3-min read
2025-08-26
4-min read
Development isn’t a race. It’s a flow.
Every child—and parent—is figuring it out at their own pace.
Instead of milestones, we encourage you to focus on this amazing moment.
Your child’s brain makes more than one million neural connections per second in these first three years. Simple, consistent interactions with them today can have profound, lifelong benefits.
Here’s how little one’s brain is developing this month, and how you can support their progress.
Developmental Highlight
Since introducing solid foods, much of your focus has been on what little one’s eating and its nutritional value.
Keep in mind that you’re also teaching little one why we eat.
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We eat for energy and growth.
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We eat to bond and connect socially with others.
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We eat for pleasure.
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We eat for the sacred ritual of gathering.
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We eat in self-awareness of hunger and appetite.
Together, these five reasons have the power to expand little one’s higher cognitive functions, including language skills, empathy, de-stressing, connoisseurship, and interoception.
Brain-Building Activity
We Eat, Because
Routine: Mealtime
In many ways, the dining table is little one’s first classroom. You’re their teacher, modeling the habits you’d like to see them grow up and practice, from using utensils to table manners to adventurous eating.
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We eat for energy and growth.
Prepare healthy food for everyone to eat (little one’s more interested in eating veggies, when you do) and maintain a mealtime schedule to facilitate a predictable neuro-digestive rhythm.
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We eat to bond and connect socially with others.
Practice mealtime conversation in front of and with little one. You can also narrate the experience of eating, like you did while labeling verbs in month 19. This stimulates a kind of connoisseurship of food that supports attention and learning.
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We eat for pleasure.
When you eat in front of little one, exaggerate your enjoyment of different tastes and textures. This joy is contagious and piques their curiosity about new foods.
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We eat for the sacred ritual of gathering.
Decide what mealtime traditions you want to create at the table and try to be consistent in practicing them. Avoid distracting little one with a screen at the table. This habit is extremely hard to break.
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We eat in self-awareness of hunger and appetite.
Even adults can struggle on the journey from hungry to full, which can lead to overeating and snacking out of boredom. Model this self-awareness by talking through your own experiences (“I’m not very hungry, so I’m just going to eat a little”) or asking little one about theirs (“Are you feeling full after eating the chicken?”).
You’ve Got This
Busy parents often find themselves eating on the run, as they focus on little one and deprioritize their own needs. At least once a day, try practicing three of the five reasons we eat.
You don’t have to cook a three-course dinner. Takeout is fine. You can meet a friend for a quick coffee and snack, instead of a full lunch. The important thing is to be more mindful, so you’re eating for pleasure and connection, as well as fuel.
With this approach, you’ll find that your energy, health, resilience, and emotional well-being improve, helping you parent—and human—more effectively.
