Recommendations for the elaboration of the children's menu: from six months to a year

Until six months, it is most advisable for babies to drink exclusive breast milk and, after six months, to start taking other things, little by little, without haste, but without pause.

Let's focus on those first months of feeding the baby, from six months to 12 months, and offer you resources, tools and a little theory to be able to elaborate children's menu, what they should eat every day.

If the child does not drink breast milk the logical thing is to follow the same recommendation: formula milk until six months and from that moment start offering food.

A few years ago this was not done, but there was a strong reason for that. The formula milk a few years ago lacked many things and exclusively feeding a baby in this way until six months could be dangerous. In fact, as until 2001 the WHO did not start recommending breastfeeding until six months, the strange thing would be that artificial milk had been given up to that point.

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Many current mothers, and especially the grandmothers, who at the time made it different, are surprised when you tell them that no need to give food to a child until six months, precisely because our generation, when we were children, we were already eating at three or four months.

Recommendations to offer complementary feeding at six months

Once the baby turns six months he begins to need more food. It is often said that it is because at that time the milk, maternal or not, is no longer enough to provide energy and because the baby needs more nutrients, however only the second part is true.

Milk, breastfed or not, still has more calories than many foods and if a child drinks enough milk, they could have enough energy to live and grow (just as an adult could do an exclusive diet with milk to achieve the necessary calories).

The second part, however, is true. After six months many children begin to need iron, basically because the cord was cut too quickly at birth. If at the time of birth the cord beat a few minutes, the chances are that the baby has enough iron reserves for more time, perhaps until the year.

Also after six months they need more zinc, but this is usually ignored because it is often unknown what causes a zinc deficit and, in fact, it is often unknown what foods contain zinc (I do not know any adult watch your diet to be rich in zinc).

So, taking into account that the baby is already six months old and that he can start eating, we must explain what foods he can start eating. As you have not tried bite so far, the ideal is that we begin little by little. At this age they can eat practically everything.

Offering food to avoid unexpected scares

The ideal is to control the new foods that are introduced so that, in case of any reaction, we know with almost total certainty which food is the cause. For it It is advisable to give food one at a time, waiting at least one or two days to give the next.

You start with the one you want and you are offered only that food, always at noon and always trying to have more people at home than the person who feeds the child. I say at noon because if we give it at night and the child suffers an allergic reaction while sleeping, we still don't know, and I say that the mother, or the grandmother, or who of the food is not alone with the child, in case there is Than running to the hospital.

Why food start

The food to start with is indifferent. There are people who insist on saying that the first thing to offer is fruit, others that cereals and others will say that vegetables. I repeat, it is totally indifferent.

Cereals from six months

Cereals should be given, at first, without gluten. I know that in those without gluten it says “from 4 months”, but as we are giving them at six months, since the ideal is to offer them first without gluten and after a few days with gluten.

As at six months they are able to sit and eat better than when they are four months old, you can make a rice porridge a little past, or rice semolina, if you want, to not have to buy industrial cereals (and save some money, that the thing is not for too much joy).

After a few days, we will have to start offering gluten, at which time we will mix the gluten-free cereal porridge with the one with gluten.

If we are giving rice, then the easiest thing is to give the baby a piece of bread to suck and suck. When he no longer wants it because it is too soft and full of drool, then we take it.

Recommendations to give the fruit to children of six months

Another food that babies begin to take at six months is fruit. The most recommended is the most typical: orange, apple, pear and banana. It is usually said to start with the pear, because it is the most juicy, but all fruits can be introduced gradually after six months.

Once you have tried all the fruits you can make combinations with several, or you can simply offer a fruit every day. I, as I have commented on other occasions, am more friends with doing it this way (today banana, tomorrow apple, last pear, ...), because babies know the concrete flavor of the fruit (and not the multifruit flavor) and because So you don't have to open several fruits every day, then almost everything is left over.

Recommendations for giving vegetables, meat and fish to six-month-old children

As I told you before, people tend to focus on cereals and fruit to start offering food to babies, however, if we consider that what a baby needs to add to the diet is iron, the most logical thing is that we don't take too long to give chicken, fish and eggs (Although today's cereals are supplemented with iron).

