Home > Parenting > Babies (0-2 Years) > Feeding Your Baby > Weaning

Newborn And Infant Solid Foods

 
Rate this Film:
Click stars to rate this interview
Viewing problems?  |   Report problem
Ratings: 6  | Views: 8246  | Added: May 31, 2007
Share
Favorite
Download
Text Version
Close

Newborn And Infant Solid Foods

How do I introduce my baby to solid food?

To introduce solid foods to your baby first wait until your baby is a appropriate age - at least 4 months and preferably 6 months. Then, watch for signs of readiness. If the baby is ready to eat then you can go ahead and introduce solid foods, one at a time. Start with your vegetables, then introduce rice or oat cereals and move on to your fruits. Each "solid" food should be in purade (in mostly liquid form) until the baby is a little bit older and has some teeth.

How do I know if my baby is ready for solid food?

There are a few really great signs of readiness that you should be looking for to know your baby is ready for solid foods. The first one is that the baby should have lost tongue thrust. E.g. if you touch the baby's lower lip, tongue thrust means the tongue is going to stick out right at you. If the baby is doing that, it is not ready at all for solid foods and you need to wait a little longer. Your other two cues for solid foods are that the baby can sit when supported in a high chair or even in your lap. It has full control of its head can even look back over its shoulder and can see people far off. When you approach with a spoon or your finger the baby gently opens its mouth without sticking its tongue out at you - then you know it is ready for solid foods.

How should I introduce new solid foods?

To introduce a new food to your baby, make sure you pair it with something the baby is already comfortable with. The first time, you're going to be using a bland solid food, like a vegetable or a rice cereal, and the baby will likely take it very well. But, as you start introducing things that are more difficult, or more flavorful, you want to make sure you pair it with something the baby has already tried. Don't introduce a new food any faster than every few days so that you can make sure your baby's not allergic to it.

What solid foods should my baby eat?

Babies should start with very bland, pureed foods. Your best choices of solid infant foods would be rice cereal, oat cereal, barley cereal, or the wide variety of fruits and vegetables. You don't have to purchase these already pureed. You can make baby food at home as long as they don't have any skin and no seeds. So go ahead and introduce your baby to a wide variety of fruits and vegetables and let them see which ones they like and which ones they prefer. Around eight or nine months, you can also introduce cheese and meat to your baby.

What solid foods should my baby stay away from?

Your baby should stay away from solid foods that are a high risk for choking and things that have nuts, seeds or skin, for the first two years. You also want to avoid cow's milk, or the high allergen foods, such as shellfish or nut oils, because the baby's digestive system is not quite ready for these foods. It could cause the baby a life-long problem. The other food you want your baby to stay away from for two years is honey, because honey contains live botulism spores that don't hurt you or me but could affect your baby.

Should I feed my baby organic foods?

Organic foods are not necessary to feed your small baby. Because of the regulations in the food industry, to be labeled an "infant food," it has to be a very pure form of food. However, if you feel more comfortable with organic foods, and believe in any way that they are beneficial to you and your family, you may feel free to use organic infant foods, but they are not a necessary part of infant feeding.

How many times a day should my baby eat solid foods?

When you introduce solid foods at around four to six months of age, you'll only feed your baby one serving of solid food a day. Servings are very small - no larger than one teaspoon to one tablespoon. As your baby ages, it's okay to increase number of servings of solid foods per number of months that you've been feeding. For example, if you started at four months, you can give one solid feeding. At five months, you can give two, and so on. The average one year old eats six times a day, so that's the goal for where you're going with solid foods.

Do I need special equipment to feed my baby solid food?

No, babies come with all the special equipment that they need. You just need some kind of spoon or feeding utensil. It's better not to use forks because they could jab into the roof of the baby's mouth, and of course not knives. However any kind of spoon that the baby can wrap its lips around is more than appropriate. The reason for using most feeding equipment is because parents don't like a mess. So if you don't like a mess it's OK to use all the feeding equipment in the world. But if you're OK with it, you and your baby can feed with anything you have in your house.

How can I teach my baby healthy eating habits?

The first thing to do if you want to teach your baby healthy eating habits is to remember that there's a division of responsibility in feeding. You as the mother get to decide what kind of food is available, and how much of the food is offered. The baby gets to decide whether or not it eats that food and if it asks for more and is satisfied with the amount of food. So tips to you as a mother wanting to encourage healthy eating habits are to provide a wide variety of food so the baby can try all the different fruits and vegetables, all the different meats, and all the different kinds of things that you might want to feed them in the later years. Also, your responsibility in teaching healthy eating habits is not to force feed the infant or offer more food than it's able to handle. When you start feeding the baby its stomach is very small. That means the maximum amount of food that it can handle would be about a tablespoon, and it's much more likely to eat nearly a teaspoon of food. If you try to force it in, a 1/4 cup, 4 ounces, 6 ounces, you'll already be teaching your baby to short circuit its right to decide, "I don't want to eat". So remember a tablespoon is about the maximum you should offer to fit your baby's stomach.

