How to Tell When Your Baby or Toddler Is Hungry or Full

Read the signs, not the clock

Knowing your child's signs of hunger and fullness tells you when and how often to feed them. Long before they talk, babies use sounds and movements to say they're hungry or done.

Crying is often a late sign of hunger. Watch for the earlier signs below, so you can offer the breast or bottle while your baby is still calm. As children grow, their signs change.

Birth to 5 months

Hungry

• Brings their hands to their mouth.
• Turns their head toward the breast or bottle.
• Puckers, smacks or licks their lips.
• Has clenched hands.

Full

• Closes their mouth.
• Turns their head away from the breast or bottle.
• Relaxes their hands.

The American Academy of Pediatrics has a short video on recognizing a baby's hunger and fullness cues.

6 to 23 months

Hungry

• Reaches for or points to food.
• Opens their mouth when offered a spoon or food.
• Gets excited at the sight of food.
• Uses hand motions or sounds to show they still want more.

Full

• Pushes food away.
• Closes their mouth when food is offered.
• Turns their head away from food.
• Uses hand motions or sounds to show they're done.

Let your child decide

• Your child decides how much. They don't need to finish the bottle, the jar or the plate.
• Don't use food as a reward or a punishment.
• Worried your child eats too much or too little? Talk to their doctor or nurse.

Sources

Based on "Signs Your Child Is Hungry or Full," Infant and Toddler Nutrition, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The linked video is the American Academy of Pediatrics' own and is not reproduced; the page's stock photographs are not reproduced either.