4 and half month baby feeding schedule

The earliest start of complementary foods is 4 months ¹ . When exactly to introduce your baby to "regular food" - check with your pediatrician. Complementary foods must not be introduced ² :

- during illness

- 3-5 days before and after vaccinations.

What is complementary foods. Complementary food is everything that a baby up to a year eats, except for mother's milk and infant formula ¹ .

What foods should be introduced at 4-6 months

The first complementary foods at 4 months are cereals or vegetable purees. How to choose:

- if your baby has a lot of weight or hard stools - try vegetables,

- if the child adds no more than average or he has loose stools, try cereals.

From 4 months, add oil to complementary foods: vegetable or butter. The baby needs fat.

Porridge. Dairy-free and gluten-free: rice, buckwheat or corn. Use a commercially produced cereal such as Nutrilak Premium PROCEREALS. Cook it with breast milk, formula or water. Offer milk and gluten-containing cereals after rice, buckwheat or corn.

Vegetables. Start with one type of vegetable: courgette, cauliflower or broccoli ¹ .

Meat . After cereals and vegetables - from 6 months: beef, lean pork, turkey, rabbit. Add to vegetables.

From 6 months you can give mashed pears or apples. By 7 months, up to 60 g of fruit puree is possible if the baby eats other complementary foods well.

How to introduce complementary foods at 4 or 5 months

1. For the first time - no more than 1 teaspoon, if meat - ¼ spoon. In the first half of the day.

2. Every day - a spoonful more.

3. After weaning, supplement with breast or formula.

4. After 7-10 days you will reach the required amount: 150 g.

5. After 14 days - a new type of complementary food ^1.2 .

This feeding pattern is suitable from 6 months - but the later you start, the higher the risk of anemia in the child.

Which products are too early to introduce

When you introduce a child to regular food, you also influence what he will like to eat. You should not be accustomed to sweets. Give fruit puree after the introduction of vegetables and cereals, and juices - not earlier than 8 months ¹ .

What else to enter early? Dairy products, whole milk, eggs, any drinks, bread, fish.

What foods cause allergies

There can be an allergic reaction to any product, so complementary foods are introduced gradually. Of those offered from 4 to 6 months, butter, beef (veal) are more likely to cause allergies.

One percent of people cannot tolerate gluten, which is found in cereals made from wheat, rye, millet, barley and oats ² . The admixture of these grains in food also causes a reaction if gluten is not allowed.

Sample menu

If complementary foods start at 5 months, then an approximate menu at 6-7 months looks like this:

Did the kid spit it all back out? Suggest tomorrow. There are children who are wary of a new taste. Sometimes they agree only for 10-15th time. What to do if nothing helps?

Refuses any complementary foods. If the child refuses complementary foods, do not worry. Patiently offer to try new foods.

Refuses one product. Does the kid stubbornly close his mouth in front of zucchini? Offer him a spoonful of broccoli or try porridge with regular breast milk or formula.

When you find that he eats willingly, new food can be mixed into the dish you like. Both “little unwilling” and allergic children gradually manage to find the right complementary foods. Your consistency and calmness will be rewarded. Eventually, all children begin to eat "more adult" food.

Sources:

¹ https://xn--b1aaisgq1jga.xn--p1ai/Files/RussiaGuid/Programma2019.pdf

² https://www.worldgastroenterology.org/UserFiles/file/guidelines/celiac-disease-russian-2005.pdf

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Diet for a 4-6 month old baby

Your baby is already 4 months old. He has noticeably grown up, become more active, is interested in objects that fall into his field of vision, carefully examines and reaches for them. The emotional reactions of the child have become much richer: he joyfully smiles at all the people whom he often sees more and more often, makes various sounds.

You are still breastfeeding your baby or have had to switch to formula or formula feeding. The child is actively growing, and only with breast milk or infant formula, he can no longer always get all the necessary nutrients. And that means it's time to think about complementary foods.

The optimal time to start its introduction is between 4 and 6 months, regardless of whether the baby is receiving breast milk or formula. This is the time when children respond best to new foods. Up to 4 months, the child is not yet ready to perceive and digest any other food. And with the late introduction of complementary foods - after 6 months, children already have significant deficiencies of individual nutrients and, first of all, micronutrients (minerals, vitamins, long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, etc.). In addition, toddlers at this age often refuse new foods, they have delayed development of chewing skills for thick foods, and inadequate eating habits are formed. It is important to know that, no matter how strange it may seem at first glance, with a delayed appointment of complementary foods, allergic reactions more often occur on them.

When is it advisable to introduce complementary foods as early as 4 months, and when can we wait until 5.5 or even 6 months? To resolve this issue, be sure to consult a pediatrician.

As a rule, at an earlier age (4 - 4.5 months), complementary foods are introduced to children at risk of developing iron deficiency anemia, as well as children with insufficient weight gain and with functional digestive disorders.

The optimal time to start introducing complementary foods to a healthy baby is between 5 and 5.5 months of age.