That's why I tend to be more friendly to start with boiled potato or in pieces, with a splash of oil and then add chicken to the mixture, starting later with some cereal and then add the gluten.

Then you have to add vegetables little by little: beans, a little carrot, broccoli, onion, tomato, etc., basically avoiding all leafy vegetables such as chard and spinach as a single dish, which are not recommended until twelve months.

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With regard to meat, the most recommended to start with is chicken, although turkey would also serve us. The amount of vegetables that a baby should take is indifferent, however the amount of meat is limited to 20-30 grams (throwing more than 20), because if we spend our child will take too much protein, something that is not recommended for your health (or for the health of your kidneys, which will have to work overtime, without being prepared for it yet).

That is why the amount of fish is also limited to 30-40 grams per day (it can be white or blue fish), and in case of giving egg, which can also be introduced after six months, make it one of small size .

Once the baby has tried, more or less, all these foods, you can start offering more variety in terms of meat and fish. Normally the meat of small animals is digested better, so the most recommended is rabbit (and chicken and turkey), followed by lamb and veal, which better if they eat it once or twice a week at most.

What time do I give each thing?

Once we have explained all the foods that a six-month-old baby can start taking until the year of life, it is only necessary to comment on the organization when offering the food. It is often said that it is best to offer cereal in the morning, vegetables and meat to eat (if we give fish, substitute meat for fish a couple of times a week) and fruit for a snack.

This however is not immovable, far from it and in fact it is not recommended, because as food is better absorbed it is not offering them isolated, but mixing them with others. We adults have it quite clear and that is why we know that a meal consists of a vegetable dish with some potato, or legumes accompanied by cereal (bread or rice), to improve the absorption of the protein, we know (without knowing it) that we have to drink some fruit before or after the meal, which if it is rich in vitamin C, as it is almost all the fruit, helps to better absorb the iron from the food and so with many other mixtures that we usually make that help Balance the diet.

With the same thing happens with babies, it would be best to give them several things every time they eat, a little vegetable, a little meat, a little bread and some fruit, for example, and so on every meal. In this way they would eat healthier, although it would be more cumbersome when preparing it, of course, and perhaps that is the reason for feeding babies in isolation. Now, thanks to the fact that many parents make Baby-led Weaning, eating very similar to what parents eat, you can save time by cooking only once.

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Milk is still the most important

Finally, if the comments were not enough, say that milk, until the year of life, remains the most important food and that we must try to ensure that they drink about 500 ml of milk daily. With babies who drink artificial milk there is usually not much problem, because you can give them a 250 ml bottle in the morning (and part of that amount with cereals) and another one at night.

With those who drink breast milk, however, there are usually more difficulties, basically because almost no one explains well the complementary feeding and instead of saying "keep breastfeeding on demand and in between you are offering food", it is usually said "go taking breastmilk shots and eat ", getting babies who breastfeed can get less milk than they need.

Mothers do not have 250 ml of breast milk in their breasts in the morning to give their babies and another 250 ml at night (and if they were sure they would suffer more than one mastitis for spending so many hours without giving milk to their children) , so the only way to give 500 ml of breast milk to a baby is to explain to the mother that You have to keep sucking on demand, making several shots a day and that in between, let's say when we sit down to eat, whether breastfed or not, offer food to the child.

Summarizing

As a summary, so that everything is clear, say that Is easier than it looks like, because as we have to offer a food every 1-2 days, we have time to learn on the go with our son. After those days a new food is added to the baby's diet and so we are doing until you try all those who can eat up to twelve months.

The schedule is indifferent, as it is for adults, that we eat fruit in the morning, at noon, in the afternoon and / or at night, as well as vegetables and meat both at noon and at night (babies must choose, or at noon or at night , but not both, because they would take too much protein).

The preparation is in the hands of each mother and father: there are those who crush everything by using porridge and some prefer to let the children experiment with the food and taste it as it is. It all depends on the child and his ability to accept food in one way or another (and the parents' desire to clean the kitchen afterwards, of course).

In any case, do it as you do, be clear about one thing: no matter how bad it is done the children will end up eating yes or yes, as we do all the adults in the world.

By the way, before finishing I offer you one last tip: to force, never.

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