Palmar grip and pincer grip in weaning
Introduction
All new parents who learn about infant nutrition hear, sooner or later, about palmar grip and pincer grip during weaning.
What is meant by the two terms just mentioned? At what age do the above-mentioned types of grip appear?
To help you find the answers to these questions, I have prepared the article you are starting to read.
Preceded by an index, inserted to allow you to delve deeper into the topic by clicking on the titles of the various paragraphs, it is based on the advice of Doctor Federica Dell'Oro, a nutrition biologist expert in early childhood nutrition.
Dr. Dell'Oro is also the author of the beautiful video course “Practical, easy and stress-free self-weaning” , which you can find at the end of the paragraph and which will allow you to begin the wonderful journey of complementary feeding on demand for your baby with tranquility, enthusiasm and awareness.
For more information, if you want, you can visit me on Instagram on the profile @drsilva.com_official . Now, enough chit chat: it's time to get to the heart of the action.
Palm Grip: Here's What You Need to Know
Let's begin this excursus dedicated to the topic of palmar grip and pincer grip starting from the first.
When he is about 6 months old - a period which, generally speaking, sees the maturation of the psychophysical requirements to start self-weaning - the newborn is able to easily hold an object in one hand and one in the other.
His grasp has gone from being able to be called “cubito-palmar” to a peculiarity that, by experts in child motor skills, is defined as “medio-palmar ”.
In fact, the little one is able to hold objects between the little finger, ring finger, middle finger, obviously also involving the palm of the hand , which is closed into a fist.
As Dr. Dell'Oro well reminds us in this video and in the dedicated chapter of the video course, this is the period during which it is important to propose the safe stick cut (in the video course you will find the complete atlas with all the others).
The thin shape - the ideal thickness is that of a woman's index finger - and elongated allows the child to see the food emerge and be able to taste it.
It is also essential to consider the right consistency. Using the example of carrots, I would like to remind you that they absolutely cannot be offered raw, cut into sticks, but must be cooked.
From 6 to 8 months, since the child has difficulty grasping small pieces of food, offering smaller pasta sizes makes no sense, unless you use cutlery.
Going back for a moment to the development of the little one's fine motor skills, we recall that, in the period between 7 and 8 months, the rake grip begins to come into play .
Other fingers are added to the palmar grip and, in the movement, the involvement of the elbow and shoulder can also be appreciated.
