At one point, any mother is faced with the question of the need to introduce qualitatively new products into the child's diet. And if earlier the advice of doctors was reduced to the early introduction of yolk and apple juice, now their recommendations are diametrically opposite.
There are certain rules for the introduction of complementary foods - a qualitatively new food in the child's diet. There are several ways of introducing complementary foods, there is pediatric complementary foods (puree-like food is gradually introduced to the child), there is pedagogical complementary foods (the child receives food from a common adult table in pieces). We will talk about the introduction of pediatric complementary foods.
To make a decision to start introducing new products into a child's diet, it is necessary to be guided by several indicators.
1. The age of the child is from 4, 5 to 6 months (if the child is breastfed, then not earlier than 5, 5 months.
2. The child must be able to sit independently or with support in a high chair.
3. The child knows how to take food from a spoon.
4. The baby has lost the protective reflex of pushing the pieces out of the mouth with the tongue.
5. The child is healthy.
6. Prophylactic vaccinations during the introduction of complementary foods should not be carried out.
7. Complementary foods are introduced in the morning.
8. Complementary foods are offered to the baby before breastfeeding or formula feeding.
There are also some requirements for the child's new food:
1. Food should be homogeneous and puree.
2. Contain only one product (mono food).
3. Complementary foods should be warm.
4. Freshly cooked or just opened (if it is food from a jar).
5. Food for a baby should not contain salt, sugar, spices, starch, food additives and, moreover, flavors and dyes.
It's up to you to choose what kind of food to feed your child, cook it yourself or buy ready-made food. If you are confident in the quality of those products from which you prepare food for your baby, you can prepare complementary foods yourself. If you buy complementary foods in a supermarket or on the market from people unknown to you, then it is better to trust the children's food industry, since these products undergo a number of studies before getting on the table with your child.
For the first complementary foods, pediatricians now recommend using vegetable puree or porridge. Moreover, cereals are chosen only when the child is not gaining his body weight. In all other cases, it is better to start feeding the child with vegetable puree. You can choose which vegetables to start feeding your baby with. This can be cauliflower, broccoli, or zucchini. It is necessary to start the introduction of vegetable puree gradually with half a teaspoon, gradually increasing the volume daily to 100-150 ml. This will take about two weeks. After this time, offer your child a new taste. So, if you fed your baby cauliflower, you can give broccoli, for example. After another week, offer your child a zucchini. It will take you about one month to introduce vegetable complementary foods.
Now you can try the porridge. You can cook porridge yourself, or you can buy ready-made cereals for baby food. They are good because they are usually fortified with vitamins, minerals and even probiotics. They cook very quickly and taste good. Keep in mind that not all cereals and cereals are suitable for exploring porridge. The child can be offered dairy-free gluten-free cereals: buckwheat, rice, corn. One new flavor a week. They should not contain other ingredients than those that the child has tried. No matter how beautifully it is written on it that it is a buckwheat porridge with an apple and an apricot. Since the child is not yet familiar with these tastes, it is better not to start acquaintance with them with porridges together. In the event of an allergic reaction or intolerance, both of these products will have to be removed from the child's diet. It will take another three weeks to try the porridge.
After porridge, you can introduce the child to meat, which can be added to the vegetable puree. Meat requirements are simple: lean, homogeneous substance. You can cook it yourself, you can buy canned food for children. Read carefully the composition on the jar and estimate the shelf life. Canned meat should contain nothing but meat. You can offer your child turkey, beef, lamb, lean pork; for sensitive children prone to allergies, horse meat or a rabbit will be the best choice. Stick to the rule - one new flavor per week!
After the child has become acquainted with meat, you can offer him cottage cheese, and then fruit puree from hypoallergenic fruits - apples, pears or prunes. Juices are introduced into the child's diet no earlier than 10 months of life; it is advisable to dilute them with drinking water before using them. By the age of 10-11 months, the child can be introduced to kefir or yogurt. At the same age, you can begin to accustom yourself to eating in pieces. For example, boil vegetables and mash with a fork, make meatballs from meat and mash them too. You can add chicken yolk (no more than ½ pcs.) Or quail eggs to vegetable soup. Fish in the child's diet (cod, pike perch) is introduced closer to a year or after a year instead of eating meat once or twice a week.
Thus, by the end of the first year of life, the child's diet will look like this. Breakfast - porridge 150-200 g, fruit puree 30-50 g, juice (fruit drink, compote) 30 ml. Lunch - vegetable soup in vegetable broth 150-170 g, meatballs 50 g, tea or compote 30 g. Afternoon snack - cottage cheese 50 g, fruit puree 50-100 g, cookies or crackers 10 g. Dinner - kefir or yogurt 170- 200 g. Morning and evening breastfeeding, latching at the request of the child and for naps are preserved. If the child is artificially fed, then the mixture at 6 am and before bedtime.
Bon Appetit!
