Mealtime can be another chance to learn that actions have results. This game is particularly useful when your baby seems bored or tired at meals and resists eating.

Appropriate for: 9 months to 2 years
Skills developed: Sense of cause and effect, a good appetite
What you'll need: A stuffed animal or doll, a baby spoon

If it seems that being fed by you just isn't enough of a thrill to help the food go down, enlist some help from a favorite doll, teddy bear, or other stuffed creature.

Bring the toy to the table and explain that a special friend is going to be serving dinner tonight. Holding the spoon in the stuffed animal's paw or the doll's hand, have the dinner guest feed your baby his or her food. Teddy's cajoling is guaranteed to get better results than Mom or Dad's nagging.

You can also seat the doll or animal next to your baby, tie a bib around its neck, and announce that you are going to "feed" your baby and your guest in turns. Later, when your baby has learned to hold a spoon, let him or her spoon-feed the doll. (Be prepared to wash its face afterward, though.)