6 months
Irina Belyaeva
Researcher of the Department for Newborns of the Scientific Center of Children's Health of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, Ph.D.
Magazine "9 months"
Of course, each of the young parents knows that sooner or later the baby will not have enough of one mother's milk and he will need another, more "adult" food. But it is one thing to know about the problems of child nutrition “theoretically” and quite another to face them in practice. Where to start acquaintance crumbs with new products for him? At what time, in what form and in what quantity to offer them? These questions often baffle moms and dads. We hope that the sample menus for a growing child, the publication of which we begin in this issue, will become the sample that will help you create an individual menu for your baby.
Your baby is about six months old. He has grown noticeably, has become more active and active. He is interested in objects that fall into his field of vision, carefully examines them, more and more often makes guttural, melodious sounds, repeating them with different intonations. The child's emotional reactions have become much richer: he happily smiles at his mother, father, and other people whom he often sees, and is wary at the sight of strangers, and reacts to the intonation of adults. Of course, you are still breastfeeding your baby, but the composition of breast milk can no longer fully meet his needs. This means that the time has come to think about complementary foods.
Getting to know new dishes
If a breastfed baby is developing normally, then up to 4-6 months he does not need any additional food, including fruit puree and juices. This also applies to those "natural scientists" children who show a tendency to allergies: if the pediatrician does not reveal any nutritional deficiency, then complementary foods are introduced at the usual time, taking into account the individual tolerance of the products.
“Artificial” children begin to experience a shortage of a number of substances necessary for normal growth and development more quickly, therefore, they have a need for additional nutrition a little earlier. Therefore, new products in the form of juices, and then fruit puree, are introduced into their diet at about 3.5 - 4 months. Children receiving formulas made with soy protein or protein hydrolyzate (this happens in case of protein allergy cow's milk), earlier than others experience a lack of animal protein. Therefore, mashed potatoes from twice boiled meat are introduced into their diet already at 5 - 5.5 months. If you are intolerant of beef, veal, the proteins of which are similar in composition to the proteins of cow's milk, it is recommended to use lean pork, horse meat, rabbit, turkey or chicken meat, as well as baby food containing horse meat or pork. However, these products should be administered to children with allergies with caution, taking into account individual tolerance.
Switching to a new diet
In the fifth month of life, the child should be fed not 6, but 5 times a day at intervals of 3.5 hours and a 10-hour night break. Complementary foods are best given at lunchtime (about 13 hours), and if this is for some reason inconvenient, then at any other feeding except the first and last. In this case, it will be easier for the child to wean from the first feeding (at 6 o'clock in the morning), and overeating at night is harmful for children in the same way as for adults.
A non-dairy product should be offered before breastfeeding or formula feeding - while the baby is still hungry and attracted to the food. Start with a small amount (a few drops of juice, half a teaspoon of puree or porridge). Within 10 - 12 days, gradually bring the amount of food to the required volume (for complementary foods, this volume is about 150 grams). In order for the baby to learn to swallow thick food, it is necessary to spoon feed him patiently and carefully; it is desirable that the baby's first spoon is soft (for example, silicone). If the child did not like the dish, do not insist; force feeding is not allowed! Let the child first get used to one dish and only then introduce another into his diet. When introducing a new type of complementary food, try first one product, gradually increasing its quantity, and then gradually "dilute" this product with a new one. For example, you can start vegetable complementary foods with half a teaspoon of squash puree. During the week, give your baby only this puree, gradually increasing its volume. After a week, add half a teaspoon of mashed peas to the squash puree. Continue to gradually increase the volume of the mixture of courgettes and peas, etc.
Complementary foods should be started either with porridge or vegetable puree. In cases where the child has signs of rickets, anemia, food allergies, we recommend starting with vegetable puree. Puree for children with food allergies should include only green and white vegetables (zucchini, cabbage, green beans, peas, potatoes). Since potatoes have rather high allergenic properties, their amount should not exceed 20% of the total mashed potatoes. For the preparation of mashed potatoes, both natural (including frozen) vegetables and canned vegetables can be used for baby food from the above light-colored vegetables. Vegetable oil (sunflower, corn, olive) is added to the vegetable puree - preferably refined and deodorized.
