out from the side of the pot.

Taste Testing

Young babies will enjoy the opportunity to feel different textures of food and learn how each taste. Lay on the table all the ingredients you will use for a fruit jello salad. Allow you baby to feel appropriate ingredients you will use. These may include dried raisins, diced pineapple and diced strawberries. After she feels each ingredient, allow her to try how it tastes with a mashed version, if the solid version is a choking hazard. Some children are sensitive to sweet and sour tastes, and will make faces that will make both of you laugh.

Kitchen Shapes

Introduce babies to shapes through food in the kitchen. Use one plate for each shape. Find different foods in the kitchen with the same shape that you can cut to a small-scale version if it is not already bite-size. Babies will enjoy exploring the different shapes and textures of food while tasting it. An example for the circle plate may include a pancake, a Cheerio, slice of banana and a Ritz cracker. The square plate may include a cracker, slice of bread and piece of chocolate. The triangle plate may include a slice of pie, slice of watermelon and a slice of cheese.

Drumming with Food

Hand to your baby different foods that are stick-shaped, such as carrots and celery. As you are cooking, put some music to the task by tapping pots, pans, and the counter with carrots sticks and celery. Your baby will enjoy watching you, listening to the musical beat, and can create some musical beats of her own with the food items you handed to her to tap with.

References

• What to Expect: Your 5-Month-Old Baby - Learning About Object Permanence
• Family Education: Taste Testing
• Family Education: Kitchen Shapes