Baby first solid food vegetables

Baby’s First Foods: A Guide to Starting Solids

Which foods should I introduce to my baby first?

For all infants, it’s important to start with iron- and zinc-rich foods. Iron is an important mineral that helps carry oxygen throughout your baby’s body and brain, and zinc aids digestion and helps build a heathy immune system.

Foods that are rich in iron and zinc include:

Fortified infant cereal
Pureed chickpeas, lentils, beans and peas
Pureed meat, poultry and fish

Don’t worry if baby doesn’t eat much at first. These are all new tastes, textures and smells, so it’s normal for them to take it slow or even refuse at first. Keep in mind that breastmilk or infant formula will continue to provide most of your child’s nutrition during the first year of life.

Which vegetables should I try when starting solids for baby?

After your baby gets the hang of eating iron- and zinc-rich foods for a few days, you can move on to trying veggies. When introducing new foods wait 3 to 5 days between each new food to determine whether your child has any reactions to the food offered.

Great first veggies to try:

Pureed carrots
Pureed squash
Pureed broccoli
Pureed sweet potatoes
Pureed green beans

Which fruits should I try when starting solids for baby?

After introducing veggies, let baby try 1 single-ingredient fruit at a time. There are plenty of fruits to choose from:

Pureed apples
Pureed bananas
Pureed pears
Pureed prunes
Pureed avocado
Pureed peaches

Once baby has tried a variety of single-ingredient foods, the real fun can begin! You can combine flavors, like peas and carrots, beans and sweet potatoes, or cereal and bananas. Just be sure you don’t mix fruit into everything so they learn to enjoy the taste of foods that aren’t always sweet.

Is introducing allergens to baby safe when starting solids?

Introducing baby to their first foods is an exciting time. Research shows it is also the time to introduce allergen foods because early introduction may help lower your baby’s risk of developing food allergies.

If you have a family history of food allergies, speak with your baby’s doctor before offering. Some top allergen foods to introduce at this time:

Nut butter: a pea-sized amount mixed into infant cereal or thinned out with breastmilk or infant formula. Exposing baby to a variety of nuts is important—peanut butter, almond butter, cashew butter, etc.
Dairy products: plain yogurt or cottage cheese
Eggs
Fish
Wheat, such as Cream of Wheat
Soybeans, such as pureed or mashed tofu and edamame

What to avoid when introducing baby to solid foods

Your baby’s taste buds are brand new, so plain meats, beans, veggies and fruits have the perfect amount of flavor. Your baby does not need sugar or salt added to their food to make it more flavorful.

In fact, added sugar is not recommended until your child is 2 years or older, and too much salt can hurt your baby’s kidneys. Honey is especially dangerous, as it can contain a bacteria that can cause botulism in babies. Botulism can lead to serious complications, such as muscle weakness, breathing problems, extreme tiredness and a weak cry. Adding these ingredients teaches their young taste buds to prefer the flavor of sugar and salt instead of the natural flavor of the food.

Read labels to make sure your baby foods don’t include these added ingredients, and be sure not to add them at home.

Baby's first solid food? Start with vegetables

"Sophie enjoys her fresh vegetable meal every day". We all want our children to eat enough vegetables and grow up healthy. In practice, this often turns out to be a persistent problem for parents. Vegetable consumption is well below par, especially in children. Children between 1 - 3 years old eat on average 38 grams of vegetables, while the recommendation is 50 – 100 grams per day. Mostly, this amount does not increase when children are 4 – 6 years old. Then they eat on average 43 grams of vegetables, while the recommendation is even more at 100-150 grams per day. In this blog, I share more about the background of vegetable consumption in children and I give tips on how to encourage babies to enjoy vegetables from an early age.

Taste development in babies

Research has shown that taste development occurs early. There is already an exchange of all kinds of flavours between mother and fetus in the womb. Therefore, what you eat when you're pregnant is important. Furthermore, we know that the first two years of a child’s life is an important and beneficial time to teach taste development as babies and toddlers are open to all kinds of flavours. In fact, that's when the basis of your taste palette is laid. The preferences you develop as a child are predictive of eating habits later in life. Of course, we are never too old to develop a taste for new flavours, but old habits do die hard! Moreover, certain behaviour is difficult to change so it is better to do it right from the start. An investment, as it were, for later.