Children who are underweight, as well as babies who have frequent regurgitation, can be given porridge as the first complementary food. In the diet of healthy babies, porridge is usually introduced after vegetables. It is better to start with gluten-free milk porridge (buckwheat, corn, rice). In this case, preference should be given to cereals for baby food of industrial production, which are prepared from environmentally friendly raw materials, enriched with vitamins, mineral salts (including iron) and do not require cooking. Even if your child is healthy, he has no signs of an allergic disposition and you prefer to cook porridge yourself, it is advisable not to use whole cow's milk for cooking porridge until 8 months. It can be prepared in breast milk, the formula that the baby is fed, if necessary, in water. Many industrial cereals already contain milk powder, you can also give them at 5-6 months. In the first days, 5 percent porridge is prepared (5 grams of cereal per 100 grams of liquid): the porridge should be liquid - so that it flows from a spoon. Gradually make the porridge thicker. You can add butter (from 5 months) and 1/4 of hard egg yolk (from 6 months) to the finished porridge.
For children suffering from intolerance to cow's milk proteins, the second complementary food - dairy-free porridge - is administered from 5 months. It can be buckwheat, corn, rice, oatmeal, barley porridge (the range of cereals is selected individually). When purchasing ready-made porridge, pay attention that it does not contain powdered cow's milk. Porridge is prepared in water or in a specialized mixture that a child receives (based on soy or protein hydrolyzate).
Menu for different occasions
Option 1. If your baby until 5-6 months received exclusively breast milk and at the same time grew and developed normally, then now is the time to start introducing new foods into his diet. Depending on the individual characteristics of the child, the doctor's recommendations and your personal wishes, it can be juice, puree - fruit or vegetable. If the child is prone to allergic reactions, in some cases, vegetable puree can be recommended as the first, new product for the child (from half a teaspoon, gradually bring the portion volume to 150 g). After 2 - 3 weeks after that, the child can be offered another new product. A month after the baby began to receive new products, his menu may look something like this:
I feeding
Breast milk
II feeding
Fruit puree
Breast milk
III feeding
Vegetable puree or porridge
Fruit juice (can be given between feedings)
about 140 - 150 g
3 g (1/2 tsp)
IV feeding
Breast milk
Fruit puree
V feeding
Breast milk
Option 2. If your child began to receive additional food and complementary foods at an earlier date (from 4 to 4, 5 months) as prescribed by a doctor, then by 6 months his diet may look something like this:
I feeding
Breast milk
II feeding
Milk porridge
Butter
Fruit puree
III feeding
Vegetable puree
Vegetable oil
Fruit juice
3 g (1/2 tsp)
IV feeding
Breast milk
Fruit juice
V feeding
Breast milk
Option 3. Approximate daily diet for a child of 6 months, who is bottle-fed and receives new products from 4 months:
I feeding
180 - 200 ml
II feeding
Milk porridge
Butter
Fruit puree
III feeding
Vegetable puree
Vegetable oil
Fruit juice
3 g (1/2 tsp)
IV feeding
Adapted milk formula
Fruit juice
V feeding
Adapted fresh or fermented milk mixture
180 - 200 ml
Option 4. Approximate daily diet for a 6-month-old child with an allergy to cow's milk proteins:
I feeding
Breast milk
Fermented milk product
Soy mix
180 - 200 ml
II feeding
8-10% dairy-free porridge with added breast milk, fermented milk product, soy mixture or hydrolyzate
Ghee (vegetable) butter
Fruit puree (apple, pear, plum)
3 g (1/2 tsp)
III feeding
Vegetable puree
Vegetable oil
Meat puree
Fruit puree
3 g (1/2 tsp)
20 - 50 g (4 tsp)
20 g (4 tsp)
IV feeding
Dish of cereals and vegetables dish
(zucchini + rice; cauliflower + buckwheat 1: 1)
Vegetable oil
Meat puree
Fruit puree
3 g (1/2 tsp)
V feeding
Breast milk
Fermented milk product
Soy mix
Protein Hydrolyzate Blend
180 - 200 ml
The food demands of a 6-month-old baby are literally increasing before our eyes. The little ones that are on breastfeeding, are already receiving the first complementary food, and the artificial people even managed to get used to it and need more variety. In the first case, there is no urgent need to keep track of how much and what the baby needs, the main components he should receive from breast milk.