The World Health Organization recommends that breastfed babies should be introduced to complementary foods from 6 months of age. From the point of view of domestic pediatricians, which is based on extensive practical experience and scientific research, this is possible only in cases where the child was born on time, without malnutrition (since in these cases the mineral reserves are very small), he is healthy, grows well and develops. In addition, the mother should also be healthy, eat well and use either specialized enriched foods for pregnant and lactating women, or vitamin and mineral complexes in courses. Such restrictions are associated with the depletion of iron stores even in a completely healthy child by 5-5.5 months of age and a significant increase in the risk of anemia in the absence of complementary foods rich or fortified with iron. There are other deficits as well.

The first complementary food can be vegetable puree or porridge, fruit puree is better to give the baby later - after tasty sweet fruits, children usually eat vegetable puree and cereals worse, often refuse them altogether.

Where is the best place to start? In cases where the child has a tendency to constipation or he puts on weight too quickly, preference should be given to vegetables. With a high probability of developing anemia, unstable stools and small weight gains - from baby cereals enriched with micronutrients. And if you started introducing complementary foods with cereals, then the second product will be vegetables and vice versa.

If the first complementary foods are introduced at 6 months, it must be baby porridge enriched with iron and other minerals and vitamins, the intake of which with breast milk is no longer enough.

Another important complementary food product is mashed meat. It contains iron, which is easily absorbed. And adding meat to vegetables improves the absorption of iron from them. It is advisable to introduce meat puree to a child at the age of 6 months. Only the daily use of children's enriched porridge and meat puree can satisfy the needs of babies in iron, zinc and other micronutrients.

But it is better to introduce juices later, when the child already receives the main complementary foods - vegetables, cereals, meat and fruits. After all, complementary foods are needed so that the baby receives all the substances necessary for growth and development, and there are very few in their juices, including vitamins and minerals.

Juices should not be given between feedings, but after the child has eaten porridge or vegetables with meat puree, as well as for an afternoon snack. The habit of drinking juice between meals leads to frequent snacking in the future, a love of sweets is instilled, children have more tooth decay and an increased risk of obesity.

With the start of the introduction of complementary foods, the child is gradually transferred to a 5-time feeding regimen.

Rules for the introduction of complementary foods:

• preference should be given to children's products of industrial production, they are made from environmentally friendly raw materials, have a guaranteed composition and degree of grinding
• Complementary foods should be offered to the baby by spoon at the start of feeding, before breastfeeding (formula feeding)
• the volume of the product increases gradually, starting with ½ - 1 spoon, and in 7 - 10 days we bring it to the age norm, subsequent products within the same group (cereals from other cereals or new vegetables)
• can be entered faster, in 5 - 7 days
• start introduction with monocomponent products
• it is undesirable to give a new product in the afternoon, it is important to follow how the child reacts to it
• new products are not introduced in the event of acute illnesses, and before and immediately after prophylactic vaccination (should be abstained for several days)

When introducing a new type of complementary food, first try one product, gradually increasing its amount, and then gradually "dilute" this product with a new one. For example, vegetable complementary foods can be started with a teaspoon of zucchini puree. During the week, give the baby only this product, gradually increasing its volume. After a week, add a teaspoon of mashed broccoli or cauliflower to the zucchini puree and continue to increase the total volume every day. Vegetable puree from three types of vegetables will be optimal. The portion should correspond to the age norm. Over time, you can replace the introduced vegetables with others faster.

After the introduction of one vegetable (bringing its volume to the required amount), you can proceed to the intake of porridge, and diversify the vegetable diet later.

If the child did not like the dish, for example, broccoli, do not give up and continue to offer this vegetable in a small amount - 1-2 spoons daily, you can not even once, but 2-3 times before meals, and after 7 - 10, and sometimes 15 days, the baby will get used to the new taste. This diversifies the diet, will help to form the right taste habits in the baby.

Spoon-feeding should be done with patience and care. Forced feeding is unacceptable!

In the diet of healthy children, porridge is usually introduced after vegetables (with the exception of healthy breastfed children, when complementary foods are introduced from 6 months). It is better to start with dairy-free gluten-free cereals - buckwheat, corn, rice. At the same time, it is important to use porridge for baby food of industrial production, which contains a complex of vitamins and minerals. In addition, it is already ready for use, you just need to dilute it with breast milk or the mixture that the baby receives.

Children with food allergies are introduced to complementary foods at 5-5.5 months. The rules for the introduction of products are the same as for healthy children, in all cases it is introduced slowly and begins with hypoallergenic products. Be sure to take into account individual tolerance. The difference is only in the correction of the diet, taking into account the identified allergens. From meat products, preference should first be given to mashed turkey and rabbit.

Diets for different age periods

To explain how you can make a diet, it is better to use a few examples that will help you navigate in compiling a menu specifically for your child.

From 5 months, the volume of one feeding is on average 200 ml.

Option 1.

If your baby started receiving complementary foods from 4-5 months, then at 6 months his diet should look like this:

* - infant formula
** - diluted with breast milk or VHI

Option 2.

I feeding
6 hours Breast milk or VHI* 200 ml II feeding
10 hours Dairy-free porridge**
Fruit puree 150 g
20 g III feeding
14 hours Vegetable puree
Meat puree Vegetable oil
Fruit juice 150 g
5 - 30 g
1 tsp
60 ml IV feeding
18 hours Fruit puree
Breast milk or VHI* 40 g
140 ml V feeding
22 hours Breast milk or VHI* 200 ml

* - infant formula
** - diluted with breast milk or VHI