Start with vegetables instead of fruit

The first two years are an opportunity to expose your child to all kinds of flavours. But how can you best do that and what should you look out for? A tip I give is to start offering vegetables instead of fruit when transitioning from milk to solids. We are born with a preference for sweet flavours and an aversion to bitter and sour ones. The reasoning is that sweet stands for high calorie and is rewarding/satiating for your body while bitter signals danger. Most plants can be toxic, or contain toxic components, taste bitter, contain few calories and are not satiating. Babies only get milk (sweet taste) for the first few months. When moving to solids, I would say start with vegetable snacks because that is a taste they still need to learn to appreciate and babies are relatively open to this. Fruit is easier because most varieties taste sweet and they are already familiar with this taste.

We know from research that it has a positive effect when you start with vegetables as solid food. Babies who are first fed exclusively with vegetables instead of fruit eat comparatively more vegetables. So, by starting to offer different types of vegetables for 19 days the moment you switch from milk to the first mouthfuls, you can ensure your baby eats more vegetables.

What type of vegetables to start with?

What type of vegetables should you give your baby? Offer soft flavours such as cauliflower, green beans, spinach and broccoli. Carrots and pumpkin always do well with babies. This is because these vegetables already taste sweet. It's fine to offer these flavours and it is best to alternate them with cauliflower, spinach, green beans and broccoli. Variety is very important as it allows your child to get used to as many different tastes as possible.

Remember that it's all new to your child and that it takes time to get used to these new flavours. Drinking milk is very different to eating solids. A completely different swallow and chewing process is called upon. Eating solids requires different capacities and techniques than drinking sweet, warm milk.

Offer a new flavour at least 10 times

As a parent it is important to understand that at first it is not so much about the amount your baby eats. We are often fixated on the amount of food a child eats. Often the answer to the question, "How well does your child eat?", is, "Great, she’s already finishing the whole bowl". Whereas at first it is not so much about the quantity but that your child comes into contact with all kinds of flavours, so she can get used to different tastes. Making acquaintance with and tasting a variety of flavours is more important than the quantity.

And did you know that you have to offer a new taste about ten times before the taste is appreciated? That means sometimes you have to offer a vegetable ten times before you can say Sophie doesn't like it. How exactly you do that and what signals you should look out for, I'll cover in my next blog.

the first solid food in the baby's diet

No sooner have you got used to breastfeeding, enter into a routine, adapt to convenient feeding, as the next and very important stage lies ahead - the introduction of solid food into the baby's diet.

Most babies are ready for solid foods by about six months, but it's not really age dependent, it depends on your baby's development. The baby should be able to swallow solid food. And this means that he needs to learn how to work with his tongue, to press it correctly against the palate.

Your friends or relatives may put pressure on you to introduce solid foods as soon as possible. Many people believe that a child will really fill up with solid food and sleep well. But there is no evidence that this statement is true. The best way to know if your child is ready for solid foods is to check with your doctor.

How do you know if a baby is ready for solid foods?

By answering these questions, you will understand the degree of readiness of your child:

Can your child sit with support?

Does he hold his head confidently, twist it in different directions, turn towards the sound, turn away from the nipple when he doesn't need it?

Is he really able to move food with his tongue, from the teeth to the palate?

How can I help my child learn to eat solid foods?

First of all, take your time. Arrange a comfortable place for the child. It can be a chair for feeding or an infant seat. If you want, you can keep it on your lap. Use a plastic spoon with a long handle. Start feeding with very small portions. If the child refuses, do not insist. For a week, the amount of food can be brought up to two tablespoons.

First solid food. Which?

Most likely, the doctor will advise you to start complementary foods with rice porridge. Rice is the least allergen for a child. Gradually, you can introduce oatmeal and barley porridge. But remember - the more porridge the baby eats, the less breast milk he will drink. Your task is to leave milk as the main component of nutrition for at least a year.

The next step is fruits and vegetables.

Once your child gets used to grains, you can start adding other foods. First, try boiled fruits and vegetables. To begin with, choose only one fruit (for example, an apple) and one vegetable (for example, a pumpkin). Make a puree from boiled fruits or vegetables - it should be completely homogeneous, without lumps, so that it is easy for the child to chew and swallow. Over time, minced meat from turkey or beef can be added to vegetables.

When introducing any food component, wait at least a week before introducing another. Thus, you will clearly track whether any product gives an allergy, how the child reacts to this or that food.

