How Much to Feed Baby in First Year

Starting solids is an exciting and important milestone in baby's development—one that non simply opens them up to a make-new globe of flavors and textures, only also puts them on the right path to growing healthy and strong. Here's what yous need to know well-nigh how and when to showtime baby food for a smooth transition.

In this article:
When to start infant food
How to start infant on solids
Best beginning foods for baby
Introducing allergenic foods

When to Start Baby Food

Knowing when to commencement baby food is both crucial and catchy. Starting baby on solids too early means you might increment the run a risk of choking, obesity and bellyaches, but introducing solids too belatedly ways you might dull baby'southward growth and encourage an aversion to solid foods, among other conditions. Fortunately, doctors accept zeroed in on a sugariness spot for starting infant food, which is sometime between iv and 6 months of age—though, ideally, infant should exist receiving their nutrition exclusively from chest milk until the six-calendar month mark, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). How to tell if it'south time for starting solids for your little one? Baby will give you clues, including:

• Infant can sit in a loftier chair comfortably on their own. This is a major sign in terms of when to start baby food, says Lauren Kupersmith, Dr., a pediatrician at Hassenfeld Children's Hospital at NYU Langone in New York City. It means infant can hold their head upward and doesn't need to be propped upwards to stay in the upright position, which is important to avert choking.

• Baby looks interested at mealtime. Babies likes to mimic what we do, so if your kid likes to sit up like a big kid and spotter you eat, then by all means allow them endeavor eating too.

• Baby can motion food to the back of their throat to eat. But if infant tends to push the food out of their mouth—non because they don't like it, but because they can't seem to become the nutrient to where it needs to go—hold off on starting solids.

How to Outset Baby on Solids

At 4 to half-dozen months, virtually of babe's nutrition will notwithstanding come from breast milk or formula, and then don't worry if babe doesn't similar eating food right abroad. Introducing solids is a gradual process, and every babe learns in their own time. Hither are some full general guidelines for how to start babe on solids:

• Feed baby with a spoon. Letting your child go at it with their hands may seem tempting (and super-cute), but it'due south all-time that they larn the right way from the get-go. (And even then, be prepared to clean up more than than a few messes!) Also, never put cereal (or whatsoever other nutrient) in babe's bottle—it's a choking risk.

• Showtime slowly. When introducing solids, a half spoonful volition do at get-go—you may even desire to talk infant through it ("Yummy!"). To make it easier for baby to become accustomed to the idea of swallowing solids, start mealtime with a little breast milk or formula, then offer some food (again, no more a half teaspoon at a time) and stop off with more breast milk or formula. If infant cries or turns abroad when you present the spoon, try again some other time. Start off with introducing solids at one meal a day, and then slowly work your way upwardly. The morning is a good place to start, since baby is often hungriest at that time. When starting solids, baby typically won't consume more than an ounce or 2 in one sitting.

• Attempt new foods more one time. Since babies' tastes volition evolve, y'all may need to endeavor a food twenty times before a infant actually likes it, says Kupersmith.

• Stick with the aforementioned food for three days before trying another ane. This makes it like shooting fish in a barrel to track whether babe is allergic to a particular food.

• Endeavour foods in different forms. If baby doesn't like pureed food, try it mashed. After all, baby is learning about new textures as well as new tastes. It may be a case of trial and error until you find a winner.

All-time Start Foods for Baby

Got babe safely strapped into the high chair and bib? You're ready to finally offset feeding baby solids! In that location aren't any official nutrient rules for babies starting solids, and there'due south no scientific bear witness suggesting yous should introduce one type of food before some other, bold the foods aren't choking hazards. Nonetheless, babe cereal (such equally oatmeal, rice and barley) is an "easy training food," says Kupersmith, which is why information technology's often recommended every bit baby'south first food; you can e'er mix information technology with more than milk to build up to a thicker consistency. Many doctors also recommend starting vegetables before fruits, but there's no evidence that this would brand babies like vegetables more when they grow up—babies innately dearest sweets, and the order of introducing solids to baby doesn't change that.

So why not simply start introducing solids with something you think baby volition like? Here are a few common first foods for baby that are healthy and easy to eat (and, in the case sweet spud and banana, too like shooting fish in a barrel to digest). Whatever y'all decide to feed baby, mash information technology with a fork or puree before serving whenever introducing solids.

