Eight month baby feeding schedule
8-Month-Old Baby: Milestones and Development
Your baby is 8 months old! You have quite the little observer now—baby is very aware of their surroundings and what’s happening around them. If you have a tendency to lose your cool in high-pressure situations, you'll want to dial the emotions back—your little one is watching and learning. One thing that probably stresses out your 8-month-old baby is separating from you. If baby fusses when you leave their sight, try not to let it get to you. It’s baby’s way of telling you they miss you! Separation anxiety is actually an indicator of a good parent-child bond. Plus, baby’s caregiver will be able to distract them and stop the crying pretty quickly after you leave.
Eight months in, and you’re a pro. Still, it’s normal to have questions as this next parenting stage approaches. Curious about what an 8-month-old baby should be able to do? Wondering whether baby is meeting their 8-month-old milestones? Concerned that your 8-month-old should be babbling more? Don’t fret, we’ll help hash out what’s developmentally appropriate for baby’s current age. Read on for our guide to navigating life with an 8-month-old.
In this article:
8-month-old development
8-month-old health
8-month-old feeding
8-month-old sleep
8-month-old schedule
8-month-old checklist and tips
8-Month-Old Development
Baby keeps on growing—and keeps on going! It’s unbelievable how much your little one is moving these days, isn’t it?
8-month-old baby weight and length
We know you’re wondering: How much should an 8-month-old weigh? Average weight for an 8-month-old baby is 17.5 pounds for girls. Average 8-month-old weight is 19.0 pounds for boys. Average length is 27.1 inches for girls and 27.8 inches for boys, according to the World Health Organization.
Of course, height and weight can vary widely between healthy babies, so as long as they’re growing at a healthy rate—on a steady curve on the chart at the doctor’s office—and the pediatrician doesn’t see any signs of a problem, baby’s growth is right on track.
8-month-old’s five senses
- Baby still sees better close up than far away but is now able to spot things from across the room. They’ll begin recognizing you and other familiar faces from further away.
- They can better eyeball distance and depth, making it easier to reach out and grab things.
- Textures and shapes are captivating to baby! Tags and handles might seem especially exciting to touch and feel, and baby is making the connection that different shapes are, well, different!
8-month-old baby milestones
So what amazing physical feats will baby accomplish in the coming weeks? There’s a lot happening developmentally. Here’s a look at what an 8-month old should be able to do:
- Sitting. Baby can probably sit up without assistance—but you'll still need to catch them sometimes—and is beginning to lean over to pick up toys. Their muscles are getting stronger every day!
- Moving and grooving.
After sitting comes rolling, crouching, twisting and rocking while kneeling. All of this is gearing up for crawling (if baby hasn't accomplished that yet!). When baby is on the floor, they’re in constant motion! - Crawling. You’re probably wondering: Should my 8-month-old be crawling? It depends. Some babies start crawling as early as 6 or 7 months old, while others simply take their time—or skip the crawling step and go straight to walking! If your 8-month-old isn’t crawling just yet, don’t fret. Some 8-month-olds who are not crawling are rolling around, “creeping” or scooting to get where they want to go. If your 8-month-old is not crawling, they’re still within the normal range.
- Talking. What should an 8-month-old be saying? This is around the time when baby will start piecing together sounds to make words like “mama” or “dada.” While 8-month-old babies might say these words, they may not quite understand what they mean just yet.
Between 9 and 14 months, you’ll begin seeing them connect meaning to the words they say.
8-Month-Old Health
Having a baby seems like a never-ending search for answers to health questions. Here are some common things parents ask: My 8-month-old is constipated. What should I do?
8-Month-Old Baby Feeding
Now that baby’s eating solid foods—and still drinking formula or breast milk—it’s easy to get overwhelmed by how much of what they should be consuming. Just remember: The fluids are still where an 8-month-old baby gets the majority of their nutrition.
Think about it this way: Your child needs between 750 and 900 calories per day. Four hundred to 500 of those should come from breast milk or formula. So start the meal off with nursing or a bottle of formula, and then offer a meal with a healthy balance of fats, carbohydrates and protein.
At the eight-month mark, you might want to add soft table foods and finger foods with different textures to baby’s menu.