Should I be concerned if my baby is eating less than usual?

It's not necessarily concerning if your baby has times when it eats less or more than usual. As your baby enters its toddler years, it will have lots of days when he surprises you with the amount of food that it can take in. You shouldn't be surprised if one day, your baby doesn't eat as much as usual, and the next day it eats more than usual. However, if a pattern starts to develop of more than two or three days where your baby refuses to eat, you should probably call and ask for help.

Also known as:

Suggest other titles for this film
Email a friend
To:*
Your Name:*
Your Email:*
Message:*
Send

Embed
Link:
Embed:
Embed single question:
  1. How do I introduce my baby to solid food?
  2. How do I know if my baby is ready for solid food?
  3. How should I introduce new solid foods?
  4. What solid foods should my baby eat?
  5. What solid foods should my baby stay away from?
  6. Should I feed my baby organic foods?
  7. How many times a day should my baby eat solid foods?
  8. Do I need special equipment to feed my baby solid food?
  9. How can I teach my baby healthy eating habits?
  10. Should I be concerned if my baby is eating less than usual?

Post
Post to:
Digg Reddit Facebook Stumble Upon Google Delicious Yahoo! Newsvine Windows Live!
Please login or sign up to add this to your Favorites.
This has been added to your Favorites
Remove from your favorites
Add to your favorites
You may also like to:
Add to Favourites

Bookmark in my Browser

Post to:
Digg Reddit Facebook Stumble Upon Google Delicious Yahoo! Newsvine Windows Live!

Subscribe to Related Topics:
Subscriptions allow you to store topics in your profile,
& to be alerted to new films within that topic.
Weaning
Please login or sign up to download the PSP, IPod or Mobile version.
Download FREE to your:
IPod IPod
Cell Cell
MP3 MP3
 
Why not download something extra?
Popular subjects include: Weaning
Close
Order by:     
Comments

Post a comment
Please login or sign up to comment.
Submit
sujathajois  (53 days ago)

nice in formation.... baby care

sunpri  (67 days ago)

Can I introduce Chillies to my 11 months baby?

Anonymous  (135 days ago)

wendymcphee608@hotmail.com Could somebody please e-mail me some baby reciepes please. I am sick of buying jars that only last 48 hours and can't be freezed, I can only do simple so please bear this in mind.

1 out of 1 person found this comment helpful Anonymous  (139 days ago)

my 13 week old boy isnt satisfied with only milk any more he has 9oz of hungry baby formula and wants feeding every 2and half hours he is still hungry after feeding, he is showing all the signs of being ready to start solids, but im being told not too, i feel horrible as i can see he still isnt being satisfied, what should i do

green_hotgreen@yahoo.com  (261 days ago)

is it ok for a10 month old to have silk soy milk

Previous 1 Next
Page 1 of 1
 
Post a comment:
Submit

Would you like to comment?