In the second, you will have to try a lot so that the child is provided with everything necessary and at the same time does not suffer from colic, gas, regurgitation and other unpleasant consequences of an improperly organized food intake process.
How often and when to feed?
Babies at the age of 6 months are already able to withstand rather long breaks between meals, and at night there is no need to feed at all. If the baby is developing according to plan, then in six months he should receive food about 5-6 times a day. Experts have even developed an approximate diet for babies. But don't forget about individual characteristics babies who can make minor adjustments to the routine:
- First meal at 7.30.
- The second one is at 11.00.
- The third one is at 15.00.
- The fourth is at 17.00.
Advice: It is only useful for adults not to eat at night. A child aged 6 months, having a hearty dinner before bedtime, will sleep soundly and calmly until the morning, without needing night snacks. The main thing is to understand how much a baby can eat so that his stomach is not overfilled. Otherwise, he will fall asleep quickly, but may wake up from colic.
- Fifth - at 19.00.
- Sixth - at 21.00.
The duration of feeding is individual for each baby. If one child copes with a plate of mashed potatoes, cookies and fruit dessert in 20-30 minutes without any problems, then the other is able to stretch a meal consisting of porridge for an hour. Don't push the baby. He should associate food intake only with positive emotions.
The amount of food that is optimal for a child at six months
Despite the fact that today there are several approaches to calculating the daily consumption of food by a child under the age of one year (based on the weight or height of the baby, his calorie needs), the simplest of the formulas is most often used. According to her, a child aged 6 months and older must eat food per day in the amount of 1/9 to 1/8 of his weight. Based on how much macronutrients, vitamins, minerals and fiber will be, nutritionists derive the following important numbers:
- The daily amount of food should be about a liter and this figure does not depend on the type of feeding the baby is feeding.
- At 6 months, the baby should be given at least 500 ml of breast milk or 600 ml of an adapted formula. For a baby on a mixed type of food, the proportions of both are selected individually.
- About 150 ml will be used for cereals per day.
- For vegetable puree, too, no more than 150 ml.
- Fruit puree will be 50-60 ml.
- Meat puree - only 30 ml.
- Another 60 ml for juice and 40 ml for cottage cheese.
- Additionally, a baby at 6 months should receive about a quarter of an egg yolk.
Substances that should be present in the diet of a 6 month old baby
A child at the age of 6 months, taking into account all the characteristics of development, should receive about 115 calories per day. And this indicator needs to be covered by the use of cereals, meat, vegetable or fruit puree. No sweets, not even homemade natural products. In addition, the following points must be considered:
- First of all, you need to pay attention to how much protein the baby is consuming. The need for a baby at the age of 6 months exceeds that of an adult by about two times. In general, this macronutrient should account for at least 80% of the infant's diet. It is he who is the key to the normal physical and mental development of the little man. The main source of the component for a baby is mother's milk, for an artificial person - an adapted formula. Additionally, as complementary foods are introduced, the baby should start eating cottage cheese, turkey or rabbit puree.
- Carbohydrates and fats are the main sources of energy, but if they are excessively absorbed into the body, the child will begin to experience discomfort due to the constant fermentation of food in the intestines. And the abundance of fat is also a prerequisite for the development of diseases of the digestive system. To get the right carbohydrates, your baby needs to eat porridge. It can be instant, but it is better if the child eats a product prepared according to all the rules. The source of fat is breast milk, adapted formulas, egg yolk.
- At 6 months, we begin to pay special attention to the drinking regime of the little ones. Vegetable and fruit purees, breast milk, soups are not always able to cover the baby's need for fluid. Artists must be given baby water, herbal teas, fruit juices.
Before making any adjustments to the baby's usual diet, it is better to consult a pediatrician. The specialist will assess the speed and correctness of the child's development, give useful advice.