Have them join the family at the table for meals—it's a great way to foster good eating habits!
Eight months old is a good time to introduce a sippy cup or transitional cup to baby. At first, it might be more of a plaything than a cup, but it’s good to get your kid familiar with the sippy early. It might just help them become a cup-drinker easier and earlier.
How much should an 8-month-old eat?
- Bottle feeding: How much formula for an 8-month-old? Your 8-month-old baby should be consuming about 24 ounces of formula in a 24-hour period. So if baby has six bottles each day, make them each four ounces.
- Breastfeeding: Eight-month-olds still typically nurse about every three or four hours.
- Pumping: If you’re pumping, an 8-month-old baby needs a total of about 25 ounces of breast milk per day. So you’ll need to divide that by how many feedings your baby typically has. For example, if you feed baby about eight times per day, they should get about 3.
1 ounces of breast milk at each feeding. Keep pumping each time baby has a bottle, and you should be able to keep up your breast milk supply. - Solid food: Baby should have three meals and two snacks per day. Try to stick to non-processed, unsweetened or unsalted foods as much as possible.
What should an 8-month-old be eating?
Good foods for an 8-month-old baby may include:
- Apples
- Avocado
- Barley
- Carrot
- Cheddar cheese
- Eggs
- Quinoa
- Mango
- Pasta
- Pumpkin
- Rice
- Sweet potatoes
- Tofu
- Turkey
- Zucchini
Finger foods for an 8-month-old baby can be any of the above, if cooked until soft (except for avocado and tofu, which don’t need to be cooked) and cut or ground into very small bits.
What snacks can I give my 8-month-old?
Many of the above foods make great snacks for 8-month-old babies. They may also enjoy sweet fruit, such as berries, pears, watermelon and peaches.
Cottage cheese, unsweetened applesauce and yogurt are other common delights.
8-month-old feeding schedule
Image: Megan Rubey
8-Month-Old Sleep
Sleep is probably still top of mind for you, but hopefully you and your little one are both getting a bit more rest at this stage.
How much should an 8-month-old sleep?
It’s typical for an 8-month-old to sleep a total of about 15 hours each day. About 11 hours of that should be at nighttime. Your baby still probably wakes at night, but sleeps a longer stretch. Some babies even sleep through the night the full 10 to 12 hours at 8 months—if that’s your baby, lucky you!
A typical 8-month-old nap schedule includes two naps that total about three-and-a-half hours of daytime sleep.
8-month-old sleep schedule
Image: Megan Rubey
Is 8-month-old sleep regression normal?
Yes! Some babies start waking up more at night around 8 months. A lot of times they’re getting up to practice their newfound motor skills: pulling themselves up to stand and maybe even cruising.
The problem is, they don’t always know how to get back down and call out to you for help! Others want extra time with their parents—and may be more likely to wake at night if you’re separated during the day (sorry, working parents). So if your 8-month-old suddenly wakes up every hour or your 8-month-old is not sleeping when and how they used to, you can probably chalk it up to sleep regression.
Be as patient as you can be, reinstate some of the sleep tricks that used to work when baby was younger and try out some new tricks to try to help baby’s sleep get back to normal.
What are some tips for sleep-training an 8-month-old?
Sleep-training isn’t always easy—and it isn’t for every baby—but if successful, sleep-training will help your baby learn to self-soothe. The idea is that if they wake up at night, baby will know how to get themself back to sleep. Here’s some awesome sleep-training advice that can help you on your way to a good night’s sleep for the whole family.
8-Month-Old Schedule
Your 8-month-old is now awake for about 10 hours per day. Beyond feedings, bathtime and play-on-the-floor time, you’re probably looking for other things to do with an 8-month-old baby. Check out this list of baby activities that will give you an idea of things to do now, as well as things to do with baby as they grows.
8-month-old schedule example
A 8-month-old’s daily schedule might look something like this:
Image: Megan Rubey
8-Month-Old Baby Checklist and Tips
- Schedule baby’s nine-month checkup, if you haven’t already.
- Introduce a transitional cup.
- Give baby their own kitchen cupboard full of baby-safe items (wooden spoons, plasticware and measuring cups!), and put locks on the rest.
