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Feeding your baby
Filed under: Newborns, Babies, Toddlers Preschoolers, Health & Safety: Babies, Nutrition: Health, Development/Milestones: Babies, Day Care & Education, Feeding & Sleeping, Baby-sitting, Research Reveals: Babies, Nutrition: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Expert Advice: Babies, Health & Safety: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Development: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Behavior: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Activities: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Gear Guides: Babies, Gear Guides: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Research Reveals: Toddlers & Preschoolers, Expert Advice: Toddlers & Preschoolers
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that you breast-feed your baby during the first six months. After that, your baby will probably be ready to start trying solid foods. Pediatricians tell parents to begin with foods that are easy to digest and, gradually, foods with different tastes and textures can be introduced. The following recommendations were offered: Babies birth to 6 months old
Unless directed by your baby's doctor, your baby should NOT eat anything except:
Breast milk - The best food for your baby is breast milk. Milk-based or soy-based formula - If it is not possible for your baby to drink breast milk, your pediatrician will recommend a formula that has vitamins and/or iron added to it.
Babies 6 to 12 months old
Rice cereal is the first solid food that pediatricians suggest feeding your baby. Oatmeal is usually next, followed by barley cereal. After the cereals, you can try strained or pureed vegetables such as peas and carrots. Usually mashed fruits, like very ripe bananas, come next. Introduce foods slowly so that your baby will be less likely to develop food allergies.
Babies in this age range should not eat the following foods:
- Chocolate - Due to its highly allergenic properties, chocolate should not be offered to babies who are younger than 1 year old.
- Honey - Babies should not eat honey until they are at least 1 year old because it can cause botulism, which is potentially life threatening.
- Oranges, grapefruits and other citrus fruits - Always check with your pediatrician before giving your baby citrus fruits and juices because they are highly allergenic.
- Egg whites - Cooked egg yolks that have been either scrambled or hard boiled and then mashed are usually fine when your baby is 8 to 9 months old. Because of its allergy-producing qualities you should wait till your baby is at least 1 year old before introducing cooked egg whites.
- Peanuts and peanut butter - Because they can produce highly allergic reactions, peanuts and peanut butter should never be eaten by children younger than 3 years.
- Wheat and wheat products - Only after rice, oat and barley cereals have been mastered should wheat and wheat products even be attempted. Since wheat is the most common cereal allergen, babies should be at least 6 to 8 months old before it is offered.
- Whole milk - Breast milk or formula is recommended for the first year of your baby's life. Cow's milk has been found to increase the likelihood of your child developing allergies.
- Your toddler is getting more adventurous and curious about trying new foods. Allergy-producing foods are still a concern, but you also have to be careful about foods that can be a choking hazard. The following foods are inappropriate for toddlers who are 1 to 2 years old:
- Carrots - Because they can easily choke a toddler, carrots should never be eaten raw. They must be shredded or well cooked and very soft.
- Grapes - Whole grapes are a choking hazard for small children and should always be cut into small pieces before being offered.
- Hot dogs - Slicing hot dog lengthwise and then cutting it into pieces that are about a quarter-inch wide greatly reduces the risk of choking.
- Low-fat milk - The fat in whole milk is nutritionally important for young children up to 2 years of age, so low-fat milk should not be used for children in this age range.
- Peanuts and peanut butter - In addition to being highly allergenic, peanuts also present a choking risk for toddlers. Don't feed young children peanuts or peanut butter until the child is 3 years old.
- Snacks - Since hard candy, lollipops, nuts, popcorn or other snacks are just the right size to become lodged in a small child's throat, great care must be used when offering them to toddlers. These snack foods are a choking risk.
- String cheese - For your toddler to safely eat string cheese, serve it shredded and never sliced or cut into chunks.
Foods that are choking hazards are still a concern, so for toddlers that are 2 to 3 years old, avoid the following foods:
- Grapes - Whole grapes are a choking hazard for small children and should always be cut into small pieces before being offered.
- Hot dogs - Slicing a hot dog lengthwise and then cutting it into pieces that are about a quarter-inch wide greatly reduces the risk of choking.
- Peanuts and peanut butter - In addition to being highly allergenic, peanuts also present a choking risk for toddlers. Don't feed young children peanuts or peanut butter until the child is 3 years old.
- Snacks - Again, as mentioned above, hard candy, lollipops, nuts, popcorn or other snacks are just the right size to become lodged in a small child's throat, great care must be used when offering them to toddlers. These foods are a choking risk.