Approximate menu options for a half-year-old child
You need not only to know how much the baby should eat in one meal or per day, but also how to correctly combine dishes, combine and alternate components. The menu can be based on one of the following options for the daily diet:
Option 1:
- First feeding. Milk formula or breast milk in a volume of 200 ml.
- Second feeding. Porridge cooked in water - 150 ml, supplementary feeding in the form of breast milk or a mixture - 100 ml (in general, the amount of supplementary feeding depends on how much the baby ate the main course).
- Third feeding. Vegetable puree - 100 ml with a little meat - 20 g. A quarter glass of fruit juice.
- Fourth feeding. A couple of baby biscuits with two tablespoons of a suitable fermented milk drink.
- Fifth feeding. Not more than 20 g of cottage cheese, 40 ml of fruit puree and 200 ml of an adapted formula or mother's milk.
- Sixth feeding. Breast milk or mixture in a volume of 150-200 ml.
Option 2:
- First feeding. Adapted formula or breast milk - 200 ml.
- Second feeding. Two tablespoons of fruit puree or a tablespoon of juice. Depending on how much the child ate, you can feed him breast milk or a mixture.
- Third feeding. Chicken broth - 100 ml with grated meat, 100 ml vegetable puree, 50 ml fruit puree.
- Fourth feeding. Porridge cooked in milk - 150 ml, jelly - 100 ml.
- Fifth feeding. Adapted formula or breast milk - 200 ml.
After some time, you can begin to gradually introduce butter into porridge, and vegetable oil into vegetables. In this case, one must take into account the fact that the fat content of the dishes will increase, albeit slightly. Parents during such experiments should monitor the baby's condition even more carefully than usual.
By about 9 months, the baby develops a stable feeding schedule: frequency, time, dosage. All basic complementary foods have already been introduced, but breast milk or formula is still the basis of the diet. Still, mothers are lost in what sequence, in what quantity of food to give to kid aged up to a year... Here are several options for an approximate menu for childrenfrom the age of 9 months up to 1 year in tables... With the help of convenient tables, it will be easier for mothers to draw up a nutrition scheme for a baby, taking into account age characteristics and individual preferences. Study, select, apply.
Weekly menu for a child from 9 months to 1 year
Menu of our mothers and grandmothers: from the book "Mother and Child", 1954, authors B. A. Arkhangelsky and G. N. Speransky - members of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR. The sample menu is designed for 5 basic feedings per day (click on the table to enlarge it)
Features of the menu for children under 1 year old
- 1 — 3 month old baby eats only breast milk or formula.
- In the menu of a 4 - 5 month old baby - artificial, the first complementary foods are introduced.
- In the menu of children breastfed up to 6 months, additional dishes are not included. By this time, breast milk no longer meets the nutritional needs of the growing baby.
- A child of 6-7 months eats 4-5 times a day, the menu becomes varied and looks something like this:
Options for the day menu of a child up to one year old (table)
- Table "Child's menu 6-7 months«
- Menu for children 8 - 9 months
From 8 to 9 months of age, meat, fish, cottage cheese, kefir are added to the menu:
- Sample menu for 1 day for a child 10 months:
Aged 10-11 months in the evening feeding, milk can be replaced with kefir, gradually weaning the baby off the breast. Kids menu 10-11 months necessarily contains:
- breast milk or formula
- milk oatmeal
- rice or buckwheat porridge
- vegetable broth
- meat dishes
- vegetable puree
- fruit purees
- vermicelli
- egg yolk
- kefir
- jelly
Number of breastfeeds up to a year
Your baby is already 4 months old. He has grown noticeably, has become more active, is interested in objects that fall into his field of vision, carefully examines and reaches out to them. The child's emotional reactions have become much richer: he happily smiles at all the people whom he often sees more and more often, makes various sounds.
You are still breastfeeding your baby or had to switch to mixed or formula feeding. The child is actively growing, and only with breast milk or infant formula, he can no longer always receive all the necessary nutrients. This means that the time has come to think about complementary foods.
