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garlic potatoes into his cereal? It’s hard to stay faithful to good intentions when bombarded with advice or accusations of not properly feeding your baby. After all, you turned out OK, and you were practically eating baby-back ribs at two months of age!
Some reasons for differing opinions are that recommendations have changed from years past, and many old-wives tales still circulate. Undesirable behaviors used to be solved with food. Fussy babies needed cereal, drooling was solved by introducing vegetables, cradle cap needed chopped salami, and sneezes were stopped with brandy-infused pacifiers.
Times have changed. Today, cereal and baby foods are held off until later, and brandy isn’t recommended until age 21. For most babies, breast milk or formula meets all nutritional needs until 4-6 months of age.
Introducing foods earlier than four months of age has been linked to food allergies, obesity and diabetes. Besides, it makes feeding messier and more complicated. Food gets rubbed in eyebrows, stuck in eyelashes, and orange squash gets spit right back at you. What’s the rush?
The introduction of foods should coincide with your baby’s ability to sit with support and maintain good head control.
When the time is right, begin with rice cereal, as it least likely to induce food allergies.
Cereal should be introduced with a spoon and not put in the bottle unless instructed by your pediatrician. This is to prevent choking and to help baby learn the difference between sucking and eating.
After a few weeks, other cereals can be introduced. Once these have been tried and tolerated, begin pureed fruits and veggies. Introducing veggies first allows them to be preferred to the sweet fruits for the only time in a person’s life. Once fruits are introduced, veggies surrender to the back of the taste bud spotlight. Each new food should be introduced individually and gradually, with a minimum of three days between them to evaluate for allergies.
Once your baby has tolerated the “first,” or simply pureed stage-one foods, then stage-two foods can be offered. The main difference between stage one and stage two foods is the size of the jar, the consistency and that foods are combined.
Pureed meats can be introduced around eight months. Don’t be alarmed if your baby does not love pureed lamb or ham right away. The stuff looks and smells disgusting, and is even worse when found later dried behind his ears.
Strictly breast-fed babies will need a source of iron, such as iron-fortified cereal, by six months of age. This is because natural iron stores in the body have been exhausted by then. Talk with your pediatrician about the possible need for vitamin D supplements as well.
Finger foods can be introduced around ten months, usually after the pincer grasp has developed. These foods should be soft and bite-size. Avoid foods that stick together, like raisins, sticky foods like cream cheese, and of course choking hazards.
There are several foods that should be avoided during the first year. Egg whites, wheat, shellfish, fish, citrus, honey, syrup, peanut-butter and fresh spinach, and choking foods such as nuts and hot dogs.
Formula or breast milk should continue until 12 months. Water or juice can be given after six months but should not replace a bottle or nursing feeding. Juices should be limited to four ounces per day, as they contribute to weight gain and provide enough calories to interfere with meals.
Feeding your baby can be confusing because you don’t want to overdo it or underdo it, or cause allergies, choking, gas or mean looks from Papa Panini. Stay confident with your intentions, and follow your pediatrician’s recommendations to keep Plumpless looking
perfect.
Ann-Marie Berg is a pediatric nurse practitioner and freelance writer whose work appears in other newspapers. She can be reached at amhberg@mchsi.com.