- Introduce soft finger foods in very small bits for baby to easily gnash.
- Take baby’s 8-month-old baby milestone photo.
- Eight-month-old babies are getting close to forming their first words.
It’s more important than ever to read, sing and converse to encourage those early language skills. Speak slowly and clearly, and remember to repeat everything you say. - Your 8-month-old baby may now be more attached to certain people or toys than ever before. What’s more, a baby that was once extremely social may turn shy overnight. Clinginess is normal during this phase as baby is learning about separation.
- Baby loves to laugh at this age, and there’s nothing sweeter than the sound of their little giggles. Play repetitive games; drop something on the floor and act surprised each time it falls. In doing so, your 8-month-old will begin to develop memory and learn the concept of cause and effect.
There are so many special 8-month-old baby milestones to celebrate and many more exciting experiences on the horizon. In the coming weeks and months, baby will get stronger and work toward sitting up, crawling, standing and walking.
Medical content was reviewed by Dina DiMaggio, MD, a board-certified pediatrician at Pediatric Associates of NYC and NYU Langone Health in New York City, and a spokesperson for the American Academy of Pediatrics.
She is also the coauthor of The Pediatrician’s Guide to Feeding Babies and Toddlers.
Meal Plan For an 8-Month-Old Baby: Feeding Schedule and Tips
What are the best foods for an 8-month-old baby?
A wholesome and healthy diet that contains the correct quantity of protein, carbohydrates, minerals, and vitamins is crucial for the growth of your baby. A correct mix of all these nutrients is found in a wide variety of food items.
A menu for an 8-month-old baby should include the following foods:
- Fruits — Fresh fruits form a vital source of a wide variety of minerals, vitamins, and other types of micronutrients. Fruits cut into cubes and cooked until soft make excellent finger foods for babies of this age. Please remember to use fruits that grow in your region or at least are very widespread. That will help lower the risk of an allergic reaction.
- Vegetables — At this age, your baby may shift from eating mashed vegetables to chewing small pieces of steamed vegetables.
Soft cooked vegetables also make excellent finger foods for babies. As with fruits, to reduce the chance of an allergic reaction, don’t try anything exotic. - Fish — You can also introduce fish to an eight-month-old baby. Fish such as salmon and tuna is a rich source of omega-3 fatty acids and is excellent for the development of the brain and growth of babies. You can offer fish as a soup or as a puree to your baby.
- Dairy — Yogurt and cheese made from pasteurized milk are excellent sources of calcium for eight-month-old babies. You can include cottage cheese, cheddar, jack, and colby cheese. Soft cheeses including blue cheese and brie can pose a health risk, so hold off on these for now.
- Protein — You can include various foods that are rich in protein for an eight-month-old’s diet. Some protein-rich foods include legumes, beans, beef, egg yolks, chicken, fish, tofu, turkey, and pork. You can cook these foods and puree them or chop them into small pieces.
- Cereals and grains — You can mix together some of the cereals that your eight-month-old baby is already eating without producing a reaction. You can also introduce muffins and bread into the meal plan for your eight-month-old after your baby is able to enjoy foods with more texture. Pasta mixed with cheese is a popular favorite for babies of this age. The seeds and grains that you can include in your eight-month-old’s menu are amaranth, quinoa, rice, oats, wheat, sesame, spelt, barley, buckwheat, and millet.
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8-month-olds feeding schedule
Making a feeding schedule for your eight-month-old baby is very personal. You will get familiar with your child’s cues gradually and can start to develop a schedule of sleeping, playing, and eating that meets the needs of your whole family. While creating an 8-month-old’s feeding schedule, remember that most babies this age need the following:
- Solid foods at least twice or three times a day along with 25 to 32 ounces of formula or breast milk every 24 hours.
You can start increasing the quantity and variety of the foods in your 8-month-old baby’s diet. You can also try introducing a sippy cup and finger foods. - About 13 to 14 hours of sleep every 24 hours (including naps and overnight). Babies at this age often take two naps during the day — one in the morning and the other in the afternoon.
- Social interaction with their primary caregivers lets children play and work on developing new skills.