The optimal time to start its introduction is an interval of 4 to 6 months, regardless of whether the baby gets breast milk or formula. It was at this time that the children the best way react to new products. Until 4 months, the child is not yet ready to perceive and digest any other food. And with late introduction of complementary foods - after 6 months, children already have significant deficiencies of certain nutrients and, first of all, micronutrients (minerals, vitamins, long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids, etc.). In addition, babies at this age often refuse new foods, their development of the skills of chewing thick food is delayed and inadequate eating habits are formed. It is important to know that, no matter how strange it may seem at first glance, with the delayed appointment of complementary foods, allergic reactions occur more often.
In what cases is it advisable to give complementary foods as early as 4 months, and when can you wait until 5.5 or even 6 months? To resolve this issue, be sure to consult your pediatrician.
As a rule, more early age (4 - 4.5 months) complementary foods are introduced to children at risk of developing iron deficiency anemia, as well as to children with insufficient weight gain and functional digestive disorders.
The optimal time to start introducing complementary foods to a healthy baby is the age of 5 - 5.5 months.
The World Health Organization recommends that breastfed babies start complementary foods from 6 months of age. From the point of view of domestic pediatricians, which is based on extensive practical experience and scientific research, this is possible only in cases where the child was born on time, without malnutrition (since in these cases the reserves of minerals are very small), he is healthy, grows well and is developing. In addition, the mother must also be healthy, eat well and use either specialized fortified foods for pregnant and lactating women, or courses of vitamin and mineral complexes. Such restrictions are associated with the depletion of iron stores even in an absolutely healthy child by 5 - 5.5 months of age and a significant increase in the risk of developing anemia in the absence of foods rich or fortified with iron. Other deficiency conditions also occur.
The first product of complementary foods can be vegetable puree or porridge, it is better to give fruit puree to the baby later - after delicious sweet fruits, children usually eat vegetable purees and cereals worse, often refuse them altogether.
Where is the best place to start? In cases where the child has a tendency to constipation or is gaining weight too quickly, vegetables should be preferred. With a high likelihood of anemia, unstable stools and small weight gains - from baby cereals enriched with micronutrients. And if you started the introduction of complementary foods with cereals, then the second product will be vegetables and vice versa.
If the first complementary food is introduced at 6 months, it must necessarily be baby porridge, enriched with iron and other minerals and vitamins, the intake of which with breast milk is no longer enough.
Another important complementary food product is meat puree. It contains iron, which is easily absorbed. And adding meat to vegetables improves the absorption of iron in and out of them. It is advisable to introduce meat puree to a child at the age of 6 months. Only the daily use of fortified baby porridge and meat puree can satisfy the needs of babies for iron, zinc and other micronutrients.
But it is better to introduce juices later, when the child already receives the main foods of complementary foods - vegetables, cereals, meat and fruits. After all, complementary foods are needed so that the baby receives all the substances necessary for growth and development, and there are very few of them in juices, including vitamins and minerals.
Juices should not be given between feedings, but after the child has eaten porridge or vegetables with mashed potatoes, as well as for an afternoon snack. The habit of drinking juices between meals leads in the future to frequent snacks, a love of sweets is instilled, caries is more common in children and the risk of obesity increases.
With the beginning of the introduction of complementary foods, the child is gradually transferred to a 5-time feeding regimen.
Complementary feeding rules:
- preference should be given to children's products of industrial production, they are prepared from environmentally friendly raw materials, have a guaranteed composition and degree of grinding
- the complementary food product should be offered to the baby with a spoon at the beginning of feeding, before being applied to the breast (formula feeding)
- the volume of the product increases gradually, we start with ½ - 1 spoon, and in 7 - 10 days we bring it to the age norm, subsequent products within one group (cereals from other cereals or new vegetables) can be introduced faster, in 5 - 7 days
- starting with mono-component products
- it is undesirable to give a new product in the afternoon, it is important to track how the child reacts to it
- new products are not introduced in the event of acute diseases, as well as before and immediately after prophylactic vaccination (you should abstain for several days)
When introducing a new type of complementary food, try one product first, gradually increasing its quantity, and then gradually "dilute" this product with a new one. For example, you can start vegetable complementary foods with a teaspoon of squash puree. For a week, give your baby only this product, gradually increasing its volume. After a week, add a teaspoon of broccoli or cauliflower puree to the squash puree and continue increasing the total each day. Vegetable puree from three types of vegetables will be optimal. The portion should be appropriate for the age. Over time, you can replace the introduced vegetables with others faster.