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
8-14-2006 @ 11:18AM
momma2mingbu said...The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that you EXCLUSIVELY breastfeed for the first 6 months and CONTINUE to breastfeed for AT LEAST 12 months with the addition solid foods.
http://aappolicy.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/pediatrics;115/2/496
La Leche League recommends a different progression when starting solid foods.
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/first-foods.html
LLL suggests this progression when introducing your baby (6 months or older) to solid foods:
Ripe banana, avocado, yam, or sweet potato (sweet like breastmilk)
Meats
Whole-grain breads and cereals (rather than baby cereals)
[wheat and corn are usually delayed until baby is 9-12 months old]
Fresh fruits
[citrus fruits are usually delayed until baby is 9-12 months old]
Vegetables
Dairy products after 9 months
[cow's milk is usually delayed until baby is 12-18 months old]
Reply
8-14-2006 @ 1:41PM
Nessa said...I totally agree with Mama2mingbu. The LLL's "schedule" makes so much more sense to me. Since your baby is just experimenting with food textures and flavors (and not so much for nutrition) don't you want what's actually making it into them to be the most nutrional bang for your buck, so to speak? That's the philosophy of the LLL food introduction model, in my understanding.
There was also a recent study done looking at the suggestion of introduction of grains first, and what that wasn't such a good idea. I thought I'd read about a few months (or more) ago on blogging baby... Hmm..
Reply
8-14-2006 @ 4:39PM
momma2mingbu said...I also found that of my three kids, the two who followed the LLL recommendations for introducing solids are the two who are NOT picky eaters. The one who got cereal first won't eat anything.
Reply
8-14-2006 @ 9:10PM
daisy said...We feed our 18 month old peanut butter with our doctor's blessing. He said some allergists might recommend waiting until age 2, but he thought it was fine. And it has been, so far. Plus it's such a great source of healthy fat and protein.
Reply
8-15-2006 @ 6:37AM
Croft said...My 14 month old daughter eats peanutbutter also with our doctors blessing. Since we are not a family with history of alergies our doctor said it was fine after 1 year.
I also think things are done differently here in Europe in regards to solids. We started our daughter on sweet vegetables (carrots, sweet potatoes, squash etc), then the rest of the veg, fruits and grains (wheat waited till 8 months). This looks more like the LLL schedule.
Reply
8-15-2006 @ 11:37AM
Brenda said...The recommendation to start with baby cereal is GREATLY influenced by the baby food industry. After all you can make your own baby food but you can not make that stuff they call baby cereal. I do NOT want to know how they make it.
It makes no sense to start with food that has little or no nutritional merit. Most of the vitamins in rice cereal are added and synthetic vitamins are HARDER if not impossible for a baby to digest[1]. In fact, foods fortified with iron block the absorption of the iron from breast milk so adding fortified cereal can CAUSE anemia[2] (which it is supposed to prevent).
The most of the rest of the world thinks the US and Canada are nuts for our obsession with baby food. With buying it, making it, ordering precisely in what order and when food should be introduced, never mixing foods until the child is very familiar with them. Doesn't it seem strange to you that in North American a lot of children (specifically under 5) do not want to eat "mixed foods", do not want their foods to touch, and are picky eaters who require a different meal than the rest of the family and yet Korean Children eat Kimchi, Indian children eat curry, and children in Denmark eat smørrebrød[3]?
Seriously, do most mammals regurgitate food for their young? Do you see momma cows say "For the next three days you eat grass, for the three days after that you eat clover, then barley, then oats"? Listen to your inner voice and your baby (avoiding any foods with a high risk for food poisoning) and you will probably be on the right path [4].
[1] http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/vitamins/iron.html
"Percentage or iron absorbed... iron fortified cereals 4-10%"
[2]
http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/delay-solids.html
“The introduction of iron supplements and iron-fortified foods, particularly during the first six months, reduces the efficiency of baby's iron absorption. Healthy, full-term infants who are breastfed exclusively for periods of 6-9 months have been shown to maintain normal hemoglobin values and normal iron stores. In one study (Pisacane, 1995), the researchers concluded that babies who were exclusively breastfed for 7 months (and were not give iron supplements or iron-fortified cereals) had significantly higher hemoglobin levels at one year than breastfed babies who received solid foods earlier than seven months"
[3]http://lifestyle.msn.com/FamilyandParenting/RaisingKids/ArticleBHG.aspx?cp-documentid=436024>1=8175
[4] Child-led introduction to solids
http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html
Reply
8-15-2006 @ 11:47PM
gabriella said...On my blog, I am starting a frequent photo of snacks for toddlers. getting in 3 meals and 2 snacks a day can be challenging to come up with new stuff so I thought I would share.
Reply