A guide to solids and formula feeding

In light of all our topics on how much to feed, or how to do solids, how much... I did some researching for my First Year mommies, so they could get some better understanding on it, or even just different points of views to make into their own ideas.

Age for Starting Solid Foods Click on the link to see my source.

The best time to begin using a spoon to feed your child is when your baby can sit with some support and move his head to participate in the feeding process. This time is usually between 4 and 6 months of age. Breast milk and commercial formulas meet all of your baby's nutritional needs until 4 to 6 months of age. Introducing strained foods earlier just makes feeding more complicated. Research has shown that in most cases solid foods won't help your baby sleep through the night. The only exceptions are those few breast-fed babies who are not getting enough calories or gaining enough weight.

TYPES OF SOLID FOODS

•Cereals

Cereals are usually the first solid food added to your baby's diet. Generally these are introduced to formula-fed infants at 4 months of age and to breast-fed infants at 6 months of age.

Cereals should be fed with a small spoon and never given with formula in the baby's bottle. This is because an infant should be taught to differentiate between what he eats and what he drinks.

Start with rice cereal, which is less likely to cause allergies than other cereals. Barley and oatmeal may be tried 2 or 3 weeks later. A mixed cereal should be added to your baby's diet only after each kind of cereal in the mixed cereal has been separately introduced.


Vegetables and fruits
Strained or pureed vegetables and fruits are the next solid foods introduced to your baby. The order in which you add vegetables and fruits to your baby's diet is not important. However, you should introduce only one new food at a time and no more than three new foods per week.


Meat and protein alternatives
By 7 to 8 months of age your baby should be ready for strained or pureed meats and protein alternatives (such as beans, peas, lentils, cottage cheese, and yogurt).


Possibly allergenic foods
Egg whites, wheat, peanut butter, fish, and orange juice may be more likely to cause allergies than other solid foods, but this is controversial. Avoid adding these foods to your baby's diet until 1 year of age, especially if your infant has other allergies.

SPOON FEEDING
Begin feeding your baby with a spoon at 4 to 6 months of age. Place food on the middle of the tongue. If you place it in front, your child will probably push it back at you. Some infants get off to a better start if you place the spoon between their lips and let them suck off the food.

Some children constantly bat at the spoon or try to hold it while you are trying to feed them. These children need to be distracted with finger foods or given another spoon to hold.

By the time they are 1 year old, most children want to try to feed themselves and can do so with finger foods. By 15 to 18 months of age, most children can feed themselves with a spoon and no longer need a parent's help to eat.

FINGER FOODS
Finger foods are small, bite-size pieces of soft foods. They can be introduced between 9 and 10 months of age or whenever your child develops a pincer grip.

Most babies love to feed themselves. Since most babies will not be able to feed themselves with a spoon until 15 months of age, finger foods keep them actively involved in the feeding process.

Good finger foods are dry cereals (Cheerios, Rice Krispies, etc.), slices of cheese, pieces of scrambled eggs, slices of canned fruit (peaches, pears, or pineapple), slices of soft fresh fruits (especially bananas), crackers, cookies, and breads.

SNACKS
Once your baby goes to three meals a day, or eats at 5-hour intervals, he may need small snacks to tide him over between meals. Most babies begin this pattern between 6 and 9 months of age. The midmorning and midafternoon snack should be a nutritious, nonmilk food. Fruits and dry cereals are recommended. If your child is not hungry at mealtime, cut back on the snacks or eliminate them.

TABLE FOODS
Your child should be eating the same meals you eat by approximately 1 year of age. This assumes that your diet is well balanced and that you carefully dice any foods that would be difficult for your baby to chew. Avoid foods that he could choke on such as raw carrots, candy, peanuts or other nuts, and popcorn. (For more information, see Choking. )

IRON-RICH FOODS
Throughout our lives we need iron in our diet to prevent anemia. Certain foods are especially good sources of iron. Red meats, fish, and poultry are best. Some young children will only eat lunch meats, and the low-fat ones are fine. Adequate iron is also found in iron-enriched cereals, beans of all types, egg yolks, peanut butter, raisins, prune juice, sweet potatoes, and spinach.

VITAMINS
Added vitamins are not necessary after your child is 1 year old and is eating a balanced diet. If he's a picky eater, give him one chewable vitamin pill a week.