After the introduction of one vegetable (bringing its volume to the required amount), you can proceed to the reception of porridge, and diversify the vegetable diet later.
If the child did not like the dish, for example, broccoli, do not give up on the plan and continue to offer this vegetable in small quantities - 1-2 tablespoons daily, you can even not once, but 2-3 times before meals, and after 7-10, and sometimes for 15 days the baby will get used to the new taste. This will diversify the diet, help to form the correct taste habits in the baby.
Spoon feeding should be done patiently and carefully. Force feeding is not allowed!
In the diet of healthy children, porridge, as a rule, is introduced after vegetables (with the exception of healthy breastfed children, when complementary foods are introduced from 6 months). It is better to start with dairy-free gluten-free cereals - buckwheat, corn, rice. At the same time, it is important to use industrial-made baby food porridge, which contains a complex of vitamins and minerals. In addition, she is already ready for use, you just need to dilute it with breast milk or the mixture that the baby receives.
For children with food allergies, complementary foods are introduced at 5 - 5.5 months. The rules for introducing products are the same as for healthy children, in all cases it is introduced slowly and starts with hypoallergenic products. Individual portability must be taken into account. The only difference is in the correction of the diet, taking into account the identified allergens. From meat products, turkey and rabbit puree should be preferred first.
Diet for different age periods
It is better to explain how you can compose a diet using a few examples that will help you navigate in compiling a menu specifically for your child.
From 5 months, the volume of one feeding is on average 200 ml.
Option 1.
If your child began to receive complementary foods from 4 to 5 months, then at 6 months his diet should look like this:
| I feeding 6 o'clock |
Breast milk or VHI * | 200 ml |
| II feeding 10 hours |
Dairy-free porridge ** |
150 g |
| III feeding 14 hours |
Vegetable puree Supplementation with breast milk or VHI * |
150 g 5 - 30 g 1 tsp 30 ml |
| IV feeding 18 hours |
Fruit puree Breast milk or VHI * |
60 g 140 ml |
| V feeding 22 hours |
Breast milk or VHI * | 200 ml |
* - infant formula
Option 2.
Another option for the diet of a child of 6 months, if complementary foods were introduced from 4 to 5 months:
| I feeding 6 o'clock |
Breast milk or VHI * | 200 ml |
| II feeding 10 hours |
Dairy-free porridge ** Fruit puree |
150 g 20 g |
| III feeding 14 hours |
Vegetable puree Meat puree Vegetable oil Fruit juice |
150 g 5 - 30 g 1 tsp 60 ml |
| IV feeding 18 hours |
Fruit puree Breast milk or VHI * |
40 g 140 ml |
| V feeding 22 hours |
Breast milk or VHI * | 200 ml |
* - infant formula
** - diluted with breast milk or VHI
Option 3.
An approximate daily ration for a child at 6.5 months of age, breastfed, if complementary foods began to be introduced from 6 months:
| I feeding 6 o'clock |
Breast milk | |
| II feeding 10 hours |
Dairy-free porridge ** Breastfeeding |
100 g |
| III feeding 14 hours |
Vegetable puree Meat puree Vegetable oil Breastfeeding |
100 g |
| IV feeding 18 hours |
Breast milk | |
| V feeding 22 hours |
Breast milk |
** - diluted with breast milk
Up to 7 months, you should increase the volume of porridge and vegetable puree to 150 g and introduce fruit puree.
The materials were prepared by the staff of the Department of Nutrition for Healthy and Sick Child of the Scientific Center for Children's Health and are based on the recommendations given in the “National Program for Optimizing Feeding of Children of the First Year of Life in Russian Federation", Approved at the XVI Congress of Pediatricians of Russia (02.2009)
For every young mother, the introduction of the first complementary foods is a special stage in the life of her baby, with which he becomes older and more independent.