Start drinking from a cup

Start drinking from a cup when your baby is about 6 months old. For starters - from a drinker with a narrow neck. Give your child time to get comfortable with this new skill. After that, regularly give him a cup, of course one that cannot be broken. Be prepared for the fact that the child will spill a lot on himself. In no case do not scold him for this.

Variety. Need to?

You probably don't like to eat the same food every day. But the same cannot be said for a child. Children are wary of new tastes, in addition, the body of a small person is not adapted to a wide variety. You should introduce new foods gradually, look at the reaction of the child - what he likes and what not. In addition, you can diversify the menu with serving - for example, cut out funny figures from a carrot or an apple. The kid will love it.

Meal time is a time of tenderness

When you breastfed your baby, it was not only a process of eating, but also a time of tenderness and closeness for mother and baby. You don't have to give it up now that you're introducing solid food. Make every lunch or dinner a little adventure. Let the whole family gather at the table more often, let the child feel that he is a full member of a friendly, cheerful family.

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Small child and solid food

By two goals, a child usually has twenty milk teeth, he can chew well, so you can move on to larger pieces. Meat, for example, is recommended to be given in the form of beef stroganoff or azu. To make it easier for the baby, choose lean and soft meat, without veins and films. Cut the pieces across the grain.

From the age of three, a healthy child should already receive a portioned meal in a piece. Even a steak baby is able to chew, digest and assimilate. It is possible and necessary to offer a small eater not crushed boiled meat of beef and poultry, schnitzel, goulash. A small child and solid food are still compatible things.

Vegetable breakdown

Vegetables and fruits are also introduced into the baby's diet first in the form of puree. It is important that it be homogenized, that is, homogeneous. And for the first feeding, choose puree from one type of vegetable or fruit. Only after you make sure that the baby does not show signs of allergies or food intolerances, you can mix already proven vegetables and fruits: pumpkin or carrots with an apple, a pear with a banana.

In the second half of life, raw fruits are allowed: apples and pears, peeled. But berries and grapes (seedless, of course) are offered to children no earlier than two years old: they are easy to choke on. This is also true for green peas and corn: for babies under two years old, they are carefully ground in any of the dishes. When a child's teeth begin to cut, he can be offered a piece of a hard apple or carrot to “scratch” his gums. The main thing is that the child eats in front of his mother: the baby should procrastinate the product, and not bite off pieces that can choke.

Transition rules

Leave a few pieces when making puree, so that the baby has something to sharpen his teeth. Give coarser, unaccustomed food in small portions - for one bite. If the baby is coughing, it may be too early for him to sit down at the adult table. Come back to this question in two or three months. Never force food into your baby's mouth. It is better to put a mixture of bright vegetables on a plate and allow them to be taken with your fingers. Once you start offering pieces, do it daily.

After a year comes the turn of soups: first - in the form of puree made with a blender, and then - with pieces of potatoes, onions, carrots, noodles (they should fit in a small baby spoon). Vegetables for the second are served in the form of stew, which mom kneads with a fork. When to stop peeling apples, pears, tomatoes, etc. fruits and vegetables!? About a year and a half or two. The peel is actually useful because it contains pectin, and it also perfectly stimulates the intestines - it “irritates” it and makes it “move”.

Cereals

When the baby is one year old, you should not get carried away with powdered instant cereals: home-made porridge cooked by mom from whole grains has much more fiber, which normalizes peristalsis (children with constipation are very useful dishes from buckwheat-unground grains). Bread is introduced into the baby's diet in the second half of the year. Black and gray are more useful than white. For the peace of mind of mothers, special children's cookies were invented, which do not crumble, but completely dissolve in the mouth (but this does not mean that, having given such cookies, the baby can be left alone with him). Pasta-horns appear in the diet at 10-12 months. Kids love this dish very much because it is convenient to take it with your hands.

Fish day

At the age of 10-12 months it is allowed to introduce white lean fish into the child's menu. They chop up any fish with their fingers and choose bones that the baby can choke on - this mother will have to do until the baby learns to operate with a knife himself. Fish cakes and meatballs become part of the baby's diet as early as 12-15 months.

Teeth in order

In order for teeth and jaws to develop properly, children need to chew, so carrots or a hard apple must be in their diet. But from mashed porridge and buns (not to mention sweets and citrus fruits) there is only one harm to teeth: they destroy tooth enamel.