What solid foods to feed baby

When, What, and How to Introduce Solid Foods | Nutrition

For more information about how to know if your baby is ready to starting eating foods, what first foods to offer, and what to expect, watch these videos from 1,000 Days.

The Dietary Guidelines for Americans and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend children be introduced to foods other than breast milk or infant formula when they are about 6 months old. Introducing foods before 4 months old is not recommended. Every child is different. How do you know if your child is ready for foods other than breast milk or infant formula? You can look for these signs that your child is developmentally ready.

Your child:

Sits up alone or with support.
Is able to control head and neck.
Opens the mouth when food is offered.
Swallows food rather than pushes it back out onto the chin.
Brings objects to the mouth.
Tries to grasp small objects, such as toys or food.
Transfers food from the front to the back of the tongue to swallow.

What Foods Should I Introduce to My Child First?

The American Academy of Pediatrics says that for most children, you do not need to give foods in a certain order. Your child can begin eating solid foods at about 6 months old. By the time he or she is 7 or 8 months old, your child can eat a variety of foods from different food groups. These foods include infant cereals, meat or other proteins, fruits, vegetables, grains, yogurts and cheeses, and more.

If your child is eating infant cereals, it is important to offer a variety of fortifiedalert icon infant cereals such as oat, barley, and multi-grain instead of only rice cereal. Only providing infant rice cereal is not recommended by the Food and Drug Administration because there is a risk for children to be exposed to arsenic. Visit the U.S. Food & Drug Administrationexternal icon to learn more.

How Should I Introduce My Child to Foods?

Your child needs certain vitamins and minerals to grow healthy and strong.

Now that your child is starting to eat food, be sure to choose foods that give your child all the vitamins and minerals they need.

Click here to learn more about some of these vitamins & minerals.

Let your child try one single-ingredient food at a time at first. This helps you see if your child has any problems with that food, such as food allergies. Wait 3 to 5 days between each new food. Before you know it, your child will be on his or her way to eating and enjoying lots of new foods.

Introduce potentially allergenic foods when other foods are introduced.

Potentially allergenic foods include cow’s milk products, eggs, fish, shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soy, and sesame. Drinking cow’s milk or fortified soy beverages is not recommended until your child is older than 12 months, but other cow’s milk products, such as yogurt, can be introduced before 12 months. If your child has severe eczema and/or egg allergy, talk with your child’s doctor or nurse about when and how to safely introduce foods with peanuts.

How Should I Prepare Food for My Child to Eat?

At first, it’s easier for your child to eat foods that are mashed, pureed, or strained and very smooth in texture. It can take time for your child to adjust to new food textures. Your child might cough, gag, or spit up. As your baby’s oral skills develop, thicker and lumpier foods can be introduced.

Some foods are potential choking hazards, so it is important to feed your child foods that are the right texture for his or her development. To help prevent choking, prepare foods that can be easily dissolved with saliva and do not require chewing. Feed small portions and encourage your baby to eat slowly. Always watch your child while he or she is eating.

Here are some tips for preparing foods:

Mix cereals and mashed cooked grains with breast milk, formula, or water to make it smooth and easy for your baby to swallow.
Mash or puree vegetables, fruits and other foods until they are smooth.
Hard fruits and vegetables, like apples and carrots, usually need to be cooked so they can be easily mashed or pureed.
Cook food until it is soft enough to easily mash with a fork.
Remove all fat, skin, and bones from poultry, meat, and fish, before cooking.
Remove seeds and hard pits from fruit, and then cut the fruit into small pieces.
Cut soft food into small pieces or thin slices.
Cut cylindrical foods like hot dogs, sausage and string cheese into short thin strips instead of round pieces that could get stuck in the airway.
Cut small spherical foods like grapes, cherries, berries and tomatoes into small pieces.
Cook and finely grind or mash whole-grain kernels of wheat, barley, rice, and other grains.

Learn more about potential choking hazards and how to prevent your child from choking.

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Feeding Your 4- to 7-Month-Old (for Parents)

Most babies this age are ready to try solid foods. Experts recommend starting solid foods when a baby is about 6 months old, depending on the baby's readiness and nutritional needs.

Be sure to check with your doctor before giving any solid foods.

Is My Baby Ready to Eat Solid Foods?

How can you tell if your baby is ready for solids? Here are a few hints:

Does your baby swallow food or push it out of their mouth? Babies have a natural tongue-thrust reflex that pushes food back out. Wait until this reflex disappears (typically when babies are 4–6 months old).
Can your baby support their own head? To eat solid food, an infant needs good head and neck control and should be able to sit up.
Is your baby interested in food? Babies who stare, reach and grab, and open their mouths for food are ready to try solid foods.

If your doctor gives the go-ahead but your baby seems frustrated or uninterested in solid foods, try waiting a few days before trying again. Breast milk and formula will still meet nutritional needs as your baby learns to eat solid foods. But after 6 months, babies need the added nutrition — like iron and zinc — that solid foods provide.

Do not add cereal or other food to your baby's bottle because it can lead to too much weight gain.

Watch for signs that your child is hungry or full. Respond to these cues and let your child stop when full. A child who is full may suck with less enthusiasm, stop, or turn away from the breast or the bottle. With solid foods, they may turn away, refuse to open their mouth, or spit the food out.

How Should I Start Feeding My Baby Solid Foods?

When your baby is ready and the doctor says it’s OK to try solid foods, pick a time of day when your baby is not tired or cranky. You want your baby to be a little hungry, but not so hungry that they’re upset. So you might want to give your baby a little breast milk or formula first.

Have your baby sit supported in your lap or in a high chair with a safety strap.

Most babies' first food is iron-fortified infant single-grain cereal mixed with breast milk or formula. Place the spoon near your baby's lips, and let the baby smell and taste it. Don't be surprised if this first spoonful is rejected. Wait a minute and try again. Most food offered to your baby at this age will end up on the baby's chin, bib, or high-chair tray. Again, this is just an introduction.

When your little one gets the hang of eating cereal off a spoon, it may be time to try single-ingredient puréed meat, vegetables, or fruit. The order in which you give them doesn't matter, but go slow. Offer foods that are high in iron and zinc — such as meat, poultry, eggs, and beans — especially if your baby is breastfeeding. Try one food at a time and wait several days before trying something else new. This will let you identify any foods that your baby may be allergic to.

Which Foods Should I Avoid?

Foods that are more likely to cause allergies can be among the foods you introduce to your baby. These include peanuts, eggs, cow’s milk, seafood, nuts, wheat, and soy. Waiting to start these foods does not prevent food allergies. Talk to your doctor if you’re concerned about food allergies, especially if any close family members have allergies, food allergies, or allergy-related conditions, like eczema or asthma.

Infants with severe eczema or egg allergies are more likely to have allergies to peanuts. Talk to your doctor about how and when to introduce these foods to your child.

Possible signs of food allergy or allergic reactions include:

rash
bloating or an increase in gassiness
diarrhea
vomiting

Get medical care right away if your baby has a more severe allergic reaction, like hives, drooling, wheezing, or trouble breathing.

If your child has any type of reaction to a food, don't offer that food again until you talk with your doctor.

Babies shouldn't have:

foods with added sugars and no-calorie sweeteners
high-sodium foods
honey, until after the first birthday. It can cause botulism in babies.
unpasteurized juice, milk, yogurt, or cheese
regular cow's milk or soy beverages before 12 months instead of breast milk or formula. It’s OK to offer pasteurized yogurt and cheese.
foods that may cause choking, such as hot dogs, raw carrots, grapes, popcorn, and nuts

Tips for Feeding Your Baby Solid Foods

With the hectic pace of family life, most parents try commercially prepared baby foods at first. They come in small, convenient containers, and manufacturers must meet strict safety and nutrition guidelines.

If you prepare your own baby foods at home, here are some things to keep in mind:

Follow the rules for food safety, including washing your hands well and often.
To preserve the nutrients in your baby's food, cook it in ways that keep the most vitamins and minerals. Try steaming or baking fruits and vegetables instead of boiling, which washes away the nutrients.
Freeze portions that you aren't going to use right away.
Whether you buy the baby food or make it yourself, texture and consistency are important. At first, babies should have finely puréed single-ingredient foods. (Just applesauce, for example, not apples and pears mixed together.)
After your baby is eating individual foods, it's OK to offer a puréed mix of two foods. As babies get older, they will learn to eat a greater variety of tastes and textures.
If you use prepared baby food in jars, spoon some of the food into a bowl to feed your baby. Do not feed your baby right from the jar — bacteria from the baby's mouth can contaminate the remaining food. If you refrigerate opened jars of baby food, it's best to throw away anything not eaten within a day or two.
Around 6 months of age is a good time for your baby to try a cup. You might need to try a few cups to find one that works for your child. Use water at first to avoid messy clean-ups. Do not give juice to infants younger than 12 months.

Over the next few months, introduce a variety of foods from all the food groups. If your baby doesn't seem to like something, don’t give up. It can take 8 to 10 tries or more before babies learn to like new foods.

How to properly feed a 7-month-old baby with solid food

We tell you how to make a menu, what to include and what to refuse when you introduce solid food into the diet of an infant.

Рixabay

Collected detailed information about what and how much to feed a 7-month-old baby. Also included are some interesting recipes that allow you to diversify the complementary foods menu.

Contents of the article

Do not self-medicate! In our articles, we collect the latest scientific data and the opinions of authoritative health experts. But remember: only a doctor can diagnose and prescribe treatment.

How do you know when a 7-month-old baby is ready for solid foods?

The signs below will help you determine if your baby is able to digest solid foods:

He holds his head well.
Can sit upright on a high chair or feeding seat (no or little support).
Tries to reach out (leans forward) for solid food.
Opens mouth and willingly eats solid food when offered.
Fingers capable of grasping objects.

Delaying the introduction of solid foods may affect a child's healthy weight gain. Therefore, encourage your child to eat solid food as soon as he shows signs of readiness.

A 7-month-old baby's diet can include a variety of healthy foods such as grains, legumes, meat, fish, poultry, fruits, and vegetables. With constant breast or milk feeding, children can consume these products in the form of a well-cooked puree or gruel.

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How often should I feed my baby when weaning?

Feed 7-month-old babies nutritious foods and drinks every two to three hours to support proper growth and development. If on some days the baby eats less than usual, refrain from force feeding. We have a separate article on maternal nutrition during breastfeeding.

Remember that the main source of nutrition even for a seven-month-old baby is breast milk or formula. They can get solid food, but in small amounts, as they need time to get used to the taste, texture, and digestibility of weaning food.

How much food should a 7-month-old baby eat?

The Association of American Pediatricians recommends that mothers continue breastfeeding until at least 12 months of age. Therefore, the baby can be given alternately both breast milk and solid food.

Portion sizes per day

At 7 months, a baby needs a portion of food per day, which is equal to about ⅛ of body weight. This is 1000-1200 ml of food, excluding water, juices, children's tea. Divide this amount by 5 feedings and you will get an estimated amount of food per meal - 200-210 ml.

7-month-old meal options

Traditionally, parents start with single-grain cereal or vegetables and fruits (blended, pureed, or cooked soft). When your baby is seven to nine months old, you can include a variety of foods from different food groups in your diet.

Vegetables

Broccoli, cauliflower, peas, spinach, asparagus, parsnips, peppers, carrots, cabbage, avocados, green beans and squash.

Fruit

Banana, apple, mango, blueberry, kiwi, pear, strawberry, papaya, melon, peach, plum and orange.

Starchy foods

Potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice, porridge, oatmeal, oats, corn, millet, quinoa, cornmeal and bread.

Foods rich in protein

Meat (chicken, lamb, boneless fish), eggs, legumes, lentils, beans.

Dairy products

Pasteurized full fat kefir, curd without sugar or sweeteners.

What is the right way to cook food for a 7 month old baby?

Boil and mash hard fruits such as apples before serving them to a child. You can mix fruit and vegetable purees with formula or breast milk. When choosing meat, you can also consider serving meat broth.

All foods must be soft so that the baby does not choke. Make sure your child eats slowly and in small portions.

Recipes for complementary foods for 7-month-old children

omelet with onions

You will need:

1 Small bulb, cleaned and chopped

1 Egg

½ teaspoon of oil

How to prepare:

Wit egg. Cut the onion into small pieces and add it to the egg. Whip them together.

Place the butter in a frying pan. When the pan is hot, add the mixture and let it cook through.

Let the omelet cool down. Cut it into thin slices and serve to the child.

Berry porridge

You will need:

2 tablespoons of oatmeal

¼ banana

Frozen blueberries (you can use fresh blueberries)

1 tablespoon of yogurt

Water

How to prepare:

Add to prepare:

oatmeal and water in a saucepan. Cook until the mixture thickens and becomes soft.

Top with finely chopped or pureed bananas and blueberries before serving.

Spicy chicken fingers

You will need:

skinless chicken breast

juice of ½ lemon

How to cook:

Take the skinless chicken breast and cut into medium-sized pieces.

Preheat oven to 200°C (approx. 400°F).

Place the chicken pieces on a baking sheet and squeeze a few drops of lemon juice on them.

Roast the chicken for 25 minutes. Once baked, it can be crumbled or given as finger food.

Avocado and banana puree

You will need:

½ avocado

1 banana, peeled

How to make:

Remove the avocado from the saucepan Add a banana to it and make a puree.

You can also add formula or breast milk to the puree and mix before serving.

Sample menu for the day

Breakfast (morning). Solid food :

● Porridge for infants

Liquid :

● Breast milk or formula

Snack (late morning). Solid food :

● Fruit puree such as banana, kiwi, strawberry, boiled apple, boiled pear with unsweetened yogurt (low fat).

Liquid :

● Breast milk or formula

Lunch. Solid food :

● Boiled and finely chopped chicken,

● Cooked and mashed vegetables such as pumpkin, potatoes, spinach, squash, etc. with cooked and mashed rice.

Liquid :

● Breast milk or formula

Snack (evening). Solid food :

● Boiled and mashed pear

● Boiled and finely chopped carrots or mashed beans. Supper. Solid food :

● Boiled vegetables.

Liquid:

● Breast milk or formula

Start with one or two tablespoons of food and see if your baby shows signs of hunger or satiety. Remember that their tummies are still small! You can alternate between solids and liquids depending on your child's hunger signals. You can learn more about breastfeeding here.

Try to include foods with a variety of colors and textures in your child's diet. By the end of seven months, you can also slowly start introducing finger foods to develop the habit of self-feeding.

Seven-month-old baby feeding schedule

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), complementary foods (foods other than breast milk) can be given to babies between six and eight months of age up to two or three times a day. In addition, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends giving your child something to drink or eat every two to three hours, or about five to six times a day (10).

Feeding precautions for a 7 month old baby

Here are a few things to keep in mind when feeding your baby.

move one ingredient at a time. Give this product for three to five days, during which time do not give any other new food. Monitor your child for signs of an allergy.
Gradually increase the variety and quantity of food ingredients; start with a teaspoon and then move on to a tablespoon.
You can also try finger food if your child seems ready. Your child may begin to grasp objects with his fingers when he is ready for finger food. Make sure you are present during meals to avoid the danger of choking.
Wash, peel, remove seeds and seeds before giving fruits and vegetables to your child.
Use a spoon to feed your baby. Make sure that during feeding the child sits on a chair with a table. Observe and respond to your child's hunger cues. Try to develop a predictable schedule for your child for all meals and snacks, and limit the time of each meal to 15-20 minutes.
Avoid adding salt, sugar and butter when preparing baby food at home. Also, avoid cow's milk and honey until your baby is at least 12 months old.

Solid food 9 to 12 months

In the previous period, your main task was to introduce the child to solid food - to prepare him for the transition from liquid food to solid food, to teach him to take food in his mouth and chew it. Many children do not bring food to their mouths, spilling or spilling it along the way, and as a result, they get very little of what was intended. Breast milk and/or formula make up about 90% of their diet.

In the last period of the first year of life, the development of the swallowing mechanism is completed in children. The protective "pushing out" reflex gradually weakens, the child chokes on food less, and swallowing becomes more coordinated. This allows you to gradually move from mashed and liquid food to minty, coarser and lumpy. The structure of solid food also changes. But be careful. If you delay this process, then deprive the child of the chance to experiment with different food structures and increase the period when he eats only pureed food. If you hurry too much, the child will refuse new food with an unfamiliar structure for a long time because of the fear of choking and suffocating.

New skills - new food

At this age, children receive more varied food, and the amount of it increases. Solid food becomes the main source of nutrition for the child, making up about 50% of his diet by the year (for most breastfed children, milk remains the main food by 80-90% even a year). There is a development of new skills, which entails acquaintance with new types of food. Improved "tweezer grip" - the ability to pick up objects with the thumb and forefinger, so the child can take and put small pieces in his mouth. Interest in small objects develops; use this new passion of the child by giving him small pieces of food during feeding.

Feeding with your hands

Encourage your child to take food with their fingers. Teach him to put food in his mouth, and not to scatter, smear it on the table or plate. Place small pieces of boiled carrots, rice biscuits, or soft fruits in front of it. Babies use solid food to "scratch" their gums when they start teething. Hard food, especially for teething teeth, should soften in the mouth, dissolving easily as it is chewed. We found that our children were very interested in the various shapes of boiled pasta that we placed in front of them. Baby's new skill of grasping and holding small objects can be used during feeding. This makes it possible to keep the attention of the child at the table much longer. During the performance of such \"captures \" some part of the food still gets into his mouth. If you are afraid of allergies, do not give your baby, who is not yet a year old, wheat products (butter biscuits, pasta, etc.). If your baby is prone to allergies, you can buy cookies made not from wheat flour, but, for example, from rice.

The ability of a child to take food with his hands has its downside. Food, as well as utensils, become interesting objects to study - they can be grabbed, knocked with them, they can be dropped and thrown. Of course, this does not mean that you should stop such feedings, but only speaks of the natural and normal need of the child to identify all new opportunities for using newly acquired skills.

Let the baby dip food pieces

At 9 months. Toddler starts using his index finger (a new skill!) to stick it somewhere or point them at something. Children are happy to dip their fingers in food, taste it. Use this new skill when feeding. The reflection in the nutrition and feeding of the child of everything that he masters along the way of his development has its funny sides. As soon as your baby starts using his finger to dip it in food and then suck on it, expect him to soon start painting himself or his chair with the food you feed him. Be lenient about this and treat the young researcher with understanding.

Give your child a bone

Over time, when giving a chicken bone to a child, you can leave pieces of meat on it (but without a thin sharp bone). Let him play (bites, knocks, swings, shifts from one hand to another), and at this time you can eat relatively calmly yourself. In addition, the child will probably get some chicken meat.

Using a spoon

Toward the end of the 1st year, the child wants and tries to eat with a spoon on his own. Usually this leads to the fact that everything around is dirty, and the food goes anywhere but in his mouth. It seems to you that it is easier to feed the baby than to let him eat with a spoon. At the age of about a year, the child begins a period of independence ("I myself \"). To somewhat limit this independence, you can hold a spoon with food, but allow the child to hold on to it, or let the baby hold the spoon himself, and you "tweak" it into his mouth.

Food Safety Precautions:

- do not give your child fibrous foods

- choose fish bones carefully before giving them to a child. In canned salmon, knead the bones

- do not give white bread; it turns into a tight lump in the mouth that a child can choke on

- cut meat and chicken across the grain and into very small pieces

- do not give the child large pieces. The baby's front teeth are for biting only. Molar teeth - chewing - appear only after a year. Children press their gums more than they chew

- Feed children only in your presence and only when the child is sitting and not lying or playing

- Put only a few pieces of food on a plate. When a child sees a whole mountain of food in front of him, he will try to stuff it all into his mouth rather than chewing every piece

- sausages do not have a special nutritional value and, moreover, can be dangerous for babies. Putting a whole sausage in your mouth can suffocate your child. Nitrate-free and nitrite-free sausages can be given to children after a year, but even then they should be cut lengthwise into thin narrow strips. Even these "healthy" sausages can be high in sodium, so don't overdo it.

Safe food:

- porridge - rice biscuits (unsalted)

- carrots (boiled)

- whole wheat bread toast (without crust) squirrel

- boiled peas (shelled)

- pear slices (very ripe)

- apple slices (boiled)

- pasta (boiled)

- green beans (well cooked, without fibers)

- pulp or slices of avocado

Food, which can be choked with nuts:

- seeds

- corn

- sausages (entirely or large pieces) hard beans

- hard candy

- raw carrots

- Raw apples

- Grapes

- Unripe pears

- Fibrous food

- Large cuts of meat

Attitude towards food and feeding process

Your task is not only to provide the child with healthy, wholesome food, but also to form in him the right attitude towards the very process of eating. This chapter tells you how to help your baby enjoy food and you can help him enjoy feeding.

Table manners

Children are born artists. When they drop dishes or food on the floor, every adult immediately reacts to this. The child understands this as a game and begins to lay out food anywhere, but not in the mouth. Lunch time becomes a familiar game for him. Sometimes he is very impatient, picks up a handful of food and stuffs it all into his mouth, smearing half of it on his face. And such antics will continue until you react the way he expects. Laughter not only reinforces this habit, but can be very dangerous: when a child laughs with a full mouth, he takes a deep breath of air and may choke.

The baby soon realizes that he can elicit whatever reaction he wants from the adult. Responding to the child's pranks too quickly and explicitly, we only encourage him to continue this domestic performance. Whether you laugh or scold, the child perceives it as an artist - he sees the reaction of the audience, and the performance continues. Not reacting is the best way to get this little clown off the stage. If he doesn't stop being naughty, you have to assume that he is not hungry and stop feeding. Don't expect your little one to sit quietly at the table like older children. At the same time, already at this early age, children learn to behave with a goal by the example of others. If the child sees that other children (and adults) are laughing with a full mouth or throwing food, knocking a cup, and they are having a lot of fun, the little parrot will do the same. And at the same time, do not forget to praise him for his good manners.

If the child is reluctant to eat

For a child who withdraws your hand with a spoon, place toys with suction cups on the chair (otherwise you will have to constantly pick them up from the floor) and, while he is playing with toys, try to feed him using any a trick to get the spoon into his mouth. We played spoon-airplane: \"Look, here is a plane flying\", - the spoon is approaching and right into the open mouth.