How to Introduce New Food to Your Baby

June 6, 2016

Your baby’s individuality comes out in all aspects of their life. Their sleep patterns, their temperament around new people, their interactions with other children and especially their eating habits all reflect their own personality and no two babies are the same. Introducing solid food into your baby’s liquid diet can be stressful because babies can be resistant to the idea. Patience will need to play a role in the transition to eating solid food from either breast milk or formula, but rest assured that the transition is inevitable.

Introducing Cereal

Babies will often enjoy trying new flavours and textures. As the parents you have the exciting task of deciding what tastes your baby will get to experience first. Doctors recommend that you wait until six months old to introduce baby cereal, although if you feel your baby is ready to begin eating cereal earlier than that it is entirely up to you as the parent. Whenever you start, be certain to start with stage one for beginner eaters. All major baby cereal brands run on their own staging system, simply look to see which one says “beginner”. A great benefit to feeding beginner cereal at a young age is that you can often mix it with breast milk or formula instead of water so the baby is still benefiting from the nutrients present in their original food source. Do not fret if your baby spits out the first few spoon-fulls of cereal! They will eventually come around, and if you get discouraged at their lack of interest feel free to change up the brand.

Introducing Other Food – The “Three Day Policy”

Once babies have the hang of eating cereal you can introduce other foods into their diet. The best policy to follow when introducing new foods to your child’s diet is the “three day policy.” For instance if you wish to introduce your baby to pureed carrots, feed them only carrots for three days in a row. This is done so as to determine if any food allergy might be present. By introducing only one food at a time you will be able to pin point what food caused an adverse reaction. If you give carrots one day, peas the next, and raspberries on day three and suddenly there is a skin rash all over your baby’s body it would be impossible to determine which food caused your baby to react. If after three days of exposure to the same food your baby doesn’t have any reactions then you are in the clear to try something new and increase your baby’s pallet!

Time for Some Adventure

Now that your baby is well on their way to accepting new foods the fun begins. It’s important to introduce a multitude of food to your baby so they can begin to generate their likes and dislikes. Once they have teeth don’t be afraid to give them some of your dinner right from your plate each night. They will love the interaction with mom and dad and become more adventurous with their eating at the same time.

Your child will let you know when they are ready to move onto more substantial food, but starting with basic purees and baby cereal is a wonderful way to get your baby’s mouth ready for food! Eating makes up a good portion of the day so let’s make sure kids are eating healthy food from the beginning! Looking for more baby food ideas? Check out the Top 45 Best Baby Foods from Paisley Spaling!

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