According to the recommendations of the World Health Organization, it is necessary to introduce complementary foods in the diet of a child from six months. The age of the introduction of complementary foods may vary depending on individual characteristics, but a child’s diet at 10 months should already include fermented milk products, cereals, vegetables and fruits.
When it is time to introduce complementary foods
The average age of feeding is six months. But there are other, more objective signs that it is time to introduce complementary foods:
- the child is not less than four months old;
- the baby’s weight is twice as much as it was at birth;
- the tongue-pushing reflex disappeared;
- the child can already sit, turn away from food, or lean his head back;
- he can already take something in his hand and bring it to his mouth;
- the main criterion of readiness for feeding is an interest in new food.
In cases where there is doubt about the advisability of introducing complementary foods, it is better to postpone than to hurry. In addition, care should be taken to ensure that the products that the child receives are of high quality and only the freshest. The appearance in the diet of a varied meal does not mean that you need to cancel breast milk or an adapted mixture.
Rules for the introduction of complementary foods
Feed the baby with a spoon, and gradually the food should become thicker. You can not enter complementary foods if the child is not feeling well. Serving of new food - no more than 1-2 teaspoons. If everything is in order: normal stool, clean skin, the baby is in a good mood, sleeps well - then the dose is gradually increasing. The next type of complementary foods can be entered no earlier than two weeks after the previous one. At the same time, the diet of a 10-month-old baby on artificial feeding is no different from the diet of an infant, except that the artificer still receives the mixture in the bottle, and the mother breast-feeds the baby on natural feeding.
The diet of the baby at 10 months
Before introducing new types of complementary foods, you need to consult a pediatrician who leads this child and knows all its features. The diet of a baby at 10 months in grams is approximately the following:
- at the first morning feeding, 6-7 hours in the morning, the baby receives a mixture or breast milk;
- at 10-11 in the morning - dairy products: 150 ml of low-fat kefir and 30 g of low-fat cottage cheese;
- at lunchtime, 14-15 hours - 200 g of vegetable puree or soup;
- for dinner, at 19 hours - again a mixture or breast milk;
- before going to bed, at 23 hours - 200 g of milk porridge.
In his books, the diet of a baby at 10 months old is described by Komarovsky in this way. Nevertheless, each mother can independently correct this menu taking into account the needs of her baby. For example, for dinner, feed the baby porridge, and before going to bed, breastfeed or give a mixture, especially since the breast or bottle has a calming effect. The main thing is that the baby's diet at 10 months should be varied and already include the main groups of products: dairy products, cereals, vegetables and fruits.
Rules for the introduction of vegetables
You should always give preference to seasonal vegetables that grow in the area where the family lives. There is no additional benefit from overseas fruits and vegetables. Absolutely all the vitamins a child can get from the usual carrots, beets, potatoes, cabbage, turnips, pumpkins, onions, garlic. There is no need to buy baby purees in jars, but if this option is more convenient, you should definitely read the composition of the mashed potatoes. There should not be starch, salt or sugar, but only vegetables or fruits and water.
Rules for the introduction of fruit
The first fruits that are least likely to cause allergic reactions are introduced into the baby’s diet at 10 months, namely: green apples, white cherries and currants, gooseberries, plums. Then, when the child gets used to these fruits, you can add peaches, apricots, bananas, red currants. And last but not least, highly allergenic oranges, lemons, tangerines, raspberries, strawberries, strawberries, grapes, pomegranates, melons are introduced into the baby’s diet at 10 months of age by breastfeeding or artificial.
Fruits are introduced very carefully, gradually. At first, the serving does not exceed a quarter of a teaspoon. Gradually increasing the portion, it must be brought to 100 ml. When various skin reactions or negative reactions from the gastrointestinal tract appear, the fruit that caused them must be immediately canceled. That is why you do not need to give your child a mixture of fruits that he has not tried. If you introduce fruits one at a time, mom will know exactly what caused the allergy or indigestion.
Rules for the introduction of cereals
According to pediatricians, many children with gluten intolerance have recently appeared among patients. Therefore, even if there were no cases of gluten allergy in the family, the first cereals in the child's life should be gluten-free. This is rice, buckwheat or corn porridge. If a child has constipation, then rice is undesirable. Such popular cereals as oatmeal, semolina or millet, it is better to enter the diet later. Those babies who are breastfeeding can use porridge in breast milk. Children on artificial feeding porridge are cooked on those adapted milk formulas to which they are accustomed. The main thing is not to use cow or goat milk. If neither breast milk nor mixtures are available, then it is better to cook porridge in water. Semolina porridge, so familiar and familiar to us from childhood, does not bring any benefit to the child, so it either does not need it at all, or it can be introduced into the baby’s diet after a year.
You can only feed your baby’s porridge with a spoon. Let it not be very successful so far, but gradually he will learn. This point is fundamentally important, since food should be processed with saliva, which will not happen if the child eats from a bottle.
Traditionally, cereals are introduced into foods after fermented milk products and vegetables, but if the child is not gaining weight, it is better to introduce cereals as the most energetically valuable product in the first place. If a child receives warm, nutritious porridge for dinner, then he will fall asleep faster and with a high probability will sleep until morning. But at first it is better to feed the baby with porridge in the morning, so that during the day to track possible negative reactions.
Rules for the introduction of dairy products
The first portion of cottage cheese is no more than a quarter of a teaspoon per day. Gradually increasing the dose, you need to bring it to 10 months to 50 g. As for kefir, then its portion should be increased from 1 teaspoon to 150 ml within a month. Both cottage cheese and kefir are very easy to cook on their own at home. Do not feed the child with cottage cheese or kefir, which is more than two days. The ideal time for fermented milk products is breakfast or afternoon tea.
When planning a baby’s diet at 10 months for a week, the mother should take care that the baby receives as varied a variety of foods as possible: various cereals, fruit juices and mashed potatoes, vegetable purees and soups, dairy products and, of course, mother's milk or an adapted mixture.