Please login or sign up for a free account.
Rebecca Charlton
Meet the Expert
Childrens Hospital of Los Angeles
  • How do I introduce my baby to solid food?
  • How do I know if my baby is ready for solid food?
  • How should I introduce new solid foods?
  • What solid foods should my baby eat?
  • What solid foods should my baby stay away from?
  • Should I feed my baby organic foods?
  • How many times a day should my baby eat solid foods?
  • Do I need special equipment to feed my baby solid food?
  • How can I teach my baby healthy eating habits?
  • Should I be concerned if my baby is eating less than usual?
more ...
Weaning
 Infant Gas And Burping 
  1. Rebecca Charlton
  2. How do I know if my baby has gas? 
  3. Why do babies get gas? 
  4. How do I soothe my baby's gas? 
  5. When should I burp my baby? 
 Formula And Bottle Feeding 
  1. Rebecca Charlton
  2. Should I feed my baby formula instead of breast milk? 
  3. What is the difference between breast milk and formula? 
  4. When should I consider bottle feeding? 
  5. When can I give my baby regular milk? 
  6. What type of baby formula should I use? 
  7. Do I need to boil the baby formula water first? 
  8. Can I make my own baby formula? 
  9. What temperature does the baby formula need to be? 
  10. How often should I bottle feed my newborn? 
  11. How much formula should I give my baby per feeding? 
  12. How should I hold my baby during bottle feeding? 
  13. How long should a bottle feeding session last? 
  14. How long can I store baby formula? 
 Newborn And Infant Weaning 
  1. Rebecca Charlton
  2. What is "weaning"? 
  3. If I'm breast feeding, how do I transition my baby to the bottle? 
  4. How do I wean a toddler from breastfeeding? 
  5. How do I wean a toddler from bottle feeding? 
  6. What is "abrupt weaning"? 
  7. Is it ever appropriate to abruptly wean a child? 
  8. What do I do when weaning from the breast becomes a struggle? 
  9. Are there times when I should not wean my baby off the breast? 
Newborn And Infant Solid Foods (Now Playing)
  1. Rebecca Charlton
 Water, Sippy Cups And More 
  1. Rebecca Charlton
  2. Does my baby need to drink water? 
  3. Do I need to give my baby vitamins? 
  4. Do I need to give my baby fluoride? 
  5. At what age does my baby need fluoride? 
  6. How do I give my baby fluoride? 
  7. Why does my baby have yellow teeth? 
  8. What is "baby bottle tooth decay"? 
  9. What happens if baby bottle tooth decay is not treated? 
  10. How do I prevent baby bottle tooth decay? 
  11. Should I give my baby a pacifier? 
  12. What is a "sippy cup"? 
  13. When should I introduce a sippy cup to my baby? 
  14. How do I transition my baby to a sippy cup? 
  15. How can my baby avoid developing problems with sippy cups? 
  16. How much juice, milk or water should I give my baby each day in his sippy cup? 
 Newborn And Infant Nutrition And Growth Basics 
  1. Rebecca Charlton
  2. How do doctors take a baby's measurements? 
  3. Should I worry if my child is outside the normal growth chart range? 
  4. What is the average growth rate for babies? 
  5. Does having a chubby baby mean I'll have a fat child? 
  6. Is it normal for my baby to lose weight in the first 3-4 days? 
  7. What is "failure to thrive"? 
  8. How do I know if my baby has failure to thrive? 
  9. What do I do if my baby has failure to thrive? 
  10. Should I worry if my baby is overweight? 
 Night Time Nursing And Children 
  1. Dr. Gary Feldman
  2. Should I nurse my baby whenever he cries at night? 
  3. Should I nurse my baby to sleep? 
  4. How can I get my baby to nurse less and sleep more at night? 
  5. How do I know if my baby is waking up at night because he's hungry? 
  6. What is the key to getting my baby to nurse less at night? 
  7. Should I put my baby on a nursing schedule to help him sleep at night? 
  8. Can I abruptly stop feeding my baby at night? 

Related Topics

  • Weaning
    TOPIC
    Contains all content on Weaning:
    9 Films
    9 Discussions
More
Formula And Bottle Feeding
INTERVIEW
06:20
Formula And Bottle Feeding
Views: 10,163
Infant Gas And Burping
INTERVIEW
02:18
Infant Gas And Burping
Views: 19,139
Night Time Nursing And Children
INTERVIEW
07:13
Night Time Nursing And Children
Views: 4,728
Water, Sippy Cups And More
INTERVIEW
08:50
Water, Sippy Cups And More
Views: 5,626
Newborn And Infant Weaning
INTERVIEW
03:55
Newborn And Infant Weaning
Views: 5,573
Newborn And Infant Nutrition And Growth Basics
INTERVIEW
04:29
Newborn And Infant Nutrition And Growth Basics
Views: 4,583
Most Viewed in Family & Parenting
VIDEO
02:51
How To Be The Best Dad In The Galaxy
Views: 83,892
VIDEO
07:29
How To Massage Your Baby For Health And Happiness
Views: 57,695
VIDEO
05:18
Successful Breastfeeding: A Beginner's Guide To Getting Started
Views: 45,727
INTERVIEW
03:10
Sex And Pregnancy Myths
Views: 37,244
INTERVIEW
02:15
Signs Of Pregnancy
Views: 33,523
INTERVIEW
13:24
Breast Feeding
Views: 31,668
More
Latest Discussions in Weaning
  • Why Was My Baby Sick The First Time I Gave Her Food Besides Breast Milk?
    11 days ago    2 Responses
  • Why Is My Four Month Old Constantly Vomitting?
    68 days ago    4 Responses
More
del.icio.us Google Yahoo! Facebook Digg Windows Live!
Link to This Page:
Popular Topics
About School Safety Car Safety Rules For Kids Child Behavior Basics Child Safety Seats Childbirth Conception Happy Baby How To Be A Good Parent In-Laws Pregnancy Tests Protect Your Child Road Safety For Kids Sex And Pregnancy Myths Staying Safe The Trimesters Of Pregnancy