How to introduce solids in your baby’s diet?? : Weaning

Welcome to my website. Today’s topic is how to introduce solids to your baby’s diet – weaning. This is a stressful as well as an exciting phase for parents. Often new parents are confused about when to start, what to give, how to introduce solids in baby’s diet. I remember when it was time for weaning my baby, I was very excited and I kept thinking about how my daughter would react to the new food.

Guide to introduce solids (weaning)

For the first 6 months, exclusive breast milk is recommended for babies. Nothing apart from milk (breastmilk or formula milk) is supposed to be given during these months. 

But what to do after that stresses the parents a lot. 

As the baby is growing, only breastmilk is not going to suffice the hunger, so solids are introduced by 6 months.

My daughter started solids a week before she turned 6 months as she had lost interest in feeds and the doctor suggested starting it. And she was interested in the new food given to her. I tried introducing all the food items as prescribed by my paediatrician. Let me share a few tips to introduce solids in your baby’s diet(weaning). 

They should be given 2 meals consisting of cereal/ veg/ dal and 1 snack consisting of fruits.

And then breast milk/ formula as per the child’s demand. 

How to start solids in baby’s diet?

1. Start with rice cereal or ragi powder in the first week.
2. For the first 2 days, give one spoon to your child.
3. On the 3rd day, increase it to two spoons.
4. On the 5th day, increase it to three spoons.
5. In the second week, introduce pureed fruit or vegetables.
6. After 3-4 days, introduce dals such as toor/ moong dal in a soup style.
7. Around the 3rd week, introduce khichdi (Indian dish made with rice & dal).
8. Introduce small quantities of water (30-50 ml) after every feed.
9. Items to be avoided: Salt, sugar, cow’s milk, seafood, egg whites, nuts, honey till the first birthday.

Don’t forget to keep some time gap between meals and snacks. Give your baby some time to digest.

Tips for weaning

1. Always introduce something new in the morning so that you can properly observe the reaction full day and avail healthcare (if required) easily. Well, this is just a precautionary measure, so don’t be scared.
2. Keep a gap of 4-5 days in between introducing new food items so that it can be easy to find which item caused any reaction.
3. Always start with a spoonful of the food item and the next day increase the quantity.
4. When my daughter was around 8 months old, my paediatrician asked me to introduce homemade cereals instead of the readymade ones. So I searched a few recipes on the internet and then later customised them. I tried various combinations such as rice, moong dal or ragi, daliya, etc. Go ahead and prepare cereal powders of your choice.
5. Ready-made cereals are easy to use as they mostly require warm water. So they can be easily used in traveling. 
6. But the homemade powders need to be cooked daily and so it’s a bit difficult to use during traveling. Also, they are not super fine like the readymade ones so they might not be suitable for 6 months babies. But 8 months old babies can use it and we can feel peaceful as we are giving them pure, hygienic food. 
7. At 9 months, meal quantity can be increased from 2 to 3. Also, a few items can be introduced such as ghee, butter, curd, egg yellow(yolk) part, chicken, and river fish. Water can be adjusted as per the child’s needs.
8. At 12 months, everything can be included in your little one’s diet. Normal family food can be given but salt and spice level may need to be customised according to your baby’s needs.
9. Liquid intake should be around 500 ml per day. 
10. Fluoride-free toothpaste with a finger brush can be introduced at this stage to prevent any future tooth decay.

                              Breastmilk can be given on demand for up to 2-2.5 years as it is the purest form of immunity a mother can gift to her child. 

               These are a few tips I wanted to share. I feel it is better to inculcate the idea of healthy and junk food in childhood only. Try feeding them all the veggies and healthy stuff in the initial months of introducing solids so that they develop a taste for it. Else, it will be difficult for your child to adjust later.  I hope this blog was helpful. Do share with fellow parents.

Check out another blog which might be helpful :

Growth parameters in 0-2 years kids.

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