After all, some experts insist on vegetables, others-on dairy cereals, grandmothers say that they once started with juices, fruit puree and all grew up healthy … Let’s look at all these positions and make a decision that is most suitable for your baby.
First complementary foods: Start with vegetables
If your baby is physically healthy, it gains weight enough, then the main purpose of complementary foods is to diversify its main menu. After all, the growing organism, in addition to useful proteins and fats that are contained there, are also needed by trace elements, fiber and a complete spectrum of vitamins. All this is in vegetables. Therefore, the first complementary foods are better to start with them.
We start the first complementary foods carefully: we offer the baby a third or half of the teaspoon of the prepared dish in front of the breastfeeding. If the baby takes the novelty safely, then every day we gradually increase the portion. Moreover, vegetables must be introduced one per week. And already after 1 – 1.5 months after the first feeding, you can combine different vegetables. The best time for vegetable feeding is lunch, which usually coincides with the third feeding.
First introduce a child to less allergen hazardous vegetables (have green or white). If the possibilities of the season allow, start cooking liquid puree from zucchini. Another option may be potatoes. Only pre -soak the peeled vegetable for a couple of hours in water to leave part of the starch. Cabbage should not be given to the baby earlier than 7 months: from it it can be fed a tummy who still needs to “grow up”. Among the first, carrot and pumpkin puree are also introduced. Just watch whether their bright nature will cause an allergy in a child. Be prepared that vegetables such as carrots, beets and pumpkin can have some kind of laxative effect on the baby’s intestines. If the child feels great, do not worry particularly. Legumes (beans, green peas) should be given to the baby after 8 to 9 months.
When cooking vegetables, adhere to a vitamin -preserving technology: use a double boiler or throw chopped products into boiling, slightly salted water.
In the first month of feeding, wipe the boiled vegetables through a strainer, diluting with a decoction to the desired consistency (first liquid, then puree).
Porridge as the first feeding
Another option for the start of complementary foods-milk-circular cereals. They, as a rule, are recommended to start when the nutritional properties of the main food do not satisfy the needs of the child and it is poorly gaining weight. Porridge is also introduced into the menu of babies in order to stabilize the chair (when he is prone to reconcile) or in cases of frequent regurgitation.
At first, we cook cereals from gluten -free cereals: buckwheat, corn, rice. Other porridge – oatmeal, wheat – we offer the baby after 8 months of the child, when enzymes that process allergen -hazardous gluten ripen.
Ready -made porridge offered by children’s food manufacturers have the consistency necessary for the corresponding age, are enriched with the necessary vitamins. Before buying, you should study their composition, avoiding the presence of GMOs, preservatives, flavors and dyes.
If you intend to cook porridge yourself, then you need to choose high -quality groats (it is best in the package), then rinse it thoroughly, dry, chop it on a coffee grinder and then move on to cooking.
The best time for feeding porridge is the morning. They begin complementary foods, like any other, with one teaspoon, gradually bringing to a volume recommended for a given age.
In vegetable puree and porridge, you can add vegetable and butter, respectively. Of course, this must not be done from the first days of feeding, but in a week or two. At first, add a couple of drops of oil, and when the portion of the dish becomes maximum – half or a whole teaspoon. The oil makes the dish tastier, favorably affects the walls of the intestines and is the basis for fat -soluble vitamins.
First complementary foods and juices
There is still an option for the beginning of the first feeding of juices, which came to us from the near past. Its fans give arguments regarding the rich vitamin composition of this product, which is necessary for the full development of the baby.
But modern experts talk about another, recommending the introduction of juices after meeting the child with all the main dishes. Firstly, juices are one of the allergenic products. Secondly, they contain many active acids that can damage the walls of the stomach, intestines and further become the cause of gastritis and other problems. Thirdly, juices contain a large amount of sugar, which is not yet needed for such a small organism.
An alternative to the first feeding juices can be, for example, a baked apple. Its pulp after heat treatment retains all trace elements and most vitamins, but the number of acids and allergens becomes much less.
Where to start the first complementary foods, decide, based not only from your attitude to one of the existing options, but also guided by an objective assessment of the baby’s health, which a specialist can give. Let your undertakings be successful!