Nutrition issues of a child always concern caring parents. Especially when it comes to first feeding. Fruit puree? Vegetable puree? Porridge? Which of the following is more suitable for the baby? And from what age can new foods be introduced into the diet in crumbs? These and other questions worry young mothers who care about the health of their child. Of course, only a pediatrician can answer them and dispel all doubts, based on the developmental parameters of the child and his age. However, general recommendations regarding complementary foods do exist. The article tells readers about when it is necessary to introduce, the features of this process, as well as which fruit puree is best for the first feeding.
We turn to the study of new tastes
The diet of a newborn baby consists of mother's milk or an adapted mixture, selected according to his needs. All pediatricians say in a voice that it is necessary to establish breastfeeding for the health of the baby. Indeed, breast milk contains all the complex of vitamins, microelements and other useful substances necessary for strengthening the immune system that is necessary for a growing body. Therefore, if you managed to establish this process, then you can not worry about the first feeding up to seven months. Some mothers do not introduce new products into the diet until they are ten months old.
But the crumbs on artificial feeding, the first lure should be introduced much earlier, although even the pediatricians themselves from time to time change their minds on this issue. For example, in the Soviet period, doctors strongly recommended introducing the baby with new products in three months. This was due to some nutritional features of the mothers themselves. They lacked vitamins, fresh vegetables and fruits, and the diet itself did not differ in variety. Therefore, one should not expect that only breast milk would be enough for the baby.
Today, pediatricians are guided by the recommendations of the World Health Organization. According to her research, babies who are on artificial or mixed feeding should be fed at the age of five to six months. And infants who are breast milk should be introduced to vegetables and fruits closer to seven months.
However, in any case, consultations with a pediatrician are necessary before the introduction of the first feeding. After all, only he is able to determine whether the digestive system of the crumbs is ripe for adult food intake.
Factors indicating the possibility of introducing the first feeding
Once again, we note that only your pediatrician should make this important decision. But still there are a number of signs indicating that the diet of crumbs is time to expand.
This is evidenced by the child’s ability to sit well. If he feels confident while sitting, then it is time to buy beautiful cutlery and children's dishes with bright pictures, making it easier to accustom the baby to a new way of eating.
It is important that your child shows interest in adult food. By the age of five or six months, many children begin to make an attempt to peek into a plate with their mother or father during lunch or dinner.
It is also worth paying attention to the chewing reflex. The kid, ready for a change of diet, often watches his parents with food and tries to repeat all movements, including chewing, after them.
In addition, the pediatrician must confirm the formation of the digestive system. This can be judged if the baby eats well, gains weight, is not capricious due to colic and pain in the tummy.
Where to start complementary foods?
For our grandmothers, doctors recommended fruit purees and juices for the first feeding. This was due to the same paucity of the diet of a young mother and the lack of vitamins contained in fresh fruits.
Today, pediatricians do not recommend starting complementary foods with fruit puree. They believe that a variety of fruits cause allergic reactions, and are absorbed by the body much worse than vegetables. In addition, the first feeding of a child with fruit puree practically excludes vegetables from the baby’s diet, since their taste will seem to the crumbs not expressed, and he will refuse them, being capricious. As a result, the child will have clear taste preferences that will persist for a long time.
According to the recommendations of the World Health Organization, it is necessary to start introducing crumbs to new food with vegetable purees consisting of one vegetable. But one-component fruit puree for the first feeding is better not to use. It can enter the diet only after vegetables, dairy-free cereals and mashed meat.
Acquaintance rules for new dishes: list of allowed products
When to introduce fruit puree in a baby's food? Let's take a step-by-step look at how crumbs are introduced to new foods for him.
If the baby is gaining weight well, then his first puree should be vegetable. Young zucchini, cauliflower or broccoli are suitable for him. However, do not forget that the crumb dish should consist of only one vegetable until it gets used to the new menu.
Then you can expand the diet of corn and millet cereals without milk, as well as delicious mashed pumpkin. Typically, these dishes become familiar crumbs in two to three months.
