The time comes when we decide to start feeding our child something and the first doubts appear: “What do I give it?”, “How do I give it to him?”, “How much do I give it?”,…
I will try, little by little, to answer these questions with recommendations (not rules) on the complementary feeding in the first days.
At six months they can eat a lot of variety of foods, but before that variety the doubt is always the following:
Why food is started?
For the one you prefer. There are no studies that say that it is better to start with fruits, cereals or vegetables. Everyone who starts with the one who does the most grace.
Some people start with fruit, others with cereals and others with vegetables. As I say, everyone who does according to their preferences.
Within this freedom of choice with which we find ourselves at the beginning there is something that is important and that must be taken into account: the food would have to be offered one by one and with a separation of several days between them (usually say between 4-5 days and a week). In this way, if the food produces allergy or intolerance we will know it right away.
In the event that we offer several new foods at once and some of them feel bad or produce a reaction, we would have to repeat with them, one by one, to know what is the food that produces the reaction (and is not recommended, of course).
It is also important that each new food is offered as late at noon (if we give it at night before bedtime we may not realize a possible reaction during the night) and better if it is on Saturday or Sunday, when dad and Mom at home to run away if something happens (I don't want to imagine Grandma with her granddaughter running after an allergic reaction).
Returning to the issue of food choices, if a mother decided to start with the fruit, it is not necessary to give the child a different fruit every week until they are given all and once they have finished starting other foods.
What can be done (and is more advisable) is to give each group a food every week, so, after a month, the infant will take a little of everything (for example: the first week apple, the second rice, the third Potato and the fourth chicken or rice, chicken, lentils and pear or peas, banana, rice and chicken or ...).
How much do I prepare?
Ideally, start with few amounts. The first days is more a contact than anything else, so let's not expect a whole bowl of rice to be eaten, because it won't. In a few days we will expand this information, because how much a child should eat is one of the parents' greatest concerns.
What time is each food given?
Well, continuing with the possibility of choosing, food is given at the time that each family does well. Because I do not know what divine command eleventh many pediatricians say that the fruit is given in the afternoon for a snack, that the vegetable at noon and cereals in the morning (and if they want the child to sleep more they tell you than at night).
If they were recommendations and point, leaving freedom of decision, well, the problem is that they transform the recommendation in norm and are groundless standards.
If the mother works in the morning, which is when someone takes care of the child and that is when they are going to give her complementary food, why can't they give her fruit in the morning? Do adults only eat fruit for a snack? Can't you eat vegetables and meat at night?
Is it necessary to separate food, as recommended?
The recommendation that is usually given is like the one I have commented above. Fruit at that time, vegetable at such another, etc. But nevertheless it is advisable not to separate them.
The nutrients in each food are better absorbed when they get together in the stomach with nutrients from other foods. Vitamin C from fruit or tomato helps iron to be better absorbed from cereals, vegetables and legumes, and vegetable proteins are better assimilated when they are combined with a cereal, for example.
It is better that a meal mix two or three different foods (for example: banana, potato and meat) to give the same two or three foods separately.
In fact, if one of the objectives is that they learn and get used to the diet of adults, the most logical thing is to eat several foods at a time, like us, and not a strange diet that separates food and that no adult does (imagine ).
The high chair can wait (a little)
Until the moment when a baby begins to taste the foods his only food has been the milk. For this, the high chair is not used, because breastfeeding a baby is done in the arms (and if artificial milk is given, better in the arms as well).
A good way to improve the acceptance of new foods is to offer them to babies in our lap, with the plate in front.
It is a way to continue feeding him with love and affection, hugging them, and I don't see so many changes at once (Before they gave me milk and not now, before they took me in my arms and not now, before I had to suck and now they put the food in front of me, before I saw Mama close and now I have it in front of me ...)
In the photo above we can see a dad with his girl in what could be a good example of what I said. I get the impression that the plate of food is from the father, but if we imagine that it is the small one, it could be a good example in case of giving it with a spoon (they can also eat many things with their little hands).