Sample meal plan for an 8-month-old
Preparing an 8-month-old’s meal plan may become more challenging as your child begins eating solid foods.
A sample meal plan for an eight-month-old baby is as follows:
Breakfast
- Mashed egg or cereal: ¼ to ½ cup
- Diced fruit: ¼ to ½ cup
- Breast milk or formula: 4 to 6 ounces
Snack
- Breast milk, formula, or water: 4 to 6 ounces
- Cooked vegetables or diced cheese: ¼ cup
Lunch
- Meat, cottage cheese, or yogurt: ¼ to ½ cup
- Orange or yellow vegetables: ¼ to ½ cup
- Breast milk or formula: 4 to 6 ounces
Snack
- One whole-grain cracker or teething biscuit
- Diced fruit or yogurt: ¼ cup
Dinner
- Diced tofu or meat: ¼ cup
- Green vegetables: ¼ to ½ cup
- Potato, rice, pasta, or noodles: ¼ cup
- Fruit: ¼ cup
- Breast milk or formula: 4 to 6 ounces
Before bedtime
- Water, breast milk, or formula: 6 to 8 ounces (if you are giving your child breast milk or formula before bed, it’s a good idea to also give them water afterwards)
Eight feeding tips for an 8-month-old baby
Here are few tips to keep in mind while feeding your 8-month-old baby.
1. Don’t forget the breast milk or formula
At eight months, your child needs about 750 to 900 calories per day, from which 400 to 500 calories should come from formula or breast milk (approximately 720 ml or 24 ounces per day). They no longer need the calories from breastfeeding or formula once they turn one.
2. Stick to one feeding position and location
While feeding your baby, it’s best to try to stick to one feeding position and location. This helps develop a strong relationship between the place and the food. High chairs not only make mealtimes trouble free, but they are also excellent at teaching your child how to sit still while eating. They also help minimize choking hazards and keep food mess more or less isolated.
3. Don’t mash the food completely
Another thing to keep in mind while preparing food for an eight-month-old baby is not to mash the food completely. Instead keep the consistency somewhat grainy. This can help your baby transition from pureed foods to solid foods more easily.
4. Don’t add salt or sugar yet
Salt and sugar can put unnecessary load on babies’ kidneys. Furthermore, eating too much salt during childhood has been shown to lead to higher risks of diseases such as hypertension, kidney disease, osteoporosis, and cardiovascular diseases later in life. Similarly, adding sugar to your baby’s diet can lead to tooth decay and cavities. Excessive sugar intake may also suppress immunity and make children more prone to developing diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases in adulthood.
5. Try to avoid plastic
If possible, store foods for your baby in containers made of glass or steel. Plastic sometimes contains harmful chemicals that can contaminate the food.
6. Avoid fried foods
Swap fried foods for steamed vegetables and fruits.
7. Be careful about allergies
When you are introducing new foods into an 8-month-old’s meal plan, make sure to introduce them one at a time, by themselves. This will help you identify any food allergies.
Health experts recommend that you wait at least four days between introducing new foods.
As you introduce new foods, look for possible allergic reactions such as hives, difficulty breathing, or rashes. If there is a family history of food allergies, particularly for eggs, nuts, and dairy products, exercise extra caution.
8. Don’t use cow milk yet
Cow milk doesn’t contain the essential nutrition that your baby needs at this age, so wait until they turn one before introducing it. Cow milk contains more salt, protein, calcium, and potassium than formula or breast milk. This can raise the load on babies’ kidneys.
By eight months, your baby is probably able to easily swallow mashed foods and beginning to chew soft and cooked solid foods. However, they’re still getting at least half their calories from formula or breast milk. The best foods for an eight-month-old baby are fruits, vegetables, fish, dairy, chicken, eggs, cereals, and grains.
Try to arrange the feeding schedule of your eight-month-old baby according to their personal needs and those of your family.
While preparing an 8-month-old baby’s meal, don’t mash the food completely. Avoid salt and sugar, and try to store leftovers in glass or steel. Be careful about food allergies, and don’t introduce cow milk until your child is one year old.
