Weaning Foods - Changing Textures
Like most adults, babies also eat with their eyes first, so their meals should look appealing. Make her meals more appealing by including colorful fruits and vegetables like carrots, beet root, tomatoes, and oranges. Cut her food into different shapes and sizes so that the food looks fascinating.
Liquid Supplements:
Milk and Milk Products By the 9th or the 10th month, most mothers are in the process of giving up breast feeding. This is the time to increase the quantity of fresh milk to replace the breast milk. At this age babies need to have at least 2 to 2 1/2 cups of milk everyday, whether its breast milk or top milk. Growing babies need a constant supply of calcium and protein in their diet to help their bones and teeth to grow and strengthen. Along with milk, this is also a good time to introduce cheese to your baby's diet to supplement the calcium requirement and at the same time acquaint her with a newer taste and texture. If your little one is fussy about milk, try giving milk shakes, curds, cheese, paneer, and even home-made ice-cream to supplement protein and calcium in your baby's diet. Recipes like Spring Vegetable Risotto and Strawberry Yoghurt serves as good sources of milk products to your baby's meals. Fruit and Vegetable Juices and Soups You can continue to serve unstrained soups and juices as appetizers before meals or in the evenings. These are great sources of a natural sugar called fructose that provides instant energy to keep your baby perked up. This will also take care of your baby's hunger until meal times. Most paediatricians are against giving juices during meal times, as they can affect your baby's appetite and she may not be so willing to eat her meal after that. Again, do remember that there are no hard and fast rules and if your baby is happier with a 'soupy' dinner like the Dal and Vegetable Soup just go ahead with it. Semi-Solid and Solid Supplements This is a period of transition and exploration for your baby; especially where her diet is concerned. She is most likely to be ready for a switch from mashed foods to finely chopped and lumpy foods. However, some babies are reluctant to accept this transition and may just be really happy gulping mashed foods. Include a variety of chopped vegetables like carrot, potatoes, spinach etc. to your baby's meal. Your little one is going to be extremely attracted to colourful and 'feel-good' dishes so do pay attention to the colour and texture of her meals. Colourful dishes like Vegetable Parathas, Corn Sambar and Dal and Rice with Grated Cabbage, will be easily accepted easily by your baby at this stage. As your baby grows older and starts teething, encourage her to have whole fruits and vegetables like banana, chickoo, apples, carrots, cucumber etc. These will also soothe her gums if she is teething. Also, chewing food is a great exercise for your baby's gums when she is teething and helps to strengthen the new teeth that are emerging. Peel and cut the foods into bite-sized pieces. Fruits and vegetables provide bulk in the diet and aid in your baby's bowel movements too. The good news for you is that you may no longer need to prepare special meals for your baby. By the end of the first year, your baby can start eating everything from your family pot. Just keep her portion aside before adding spices and seasoning to the food for the other family members. In fact, a wonderful way to acquaint your baby with the 'ghar ka khana' is to mix 1 or 2 spoons of your regular vegetable to the portion you've kept aside for her. This will gradually help your little one adjust her palate to these new and wonderful tastes of your home cooking. At this age, you can also add fermented foods to your baby's diet, as these are also easy for your baby to digest. A fermented food that is commonly eaten is curds (yoghurt). Idlis, dosas, dhoklas etc. made with a combination of cereal and pulse are also good examples of fermented foods, which can be added to your baby's diet from the 10th month onwards. Vegetable Idlis, is a fermented dish which most babies will relish. As babies approach their 1st birthday they begin to show interest in eating foods from family pot. So let them go ahead and offer a spoon to eat on their own. But remember to keep aside your baby's portion aside before you add spices and seasonings to the foods for other family members.
Experiment different texture like cheese, chikki or whole fruits and vegetables. You can even try interesting variations like risotto, milk shake, vegetable, paratha etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment