When you are 6 months old, you will add complementary food to your baby. At this stage, the baby's demand for iron will increase, so the complementary food contains at least one iron-rich food. For example, iron-fortified rice paste wheat paste (note that homemade rice paste or wheat paste is not iron-fortified, so it is not iron-rich food), meat paste, tofu paste, bean paste and so on. In addition to this standard, other foods are usually not strictly regulated, and mothers can decide the order and types of complementary foods by themselves.
But the baby began to add complementary food, it is best to start with rice flour, not too thick, and gradually increase the consistency and puree of apples, pears, bananas and other fruits and vegetables. At the earliest, apples and pears can be used to make puree, peeled and pitted, boiled in a pot and mashed with a juicer. Vegetables can be cauliflower and some root vegetables, boiled and mashed.
Maybe mothers will find that when complementary food is first added, the baby will push the food out with his tongue. This is a normal phenomenon, which doesn't mean that the baby doesn't like this kind of food. Sometimes, a certain food may need to be tried 8- 10 times before the baby begins to accept it.
The second stage: learning to chew (7-9 months)
Babies in this period have begun to hold food with their fingers. At the age of 8 or 9 months, you can start to give your baby some vegetables and fruits made by hand. First, they can cook sweet potatoes, potatoes, carrots, broccoli, apples and pears. Baby's rice noodles, vegetable puree and fruit puree can also be thicker, and you can even eat some small fruit particles, with as many varieties as possible.
Once you find that your baby can sit and chew alone, you can start to encourage your baby to chew even if he has no teeth. Soft papule paste food or small pieces of soft food are usually good food to help your baby practice chewing. Practicing chewing not only helps to exercise the masticatory muscles, but also helps the baby's language development in the future. Mothers can make use of the baby's imitation nature to give the baby a demonstration action of chewing.
At this stage, the baby can increase carrots, avocados, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, taro, potatoes and other vegetables and more fruits, including bananas, papaya and peaches that can be eaten raw. At this time, the baby can start adding chicken and yogurt. Yogurt is the easiest milk food to digest and absorb, but it is best to choose white yogurt without pigment for your baby, and you can add homemade fruit puree, which is more nutritious.
Potatoes and sweet potatoes can't be beaten in the grinder. They can only be crushed with a spoon or fork for the baby to eat, otherwise they will become very sticky, making it impossible for the baby to swallow smoothly, and sometimes they will stick to the mouth and cause vomiting.
The third stage: learn to eat by yourself (9- 12 months)
At this stage, the baby can start eating with his hands, increase the food he eats with his hands, eat some small pieces of food, and no longer use them all to make mud. You can start eating snacks such as rice cakes and some snacks specially prepared for your baby, and you can start drinking water from cups and straws. On the basis of the previous stage, pork, mutton, beef, egg yolk, cheese, tofu, beans, spinach, peas and oats can be added.
At this stage, we should pay attention to let the baby contact with all kinds of food as much as possible, and we can give the baby more cooked vegetables and soft fruits to eat with our hands. Baby may play with food, which is a process of baby's cognition, so please don't stop it as long as it is not excessive waste. At the same time, mothers should try their best to let their babies decide how much to eat at a time. Don't overeat or force their babies to eat.
Learning to support yourself is a very important skill. Although the baby will mess up the floor, table and stool at first, mothers should encourage and support them.
Since 9 months, most babies have started to supplement their food with three meals a day. At this stage, mothers can also consider adding one or two more meals to their babies. In addition, breast milk or formula milk is still very important at this stage.
The fourth stage: integration into the normal family diet (12 months old and above)
When the baby is one year old, he can join a big family and eat family food. It's just that food needs to be chopped or crushed at first. The baby should be able to eat with a spoon by himself, but at first he will eat less and sprinkle more. The baby's diet should be based on a small number of meals, three meals a day, plus one or two small meals. Mothers still need to pay attention to the risk of suffocation when their babies eat.
At this time, the baby can drink whole milk (pay attention to the whole milk, because the baby needs some extra energy to grow). At the same time, we should also pay attention to the daily milk intake. Too much milk will make the baby unwilling to eat, which will lead to feeding difficulties. At this stage, the daily milk quantity should be controlled within 500ml.
At this time, the baby can basically eat all the food, but pay attention to adding less salt. Parents try to cook together, but first take out the baby's food and add some salt and seasoning.
The best drinks for babies are still breast milk, formula milk, whole milk and boiled water. It is not recommended to let the baby drink juice. Eating fresh fruit is far more nutritious than drinking fruit juice (fruit juice has too much sugar and too little fiber). If the baby must be given fruit juice, it is suggested that the diluted fruit juice (the ratio of fruit juice to water is 1:3) should be controlled within 120 ml. In addition, a large amount of fruit juice is forbidden because it may lead to tooth decay and diarrhea.
At this stage, the baby's appetite changes greatly every day. Mothers don't need to be nervous because their babies eat less occasionally. On different days, even at different time periods on the same day, the baby's appetite and food intake may vary greatly. Mothers should try to let their babies decide how much to eat each time. Both forced feeding and overfeeding are not advisable.
Eat complementary food or milk first?
Regarding whether to eat complementary food first and then drink milk, or drink milk first and then eat complementary food, it is actually very simple, and it is up to the baby to decide.
Some babies are hungry, so they have to drink milk instead of complementary food. He doesn't know that complementary food can also fill his stomach, so he can feed complementary food after the baby finishes drinking milk or half an hour later.
Some babies have a high degree of acceptance of complementary food. "This thing is fresh, I haven't eaten it, and it tastes good." Then you can feed complementary food half an hour before the baby is about to drink milk, so that the baby can eat complementary food first and then drink milk to complete a meal.
How to arrange the time to eat complementary food?
Starting from 2-6 weeks, if the baby eats less, he won't want to eat after a few bites, and complementary food can't be a meal alone. In this case, the arrangement of sleeping and drinking milk is still according to the baby's previous schedule, and there is no need to change it. As mentioned above, either eat complementary food first, or eat complementary food later, or let complementary food and milk be eaten as meals.
With the growth of the month, the baby's complementary food can become a meal if he eats too much. Cancel a milk meal, spread the milk evenly to other time periods, and control the total amount between 600-800ml. At this time, complementary food can become a meal, not a milk meal.
The time of this complementary food can be chosen after a nap in the morning, or after a nap in the afternoon. Again, it depends on which time period the baby is used to eating complementary food.
When adding new varieties to the baby, let the baby adapt for 2-3 days, confirm that it is not allergic, and then add other new foods. There is really no teaching material for baby complementary food, and all feeding guides are just a reference. As a mother, we should not only learn the latest feeding knowledge, but also have our own judgment. What is suitable for the baby is the best.