Moms all over the world faces a lot of challenges when weaning their babies from milk to solids.
There is usually the anxiety of ; what will my baby like? Am I doing the right thing? Is there something I am missing? In all of these, a notable statement every parent should remember is “weaning a baby is not a ONE SIZE FITS ALL method”. What works for one parent may not work for the other.
All babies are different, hitting milestones at different times and having diverse personalities and attitude towards food.
Even with siblings, parents should unlearn using an older child as a benchmark in setting expectations for younger ones.
A notable number of moms (parents) go online to find recipes and feeding ideas for their babies. In doing this they come across numerous articles and YouTube videos of ‘vloggers’ feeding their infants with a generous quantity of variety of dishes. They begin to ask themselves the ultimate question, why does my baby not eat this much and accept different foods like the babies in these videos?
It should please you to know, most of these videos are edited and setting unrealistic expectations for watchers.
There are videos where a bunch of 7-9 months old babies are being serve a plate full of high protein food, with a mix of iron-rich food and a pureed fruit dessert on the side. You watch the baby trying to spoon feed themselves, make only a little mess, eat most and sometimes all of the meal. This makes you even wonder more , “what am I not doing right”?
Babies have different tastes bud and their attitude towards food cannot be predicted.
A mom of three told a TMO editor “my first daughter had a sweet tooth, she would go for pureed sweet potatoes, bananas and carrots but never broccoli but my second daughter preferred bland food and often opted for an Irish potato, broccoli, cauliflower and tofu”.
As long as your baby is getting the required nutrients daily, it doesn’t matter how much quantity is consumed per meal and in what order it is consumed.
TMO editor and parent narrates what his infant daughter eats in a day.
On a typical morning, my baby wakes up 8 am and gets less than half a bottle of milk.
Between 8:30-9:30 am , three to four teaspoons of iron fortified cereal is served with water and sometimes milk ( she is usually unable to finish more than 3 teaspoons).
She gets half a bottle of milk after her cereal.
Between 12 and 1pm, a bowl of pureed apples and pear is served. ( She is allergic to avocados and would normally throw up when given. She never accepts bananas)
Sometimes pureed apples and carrots in place of pear.
Half a bottle of milk is offered afterward which she sometimes drinks less than a quarter.
Iron fortified biscuits is offered before dinner time. (Sometimes she accepts this, other times she doesn’t).
Spaghetti with cheese, vegetable fried rice, bread, tomato stewed rice with beef goes for dinner, depending on what I prepare for the day.
Half a bottle of milk is offered after dinner (she never drinks all of it). And of all these meals stated, she only eats a little portion. 2 to 3 tablespoons of mashed food.
Before bedtime, 2 teaspoons of iron fortified bed time cereal is offered ( made with water, not milk not fruit).
This is what a 7-8 months old baby eats in a day in a particular family.
Be sure to do what works for you and your baby, seek professional advice from your pediatrician before offering any food to your baby.
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