If all the products are absorbed by the digestive tract of the child well, then by seven or eight months he needs to give the first meat puree from rabbit or turkey. After about a month, you can switch to fruit purees. It is important at the same time to monitor possible allergic reactions and not mix fruits among themselves. Only after the baby adapts to the new diet, you can not only give it a puree of several fruits, but also mix them with vegetables. Some interesting recipes for fruit purees for the first feeding will be given a bit later.
By the year your baby should get acquainted with the following products:
- bread;
- milk and dairy-free cereals;
- fruits (apples, bananas, pears, peach, nectarine, apricot);
- vegetables (zucchini, pumpkin, broccoli, cucumber, beets, potatoes, carrots, cauliflower);
- cottage cheese and dairy products;
- light soups on vegetable and meat broths;
- meat purees from turkey, chicken, rabbit and beef (some parents give their one-year-old kids steamed meat cutlets that are not forbidden by WHO);
- fish (pollock or hake).
In the following months, the diet of crumbs is constantly expanding, but pediatricians recommend not to get too carried away with the introduction of new food products. They advise mothers to make their diets more diverse through cooking options. Let your child get used to the fact that vegetables, fruits and fish regularly appear on the table. Over time, the child will express his preferences and he will have his favorite dishes.
How to introduce mashed fruit into lure?
Not all mothers understand how to expand their baby’s diet correctly. As you already understood, the beginning of complementary foods with fruit puree is not the best option for a baby. But if you have already mastered vegetables and cereals, then you can very well move on to new gastronomic discoveries. However, this must be done so as not to harm the crumbs.
Fruit puree for the first feeding should be one-component. And it takes seven to ten days to get used to it. Until this period passes, new fruits should not appear on the crumbs table.
Mashed fruit should be given to the baby once a day, preferably during breakfast. Moreover, at first, the portion cannot be more than half a teaspoon. You need to feed the baby with breast milk or a mixture. Gradually, the amount of mashed potatoes increases, reaching the maximum amount. It is very easy to identify. Parents just need to multiply their child's age by ten. The resulting number will denote the maximum amount of mashed potatoes that the baby can eat per day.
While the child gets used to the new product, mom should carefully monitor his condition. If the baby absorbs fruit puree well, the consistency and color of his chair will not change, the skin will remain pink without rashes, and the tummy will be soft. Only taking into account all of the above factors, you can transfer the child to a new product or add another fruit or vegetable to the already known puree. But getting used to it will also take from one week to ten days.
What fruit puree to choose for the first feeding: recommendations of pediatricians
Parents need to remember that all the fruits available to customers in stores can be divided into several groups according to the degree of allergenicity:
- Weakly allergenic. These include pears and green apples, as well as berries such as gooseberries.
- Moderately allergenic. This group includes yellow apples, bananas and peaches.
- Particularly allergenic. Red fruits, including pomegranates, as well as wild berries.
What fruit puree to start lure with? Naturally, pediatricians recommend using apples or pears for the first feeding. Moreover, both of them are better to choose green. This several times reduces the risk of developing an allergic reaction.
Typically, red fruits are introduced into complementary foods after a year, when the crumb body is adapted to various products and dishes prepared from them.
Shop or homemade puree: make a choice
So, you decided to introduce fruit puree into the lure. Which is better - in jars from the store or cooked with your own hands? Mommies on the forums argue about this almost to hoarseness, giving a lot of pros and cons. Each mother must independently answer the question of which fruit puree is best for the first feeding. The article only voiced the arguments of each of the parties.
Those who support the option of complementary foods through jars of baby food from the store claim that they are just a godsend for busy moms. Indeed, this frees up the time that would have to be spent on peeling and preparing vegetables and fruits for mashed potatoes.
The range of baby food is very wide and the manufacturer does not have the concept of seasonality of fruits. And this is a huge plus.
