This is a very important month in development: your baby is now becoming a real "singer" and "snap". Most often, it is at this time that the child begins to say “ma,” “ba,” “yes,” either singing them lingeringly or shouting abruptly. His motor skills are becoming more complicated: now he is training to grab, attract objects to himself, then purposefully unclench his fingers and release them. He continues to develop interaction skills with other people, enjoys listening to nursery rhymes and rhymes, trying to silently repeat the movements of the lips of adults.
Important dietary changes
The nutrition of a child at 5 months varies significantly, because it is during this period that the first complementary foods are most often introduced . One breast milk is clearly not enough for a baby, his body requires new nutrients for proper development and growth. In European countries, the first lures are administered even earlier, without waiting for five months of age.
Even 10-15 years ago, pediatricians advised starting with juices and fresh fruit purees. But experience shows that such first lures very often lead to problems with stools, stomach pains, allergies. Therefore, it is better to start with liquid cereals and mashed vegetables. The general rule is one: new types of food can be introduced only if the child is absolutely healthy.
The child’s diet for 5 months remains the same: these are the five main feedings of 200-220 grams.
How to introduce complementary foods
It is best to start with one type of vegetable, and then add one new one at a time to avoid allergies or to understand the causes of its occurrence in time. You can use the purchased baby food, which is made in small glass jars, or you can make mashed potatoes yourself. To do this, take one kind of vegetables, rinse thoroughly, peel and simmer in a small amount of water for 15-20 minutes. Grind vegetables with liquid while hot. Mashed potatoes should turn out to be very soft, semi-liquid, creamy.
Cauliflower, zucchini, pumpkin or broccoli are best for the first experiment. Nutrition of a child at 5 months of age should not start with potatoes, because it contains a lot of starch, which can cause an allergic reaction. It is better to add the third vegetable to the diet, while the content of potatoes should not exceed one third of the total volume of mashed potatoes.
As a beneficial additive, add mashed half boiled yolk several times a week in mashed potatoes.
For the first time, give the crumbs only a few teaspoons of mashed potatoes, and then feed them with the usual mixture or breast milk. Observe the behavior and stool of the child. If everything is calm, then the next day you can already offer the baby up to 40 grams of new food for him. Gradually bring the portion to 150 grams so that one day feeding does without milk or mixture.
At 5 months, cereals are also included in the baby’s nutrition. They are prepared semi-fluid, from cereals grinded on a coffee grinder: buckwheat, oat, rice. You can enter into the diet and semolina they are the most neutral in their influence, but they contain less useful substances than in other cereals. Grated fruits can also be added to grated fruits: banana, prune, apple. Such a fruit mixture will surely please the baby.
Detailed menu
As a result, the baby’s menu at 5 months will look something like this:
First feeding: mixture or breast milk.
Second feeding: 100 grams of liquid porridge, 100 grams of the mixture (or breast milk).
Third feeding: 150 grams of vegetable puree with yolk, 45 grams of fruit puree.
Fourth and fifth feeding: formula or breast milk.
With this diet, a healthy child will gain about 750 grams in the fifth month and grow by 2-3 cm.
The nutrition of a child at 5 months becomes very diverse. But not all the new products may be to his taste. The kid can spit out food, bend, try to turn away. In such situations, it is better not to insist, but try to change the appearance of porridge or mashed potatoes and return to a new feeding after a few days.