One of the most important things you need to worry about when you become a mother or a father is what to feed your baby. There are a lot of magazines and books, which tell exactly how many ounces of this and how many ounces of that your baby needs. I agree that you should be very well informed about what you feed your baby, but this doesn’t mean that you should spend all your time with your nose in a book, or your eyes on the kitchen scale. You should know the basics of healthy eating for a baby, and if you still feel you need expert advice after that, go ahead, although, but I believe that the basics are enough in most cases.
1. Iron –Rich Cereals. This should be the first solid food type that your baby should try. Generally babies should be given solid foods at about four to six months of age. At about this time the babies iron supplies will be dwindling. This is why cereals such as rice, barley or oats, which are rich in iron, are the usual first solid food that the babies try. At the beginning you should try to mix the cereals up with breast milk, or formula, to give it a soup texture, but you shouldn’t sweeten it by adding things like mashed bananas or apple juice. If you do this form the beginning than the baby would want anything you give him or her to eat to be sweat. Rice is the most popular of these cereals but barley and oats are just as healthy; when it comes to wheat you should lay of it in the babies first year, because they can be allergic to it. Consistency wise, you should start with a very runny mixture, four parts milk, one part cereal, and than slowly, thicken the consistency. So, iron-rich cereals with milk are the answer to the question what to feed your baby for the first time when it comes to solid foods.
2. Puréed Fruits Or Vegetables. The next stage in the diet of baby will be t introduce fruits and vegetables. This should be done at around six to eight months of age. You might want to try with fruits and vegetables that don’t have very strong flavors, and gradually work your way thru. You will see that your baby is very picky at first, so you should be perseverant and try offering him or her, the same kind of fruit or vegetable over and over again at different times, until it gets used to it. You should start with mashed bananas, applesauce or pear purée. All of these fruit have a milder flavor, and your baby should take instantly to them. When it comes to vegetables you should start with orange or yellow colored ones, such as sweet potato or well-cooked carrots, and gradually work your way to the greens such as spinach or string beans. So, this is what to feed the baby after six months of age.
3. Puréed Meat. After you get the baby used to eating some solid foods you should make the next step at around the age of eight months and introduce him or her to meat. You should start off with well cooked poultry, and boneless fish. Use a blender or any other way to ensure that your baby doesn’t need to chew a lot, because his teeth aren’t ready for that yet. Fish is very important in a baby’s diet because it is one of the principal foods that contain Omega-3, a fatty acid that has been linked to longevity and better brain function. You can also introduce the baby to beef or pork, because by now he will be curious to taste everything there is to taste. By this age you could also try giving the baby un-mashed pieces of ripe bananas, apple juice and you could even start them on pasta. Cow’s milk is of the table until the age of one, but things like soft pasteurized cheese, yogurt or cottage cheese get the green light. By the end of the baby’s first year the question of what to feed the baby gets a very simple answer: everything.
A baby’s diet is very important in the first year of his or her life. So you should be very careful, and consult with specialist about the right time to introduce certain foods. Every baby has its own distinctive personality, so no diet is going to be exactly alike. The foods I have mentioned above are the usual thing that doctors recommend, but you must always take into consideration your own babies particularities.