Diet for an 8-month-old baby
In the ninth month, fish can be introduced into the diet of children. Along with animal meat, fish is a source of complete protein with a well-balanced composition of amino acids, fat, vitamins B2, B12 and minerals. Compared to meat, fish contains 5 times less connective tissue, due to which it is quickly boiled soft, has a delicate texture after heat treatment and is easier to digest. Fish oil is characterized by a high content of polyunsaturated fatty acids, including the ω-3 class. These substances are necessary for the child to mature the brain, retina, strengthen the cardiovascular and immune systems. Sea fish contains such important trace elements for the child's body as iodine and fluorine. The child should be given 1-2 times a week instead of meat, be sure to monitor how the child tolerates fish in general and its individual varieties.
Preference should be given to oceanic fish, preferably white (cod, hake, pollock), red salmon can be recommended, river pike perch, carp.
Self-cooked fish is given to a child with boiled and mashed vegetables. You can also offer your baby fish and vegetable canned food, but they contain only 10 - 20% of fish.
At this age, when all the main food groups have already been introduced, special attention should be paid to the diversity of the composition of dishes. New, possibly combined products are introduced, for example, not only purees from various fruits and berries, but also their combinations with cottage cheese, cream, cereals, etc.
From the age of 8 months, the child's diet can be expanded to include fermented milk products (baby kefir, biokefir, bifidokefir, yogurt, bioyogurt, biolact). Fermented milk products are prepared using a special starter culture that breaks down milk protein, so that the baby can get an indispensable set of amino acids in a well-available form.
Fermented milk products improve the composition of the intestinal microflora of the child, are rich in B vitamins and calcium. Their regular use favorably affects the functioning of the intestines, stimulates appetite, and increases the absorption of micronutrients. Children's dairy products are introduced into the baby's diet gradually, starting with 1 tsp. and with good tolerance increase their volume to 150-200 ml per day.
Sample menu for a healthy baby 8 months
| I feeding 6 hours | Breast milk or infant formula | 200 ml |
| II feeding 10 hours | Dairy-free* or milk porridge Butter Boiled egg yolk Fruit puree Fruit juice | 180 g |
| III feeding 14 hours | Vegetable puree Vegetable oil Meat puree Fruit juice | 170 g 1/2 tsp 50 g 50 ml |
| IV feeding 18 hours | Cottage cheese Baby biscuits Fruit puree Supplementation with breast milk or baby kefir/yogurt | 40 g |
| V feeding 22 hours | Breast milk or infant formula | 200 ml |
* - diluted with breast milk, infant formula or water
Approximate daily ration for an 8 month old baby allergic to cow's milk proteins
| I feeding 6 hours | Breast milk or formula for children allergic to cow's milk proteins | 200 ml |
| II feeding 10 o'clock | Dairy-free* porridge Vegetable oil Fruit puree (apple, pear) | 120 g 1 tsp 80 g |
| III feeding 14 hours | Vegetable puree Vegetable oil Meat puree | 170 g 1 tsp 40 g |
| IV feeding 18 hours | Vegetable puree or porridge Vegetable oil Meat puree | 170 g 1 tsp 30 g |
| V feeding 22 hours | Breast milk or formula for children allergic to cow's milk proteins | 200 ml |
* - diluted with breast milk or formula for children allergic to cow's milk proteins ≈ 4 min reading time
Contents
- How do you know when it's time for your baby to expand complementary foods?
- How to continue introducing complementary foods at 8 months - features and general rules
- What foods to continue complementary foods at eight months
- What's the difference between a breastfed or formula-fed baby's diet?
- Eight month old baby diet
- What to do if the baby refuses to eat a new product
An eight-month-old baby has to “get acquainted” with the latest new basic complementary foods.
They are very useful, but rather "difficult" for the emerging digestive system, so they are introduced when it is already strong enough. In addition, from this age, you can try to change the consistency of dishes from homogeneous to finely ground. We tell you how to continue introducing complementary foods at 8 months.
By 8 months, the child is already trying to manage the spoon himself. Teeth usually begin to erupt from six months and by 8 months the baby already has 2 upper front incisors in the center and 2 lower ones. Enough to try not only homogeneous puree-like food, but also food interspersed with pieces - but very small and soft.
