Baby Sign Language - Find out EXACTLY what your baby wants to eat

by Kory
(Phoenix, Arizona, USA)

When our first daughter was 10 or 11 months old, we made little posters with pictures of the foods we usually had on hand in the kitchen.

We used baby sign language, and "eat" was one of the first signs to emerge for her. When she signed that she was hungry, we'd pick her up and hold her near the posters, and she'd point to what she was hungry for -- broccoli and string cheese one time, green beans and raisins the next.

Feedings and mealtimes were always serene, because she had a way to ask for what she wanted.

If we were out of something, we just said so, and she'd pick something else, no fuss.

When our second daughter, Kate, was born, the posters worked just as beautifully for her to "talk" to us about food even before her signs for specific foods emerged.

And though our kids learned and invented signs for dozens of animals, they somehow never did learn signs for "pinto beans" or "hummus on a wheat tortilla."

Even when Kate was speaking words, "beans," "cheese," and "peas" all sounded pretty much alike at first. The posters saved us from dragging things out of the fridge and cupboards asking, "this? this?"

Searching out the 50 or so images of food that we needed -- it's surprising how much you keep on hand when you think about it -- took us 7 or 8 hours of combing through the Web.

That's why we've now made a website with nearly 400 clear, simple photographs of common foods. Just click the ones you want onto a template, and you can print them at home in minutes. You control the choices, and your child gets a voice.