NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - New parents who impose textbook timetables on their child's development may be disappointed when their child comes short of expectations. But the age at which infants will reach feeding milestones can vary by nearly 3 months, researchers say.

"Children in our study exhibited age-appropriate developmental behaviors related to feeding practices and self-feeding with individual children exhibiting a wide age range at which behaviors first occurred," according to Drs. Betty Ruth Carruth and Jean D. Skinner, from the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.

The findings, they suggest, could be used by doctors to calm parents who may be worried that their child is falling behind.

The study included a group of 98 mothers who were interviewed when children were 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 16 and 24 months old. Mothers reported when their infants achieved certain feeding behaviors, such as reaching for spoons and opening their mouths when food approached.

The researchers determined the ages at which 33 gross motor skills, fine motor skills and oral motor development behaviors began. These behaviors included holding the head up when placed on the belly, sitting in a caregiver's lap without help, and crawling (gross motor skills); bringing a toy to the mouth, poking food with an index finger, and picking up food to bring to the mouth (fine motor skills); and using the tongue to move food to the back of the mouth (oral motor development).

While behaviors conformed to textbook standards on average, there was substantial variation when it came to individual infants. For instance, the average age at which children could sit on their own was 5.5 months but some children did not sit until they were nearly 8 months old.

Similarly, the average child used fingers to pick up soft foods at around 13.5 months but some kids were nearly 17 months before they were able to accomplish this task, the authors report in the April issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.

The results of the study should reassure parents that the growth and nutritional intake of children who seem to be developing more slowly might not become compromised.

"Our results could be used in counseling parents who may not be aware of or appreciate these individual behavioral differences that occur among healthy children," Carruth and Skinner write.

SOURCE: Journal of the American College of Nutrition 2002;21:88-96.

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