As we have said before, your baptized children are welcome to this Table. All who are bread get bread. But we have also explained it with several provisos. Young children should have the Supper explained to them by their parents in each observance of the Supper, and they should be able to attend to what is said.
Please note that we are not requiring that little children be able to explain the Supper before they may partake. They are recipients; they have the Supper explained to them. We feed them the bread and wine in much the same way we begin speaking English to our children when they first arrive in our homes—not because they understand it, but rather so that they might come to understand it. It is similar here. We are not asking for anything to arise in the child or manifest itself before he is qualified to receive. He is receiving and learning, not giving and teaching.
The requirement that the child be able to attend is in the same category as the requirement that bread be withheld until a nursing infant can swallow bread, or drink wine. We remember our children’s frame. If they are asleep in the carseat throughout the service, they cannot mentally chew any more than they can physically chew. We do not bring oblivious infants to the Table, but not because we exclude them. Their frame excludes them. But when you get to the point where you have to consistently explain to them why they cannot partake, it would be just as well if you used that time to explain to them why they are partaking.