Diet 6 one month old baby breastfeeding should be varied, because the amount of nutrients obtained from mother's milk decreases. This can lead to physical deviations, so the World Health Organization recommends introducing complementary foods at this stage of the baby's life.
It is worth starting to introduce the first complementary food after the examination of the local pediatrician. Each child is individual, has its own pace of physical and mental development, so it is necessary to develop a diet for a particular baby, taking into account his allergic reactions.
If the baby is diagnosed with iron deficiency anemia, there are problems with a functional disorder of the gastrointestinal system or underweight, then in such cases complementary foods are introduced, as a rule, earlier, at 4-4.5 months of the child's life.
Mother's milk is enough for healthy babies at this age, so they begin to introduce complementary foods from 6 months of age. It is also worth considering the state of health of the mother. If the lactation process is not well established or the content of vitamins and minerals in the mother's body is low, this can also affect the baby.
Most often, by 5 months of age, the baby already has a lack of iron or other deficient conditions, so mothers need to take vitamin and mineral complexes.
The baby's first food is usually vegetable puree or porridge. You should not start introducing fruit puree - babies are very smart, after sweets they lose the desire to eat other foods. If the introduction of complementary foods began with vegetable puree, then porridge will follow, and vice versa.
Porridge
To begin acquaintance with cereals follows from porridge:
- rice;
- buckwheat;
- corn.
At the initial stage, preference is given to cereals that do not contain gluten. From 8 months of age, you can start drinking gluten cereals (oatmeal, wheat, barley, and others).
If there is a lack of iron, it is better to try to introduce cereals that are fortified with micronutrients.
Vegetable puree
For babies who are often constipated or overweight, it is necessary to start introducing complementary foods with vegetable puree.
If you first decided to introduce vegetable puree, it is preferable to use for its preparation:
- carrot;
- turnips;
- spinach;
- zucchini;
- pumpkin;
- potatoes.
Vegetable purees can be purchased, but if you are into home cooking, vegetables are best steamed or boiled.
Meat puree
The next stage in complementary foods is the introduction of meat puree. Meat components should be present in the daily diet of the baby, only in this way the iron supply in the body will be replenished. The main rule is that meat should be fresh and lean, so the ideal complementary feeding option is:
- veal;
- beef;
- rabbit meat;
- turkey;
- hen.
At 6 months, the baby can be given chicken yolk.
Fruit purees and juices
When all the required complementary foods have been entered, you can add fruit purees and juices. From 6-7 months, the baby can be slowly introduced to all fruits and berries, except for grapes, raspberries, cherries and strawberries.
But you can safely allow the baby to feast on:
- apple;
- pear;
- plum;
- apricot.
Suitable exotic fruits:
- bananas;
- kiwi.
Fruit purees and juices should be given only after vegetable purees or porridge, as well as during an afternoon snack.
As soon as a 6 month old baby, in addition to breast milk, begins to receive complementary foods, the diet should be properly organized and the following rules should be observed:
- At first, the diet should consist of only one component.
- It is undesirable to introduce new products two weeks before and after preventive vaccinations. it will be difficult to track the reaction to them. The same applies to the period of the baby's illness.
- The new product should only be introduced in the morning.
- The first products must be manufactured through industrial production. You should give preference to world-renowned manufacturers, check the warranty periods on the packaging, carefully study the composition.
- Complementary feeding of any product begins with a small spoon, gradually increasing the portion. If the baby remains hungry, then it is applied to the breast.
- There is no need to give your child snacks in addition to the main meals. They disrupt your diet and can lead to obesity.
Babies, especially at 6 months of age, are quite capricious. Do not rush to refuse the product if the child spits it. It won't take long for the baby to get used to the new taste.
For 6 month old breastfed babies prone to an allergic reaction, complementary foods should be introduced in the same way as healthy children. When a rash, red spots, swelling and other symptoms appear, foods that contributed to the occurrence of an allergic reaction are excluded from the child's diet for several months.