Experts of the European Society of Pediatric Gastroenterologists, Hepatologists and Nutritionists (ESPGHAN) note: it is undesirable to linger on feeding pureed foods for too long. so-called. The critical window for the introduction of kibbles is the period of 8–10 months.
The kid is ready to expand the diet if he “mastered” mashed potatoes consisting of several types of vegetables, cereals from several types of cereals, incl.
with gluten, such as oatmeal. He already eats different types of meat puree and egg
yolk.
Complementary feeding of a child at 8 months expands according to the same rules as at an earlier age:
- start introducing a new product with a small amount and gradually reach the amount due for 8 months, which is indicated in the table below;
- does not need to introduce a new product under stressful circumstances - for example, with an infectious disease, moving to a new place of residence, etc. You have to wait 3 to 5 days;
- be sure to observe how the baby reacts to the product - for this you need to enter the dish in the morning;
- it takes 1-2 weeks for the baby to adapt to a new dish. At this time, you do not need to offer another new product, but the already familiar ones remain in the diet;
- it is advisable to give preference to ready-made dishes of industrial production, because. they have passed the security check.
In the National Feeding Optimization Program, the 8 months complementary feeding table suggests:
| product, dish | g/ml |
|---|---|
| Vegetable puree | 150 |
| Porridge | 180 |
| Meat puree prepared/boiled meat | 60–70/30–35 |
| Fruit puree | 80 |
| Yolk | ½ |
| Curd (New!) | 10–40 |
| Fish Puree (New!) | 5–30 |
| Fruit juice (New!) | 5–60 |
| Kefir, other children's non-adapted fermented milk drinks (New!) | 200 |
| Wheat bread, crackers (New!) | 5 |
5 g of butter are added to cereals per day, 6 g of vegetable oil are added to vegetables.
The menu of an 8-month-old baby in terms of composition and variety is already somewhat reminiscent of the diet of an adult. But do not forget that before the "adult" food, the baby still grows and grows for more than one year. To the previous dishes are added:
Fish puree
Until a certain age, meat is preferable for a child, but by 8 months the body is already ready to gradually assimilate fish.
Fish is a very valuable product. It contains:
- Omega-3 essential polyunsaturated acids that ensure the integrity of body cells;
- lots of easy-to-digest protein;
- vitamin D, important for strong bones and immune system development;
- amino acid taurine, which has a beneficial effect on the heart and blood vessels;
- selenium and iodine, necessary for the proper functioning of the thyroid gland.
Important: baby nutrition experts recommend:
- give fish 1-2 times a week, replacing a meat dish;
- offer no more than 30 g of fish per meal;
- give preference to oceanic white fish: cod, sea bass, hake, pollock.
These varieties are good because they are low-fat. In addition, marine fish is rich in certain minerals, which are practically absent in river fish; - from red varieties it is better to choose salmon;
- among river fish, pike perch is more suitable for children.
Curd and non-adapted fermented milk drinks
In some cases, curd can be administered from 6 months of age, but after consulting a pediatrician.
Dairy products:
- inhibit the growth of harmful microorganisms due to lactic acid;
- contain calcium, which is involved in many vital functions - in particular, it provides strength and growth of bones, regulates blood pressure;
- some have added prebiotics (fibers that stimulate the growth of beneficial bacteria in the gut) and probiotics, live beneficial bacteria.
Wheat bread and croutons
Bread and crackers expand the taste palette, help develop coordination, fine motor skills and chewing skills.
Crackers or drying need to choose special children's ones that take into account the age characteristics of the body: they do not have added sugar and salt.
Fruit juice
Fruit juices, like fruit purees, are not the main dish, but an addition to it. Fruit juices contain:
- potassium is an essential trace element for the functioning of the nervous system and muscles, maintaining water balance in the body;
- substances with antioxidant properties.
But pediatricians warn: juice should be consumed with caution. There is no protein in it, useful fiber is found only in juices with pulp, while there is a lot of sugar. It is necessary to offer juice when the baby has already refreshed himself with porridge or mashed meat. Drinking juice between meals is not recommended.
Important: if the main dishes have already been mastered, you can diversify the menu by combining them. For example, combine fruit puree with cottage cheese or cereals.