Formula Feeding Guide

These are guidelines to the amount your baby may drink, but let your baby's appetite be your guide. Don't coax your baby to finish a bottle. If he/she seems hungry, feed him/her more often.

Age: 0-3 Months
Total Daily Amount: 24-32 ounces
Number of feedings per day: 5-7
Amount Per Feeding: 3-6 ounces

Age: 4-6 Months
Total Daily Amount: 32-36 ounces
Number of feedings per day: 4-5
Amount per feeding: 6-8 ounces

Age: 7-12 Months
Total Daily Amount: 20-30 Ounces
Number of Feedings per day: 3-4
Amount per feeding: 5-8 ounces

 

Jamie, this would be a nice sticky at the top I think. Anyone else like to keep this information where it can be easily found??

 

I think it's a great guide...I vote yes!! Sticky for sure!

 

This is a great guide. I would love to have it as a sticky at the top. Thanks.

 

ok, on a related subject. i want to start introducing beans to my boys diets but all of the canned ones i find have so much extra crap in them. what does everyone else use, do you but fresh? i don't eat them so i am not a very good judge of have to manage them.

 

The ten most nutritious veggies are:

1. Broccoli

2. Spinach

3. Brussel sprouts

4. Lima Beans

5. Peas

6. Asparagus

7. Artichokes

8. Cauliflower

9. Sweet Potatoes

10. Carrots

danic -- I would assume a bean would be okay pureed... since lima beans are listed in this group, and I fed my two most of those before they were a year old.

Maybe anyone else can add some info for us on beans?

 

I use the organic canned beans - the only ingredients listed are organic beans

 

I started broccoli today... no takers. I have noticed that sometimes it takes a few tries fro them to except a new food. So far I have introduced rice cereal with EBM, pureed bananas, pureed pears, once strained peas... no likey, my moms apple sauce and then the broccoli today.

Anyone think there are some here that shouldn't be? Or have other suggestions? I grind thier food in a hand mill.

 

That was great!!! I'm going to copy and paste it to a word document. Thanks

 

TwinDuckMom, at that age a fave of my guys was sweet potatoes! They couldn't get enough of them! At 6 Months all the new foods I had done and conquered with them were:

We started solids, our first was Rice Cereal, followed by bananas.

5 Months: We conquered Bananas, peaches, pears, applesauce, sweet peas, green beans, squash, sweet potatoes, carrots, mixed vegetables

6 Months: Mastered all the solids mentioned in the fifth month, and we started our meats. Apples and Ham, Sweet Potatoes and Turkey, Apples and Chicken, Pears and Chicken and Carrots and beef.

 

This whole site is great, wholesomebabyfood.com, but here is an age-by-age chart to introducing solid foods.

 

This is an awesome resource...definately sticky worthy!! I have been trying to find this on the internet for the last couple days. I even asked the pedi yesterday! Thank you so much for takin the time!

 

I was just going to ask about solids when I came here.

So I need to understand what we really mean by feed the babies until the babies are full. My guys have never and I mean never refused a bottle or any kind of food. They would probably eat 40 oz of formula if it was offered. We were at 35 oz a few weeks ago, and I pared that back to 32 oz because Jonah was already 18 lbs at 4.5 months!! Morgan was 16.5 lbs! They are HUGE.

Yesterday they both got 32 oz of formula, 1 tbsp of oatmeal in each bottle (total of 4 tbsp in their bottle) PLUS 1 jar of sweet potatoes (2.5 oz). Is that enough, too much? I was trying to hold back on the solids because I really don't want them to be porkers (not that any baby can be fat, but they are really gaining fast). Should I just let them go and see what they want? Note: I also have a huge spitter (Morgan) and that's one of the reasons I cut him back on formula (even though he's a bit smaller than Jonah...but still huge for his age).

Sorry for the book! It feels like I did when they were first born...all I can do is think about their eating habits! Shannon

 

This went over so well, and we decided it would be so useful we have decided to turn it into a sticky, well, actually we have combined it with the Sleep Sticky and changed the title. Please visit the sticky at the top of the forum to check it out. We added some new links as well.

Here is the link to the Sticky of this Thread:
http://forums.twinstore.com/eve/forums?a=t...931#22310455931