• Baby cereal, such equally oatmeal, rice, barley
• Sweet spud
• Assistant
• Avocado
• Apples
• Pears
• Dark-green beans
• Butternut squash

If your child has been breastfeeding, check with your pediatrician about getting a jump on pureed craven or beefiness when you're starting solids. These foods contain easily absorbable forms of fe and zinc, which baby needs past 4 to 6 months, co-ordinate to the AAP.

At around 9 months, baby should have already worked their mode upward to a variety of foods, including cereal, vegetables, fruits, meats, eggs and fish (run across below regarding the final two). (Proceed in mind, though, that infant will still go the majority of their nutrients from breast milk or formula until age i.) By now, baby will probably settle on 3 meals a mean solar day forth with two snacks. Allow them consume well-nigh 4 ounces of solids at each meal (equivalent to a small jar of strained baby food) and about half that amount for each snack.

Save honey and cow's milk for after infant'due south commencement birthday—there's a risk for infant botulism with honey (a type of bacterial poisoning), and babe's breadbasket isn't prepared to assimilate big amounts of cow's milk until they're about one year former. Avoid adult candy foods and foods that are choking hazards (such equally sticky foods, like large gobs of peanut butter; hard foods that are difficult to gum, like raw vegetables, nuts, seeds and popcorn; and circular, slippery foods that haven't been cutting up, like grapes and ruby tomatoes). Instead, the first foods for infant, and those in the months that follow, should be soft and served mashed, pureed or (once baby seems gear up to move upward from the really mushy stuff) cut up into really petty bits. "At that place'south pretty much free reign at that point," Kupersmith says.

Introducing Solids Chart

Hesitant virtually improvising your offset foods for baby? That's okay too. If you prefer an "introducing solids chart" to help you lot program out babe's path, the guide below can come in handy.

Epitome: The Bump

Introducing Allergenic Foods

Much of the confusion around when to start babe nutrient stems from questions concerning allergenic foods. These are foods that babies are most often allergic to. The major culprits include dairy, eggs, fish, peanuts and tree nuts. In the past, parents were advised to hold off on exposing baby to these foods, but now doctors recommend introducing them early on, often and in age-appropriate format, which ways starting off with purees and soft textures.

"Dairy is an easy starting signal, given options such as yogurt and cheese," says David Stukus, MD, director of the Nutrient Allergy Handling Center at Nationwide Children's Hospital and a spokesperson for the American Higher of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology. You tin can also effort scrambled eggs in pocket-sized amounts, although baby may not be also pleased with the texture at first.

As far as peanut products go, the National Institutes of Health issued new guidelines in 2017 that encourage parents of children at loftier risk for peanut allergies to comprise them into baby's diet at 4 to 6 months of age. Giving these babies peanut products before the age of one actually decreases their risk of developing a peanut allergy before historic period five by 81 percentage, compared to kids who are introduced to peanuts later in life. Parents of kids without the food allergy take chances can get-go peanut products whenever they'd like, as long as the nuts are in an age-appropriate form: Peanut butter can exist thinned out with h2o or mixed into a fruit or vegetable puree, and peanut powder can also exist mixed into cereal and fruits. Don't give whole peanuts or pieces of peanuts, since they're a choking risk.

Allergic reactions to food are never only a fluke; they volition happen with every exposure. Symptoms can range from balmy (such equally a rash or vomiting) to severe (such equally trouble animate). If infant has a food allergy, you'll discover a reaction within minutes or up to two hours after eating the problematic food, Stukus says. If the symptoms are severe, phone call 911 right away. Otherwise, talk to your pediatrician; she can help ostend whether it'due south an allergy or some other blazon of condition (such as a viral affliction).

Expert bios:*

Lauren Kupersmith, MD, IBCLC, is a pediatrician and clinical instructor at Hassenfeld Children's Infirmary at NYU Langone in New York Urban center, besides as a certified lactation consultant. She earned her medical caste from New York Medical College in 2005.

David Stukus, Doc, is the managing director of the Food Allergy Treatment Center at Nationwide Children's Hospital, an associate professor of pediatrics in the partitioning of allergy and immunology and a spokesperson for the American College of Allergy, Asthma, & Immunology. He earned his medical degree from Academy of Pittsburgh Schoolhouse of Medicine in 2002.

Updated January 2020

Delight notation: The Bump and the materials and information it contains are not intended to, and do not establish, medical or other health communication or diagnosis and should non be used as such. You should always consult with a qualified physician or health professional nigh your specific circumstances.

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Source: https://www.thebump.com/a/baby-solid-food-guide

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