Foods to avoid
The Union of Pediatricians of Russia recommends not offering a baby under 1 year old:
- semolina, because it has a lot of gluten;
- honey, because it may contain dangerous spores of bacteria that the baby's digestive and immune systems may not be able to cope with, which will cause an acute reaction;
- solid products of a round shape (sweets, nuts, grapes, peas) - the child may choke;
- whole cow and goat milk - it has a lot of protein, which is very different from the protein in breast milk, this creates a load on the body;
- sugar and salt;
- sweet soda. The increased sugar content in such drinks causes the body to produce more of the hormone insulin, and gas bubbles contribute to the formation of carbon dioxide, which has a bad effect on the walls of the digestive organs.
Against the background of complementary foods, it is advisable to continue breastfeeding up to 1.
5–2 years. WHO experts call breast milk the ideal food for a baby, it largely lays a “margin of safety” and health for later life.
Complementary foods at 8 months with breastfeeding and complementary foods at 8 months with artificial feeding are no different. After breastfeeding, a breastfed baby is applied to the breast, with artificial feeding, they give infant formula.
The Union of Pediatricians of Russia offers an approximate menu of complementary foods for eight-month-old children.
| 6.00 1st feeding
|
| 200 ml |
| 10.00 2nd feeding |
| 180 g + 1/2 tsp 1/2 20 g |
| 14. 3rd feeding |
| 150 g + 1/2 tsp. 50 g |
| 18.00 4th feeding |
| 40 g 1–2 pcs. 60 g 100 ml |
| 22.00 5- feeding |
| 200 ml |
00 An eight-month-old baby should eat a total of 1000 ml of food in five feedings. This is the same volume as at an earlier age, but now the baby receives more calories due to the fact that the amount of dense food increases: meat, cereals, cottage cheese.
Each feeding is approximately 200 ml, but this is an approximate amount.
Like all people, the preferences of babies are individual: someone willingly eats in the morning, someone's appetite wakes up closer to the middle of the day. However, Svetlana Makarova, Professor, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Head of the Department of Preventive Pediatrics, North-Western State Medical University. I.I. Mechnikov, notes: “If a child is hungry in the evening, then, after all, in the morning he was underfed with dense food.”
If a child refuses a new product, this is completely normal. Rejection of a new dish can be an example of the so-called. neophobia, "fear of the new." This mechanism is natural and even saving: it makes the child be wary of unfamiliar dishes. The main thing is to be patient: you need to introduce a new dish unobtrusively and quite a bit, but at each feeding. Sometimes a baby can fall in love with a new dish from the tenth or even the fifteenth attempt. But it is necessary to offer and in no case force.
Sometimes the child may not like the new consistency of food - thicker, with pieces.
In this case, you can return to the food of the consistency that the baby ate willingly, and then try again to introduce the dish. "Smooth out" the transition from a homogeneous dish to a piece help dishes combined in consistency - mashed potatoes with pieces.
If a child does not eat complementary foods for 8 months, i.e. refuses not from a specific product, but from any, the pediatrician will help to understand the reasons. It can be either a food intolerance or a reaction to teething.
There is no need to delay the introduction of complementary foods: each new dish brings important, and sometimes necessary substances for the body. With late feeding, the likelihood of their shortage increases. In addition, the formation of chewing skills and proper taste habits are disrupted. Some studies show that delaying the introduction of new foods may predispose to allergic diseases.
References
- The program for optimizing the feeding of children in the first year of life in the Russian Federation.
Moscow, 2019. https://minzdrav.midural.ru/uploads/document/4908/optimizatsii-vskarmlivaniya-detej-pervogo-goda-zhizni.pdf - Feeding introduction. Union of Pediatricians of Russia. https://www.pediatr-russia.ru/parents_information/soveti-roditelyam/ratsiony-pitaniya-v-razlichnye-vozrastnye-periody/vvedenie-prikorma.php
- Approximate diet for an 8 month old baby. Union of Pediatricians of Russia. https://www.pediatr-russia.ru/parents_information/soveti-roditelyam/ratsiony-pitaniya-v-razlichnye-vozrastnye-periody/8%20%D0%BC%D0%B5%D1%81%D1%8F% D1%86%D0%B5%D0%B2.pdf
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