Sooner or later, the feeding time begins in the baby's life. This important period should be painless and pleasant for the child, otherwise you can earn not only food allergies, but also refusal to eat. Complementary feeding is acquaintance with adult food, getting used to another type of food.
How to introduce complementary foods
Complementary foods should be introduced after 6 months of breastfeeding or bottle feeding. Your pediatrician will tell you if you can start feeding baby food. A new product should not be given a week before the intended vaccination and a week after. Take your time with this matter, let you introduce less, but qualitatively, without negative reactions of the body.
Your baby will tell you by his behavior whether he is ready to receive new food. Usually, during this period, children begin to take an active interest in their mother's food, ask for a spoon. They will open their mouths if you bring a spoon to their mouth.
Most often, doctors advise starting complementary foods with vegetables. It will be better if these are products from your own garden. But if it's winter outside, then baby food cans are fine too. Find a brand that your child will like, empirically. Steam the vegetables or bake them in the oven. Grind with a blender and add your milk. The canned puree should be transferred to a plate and heated in the microwave or in a water bath.
Start complementary foods with half a teaspoon, breaking this rate into droplets. Offer your child a spoonful of small portions over and over again. Of course, at first he will spit everything out, because his taste buds are used only to his mother's milk. Therefore, adding milk to the puree will help the child get used to the new taste. So, every day adding a spoonful of food, bring the volume to 100-150 g. This will replace one full feeding.
By the way, you need to offer a new product only in the morning feeding, in order to see the body's reaction to complementary foods during the day. If you notice a rash on the body after 3-4 hours, or diarrhea, or pain in the tummy, then these are signs that this product should be removed for a few days. Allow 7-10 days for the complete introduction of the product. During this time, the body will get used to nutrition and will be ready to accept a new one.
Remember to offer water or lightly brewed tea when introducing complementary foods. This can also be done between feedings.
What foods to introduce at the beginning of complementary feeding
Most often, complementary foods begin with a vegetable marrow. After that, you can add broccoli and cauliflower. If the child is gaining little weight, pediatricians advise starting complementary foods with cereals. Choose dairy-free cereals, diluting it with breast milk or formula. After 8 months, you can switch to milk porridge, but carefully monitor the body's reaction.
At 7 months, you can introduce potatoes. Prepare light soups for your little one based on the vegetables that have already been introduced. Add a few drops of vegetable oil to a serving, and later, half an egg yolk. The latter is allowed only a few times a week.
At 8 months, it's time to introduce fruit. Of course, jars of baby puree are much younger, but you run the risk of running into allergies. Apple, peach, pear and prune desserts will be appreciated by your little one. Fruit can be mixed with porridge, milk, or can be given as an independent dish. You can also introduce fresh fruit in slices, which are given through a special net. Also at 8 months it's time to introduce kefir, and then cottage cheese. You can use purchased curds, or you can purchase sourdoughs and cook yourself. Remember that fermented milk products are useful for only 5-10 days.
At the age of 9 months, meat is introduced into complementary foods. This can be chicken breast, turkey, rabbit, and lean beef. Boil or bake the meat, chop in mashed potatoes and add to the soup. The daily intake of meat is 5 teaspoons. Do not cook soup with meat broth, this is extremely difficult food for a young stomach.
At 10 months old, you can safely offer your baby "colored" vegetables - pumpkin, beets, carrots. Cook him soups, a variety of cereals, offer berries, cookies and yoghurts.
At 11 months old, the baby already eats meat every day. You can replace meat with fish one day of the week. Choose low-fat types of fish - hake, pollock, cod. Boil and remove each bone to prevent the child from choking. Also at 11 months you can add fresh herbs, sour cream to soups. Porridge will be tastier not only with fruit, but also with butter. Also, closer to the year, you can enter juices diluted with water, and baby milk.
Take your time to introduce complementary foods. This requires your attention, not experimentation. After the introduction of complementary foods, you will notice a change in the baby. This will be bad breath and stools of various colors (depending on what the child ate). After a year, you can begin to transfer the child to adult food, but cooked without frying and without seasonings.