It is also worth considering that mashed potatoes in the production are prepared in compliance with all standards and all useful properties are preserved in the finished product. And besides, the risk of getting microbes and pathogenic microorganisms into the baby’s plate is practically reduced to zero.
However, in store fruit purees there are also disadvantages. Moms, acquiring another colorful jar, can not be absolutely sure that the fruits are grown in an ecologically clean area, and the producer did not add something like that to them.
Moms who prefer to make fruit puree for the first feeding with their own hands, note that they always have full information about the freshness of the fruit, its ripeness and quality. In addition, they significantly save the family budget, since store-bought baby food is always quite expensive.
However, homemade mashed potatoes also have their drawbacks. And they relate to raw materials for the preparation of baby food. Usually it is purchased in a store, which means mothers cannot be completely sure that it is grown without the addition of chemicals.
How to choose a jar of baby fruit puree?
If you decide to feed your baby the store puree, then do not neglect the advice on choosing food.
Mashed potatoes are usually sold in glass and tin jars. The first option is more environmentally friendly, but without observing the storage rules in the product, useful substances are lost. It is better when a jar of glass is wrapped in an opaque package.
Before buying, do not be too lazy to read information about the composition, age restrictions and expiration date of the product.
Often, in the composition of fruit puree, you can see such components as starch and vitamin C. The latter acts as a natural preservative, but the second significantly reduces the digestibility of mashed potatoes by the children's stomach.
Among the wide assortment of fruit purees, parents distinguish several products that the kids like and are great for the first feeding:
- "Williams Pears." This puree, supplied to the Russian shelves by Gerber, is perfectly absorbed by crumbs from four months and does not contain extraneous components except vitamin C.
- Mashed apples with cottage cheese. This product from "Diaper" can be given to babies from six months. Its composition contains low-fat cottage cheese, which adds a special taste to fruit puree.
- Fruit puree with cream. Theme company offers six-month-old kids a delicious product from apples, peaches, cream and sugar.
- Pear puree. This product from Humana can be given to children from four months. Mashed potatoes do not contain anything but pears grown according to all EU standards.
Features of making homemade mashed potatoes
With your own hands, fruit puree for the first feeding is very simple. Fruits are always peeled and cut into small cubes. It is best to steam, but in extreme cases, you can resort to cooking. In a saucepan there should be no more than two tablespoons of water, and the process itself lasts about ten minutes. In a double boiler, too, fruits should not be overexposed - fifteen minutes will be enough.
Finished raw materials can be mashed with a fork or placed in a blender. The child needs to offer mashed potatoes in a warm form.
Do not forget that in the process of cooking it is important to use separate dishes and remove pets from the kitchen.
Ready mashed potatoes do not need to be sweetened. Babies who have already appreciated the taste of fruits can be mashed in the form of a mix with vegetables. In such dishes, it is good to use pumpkin and, for example, zucchini.
Cooking for the baby at home
Children are very fond of pear puree. It is being prepared identical to the description from the previous section, but there are several secrets. Not all babies respond well to mashed grains, and the pear has just a similar consistency, which is preserved in grated form. Therefore, do not be too lazy to break the fruit in a blender two or three times. To make the dish easier to digest, add a little milk mixture or pear decoction in mashed potatoes.
Try mashed squash and apples for your crumbs. This option is ideal even for allergy sufferers and is a storehouse of vitamins. Zucchini contains potassium. This substance helps the heart muscle. Apples contain substances such as iodine, phosphorus, iron and vitamin C. Together, they protect the baby from colds and viral diseases. Ten minutes are cooked for a couple of zucchini, and about fifteen apples. During normal cooking, add five minutes to the indicated time.
Mango is an exotic fruit and is not sold in every store. But if you have the opportunity to purchase ripe mangoes, be sure to make them puree for your crumbs. This fruit contains twelve amino acids, one of the pleasant side effects of which is the normalization of sleep. Puree is made from fresh fruits. They are diced and mixed in a blender with two tablespoons of boiled water. Then the resulting puree is heated on the stove, but not brought to a boil. The kid needs to offer it in a warm form.