Introducing solid foods to your baby can be a fun and exciting time, but it can often be accompanied by feelings of stress and uncertainty. And there are lots of questions that sometimes go unanswered. I’ve had parents ask me if their infant needs to eat a certain amount of food, if they need to introduce one food at a time, and if allergenic foods should be avoided until a year of age.
If you are starting to introduce foods to your little one here are five goals I want you to keep in mind:
Cultivate a healthy relationship with food
I would argue that this is the most important aspect of introducing solid foods because this healthy relationship with food will last a lifetime. You can facilitate this healthy relationship with food by letting your child be in control of what they are eating. This means avoiding spoon feeding your infant - let your baby feed themself! It will be messy, but worth it in the long run.
Minimize picky eating
This is what every parent wants to know - how can I make sure my little one loves veggies and other nutrient-dense foods? And truth is, you really can’t fully prevent picky eating because it is part of normal development of a toddler to want to eat simple carbohydrates. But you can minimize this behavior by helping to create that healthy relationship with food. You can do this be letting your infant self-feed, offering many flavors of food, and not forcing your child to “finish their plate”.
Prevent food allergies
Research shows that the timing of introducing particular solid foods matter when we are thinking about preventing food allergies. It is recommended that you start with these allergenic foods early (starting as early as 4 months of age!) and offer then often, but in small amounts. The main foods on this list include peanut, egg, and soy.
3 meals and 2 snacks per day by 12 months
Generally, your goal for schedule of meals at the age of 12 months is three meals and two snacks per day. Most children do best with this amount of food offered. This might differ from day to day and might be different for your family depending on your daily schedule. So, I like to think that you have a good 6+ months from the start of introducing solids to when you can think about transitioning from breastmilk or formula to a more robust solid food diet.
Explore tastes and textures
Another super important goal. I want parents to focus on a variety of foods, flavors, and textures rather than baby eating a certain amount of food. Flavors include: sweet, spicy, tart, salty, bitter. And textures include: pureed, crunchy, soft, chewy, and a mix of them all.
If you focus on these goals when introducing solid foods I think it will decrease some of the pressure on you as a parent. Notice that I didn’t talk about your baby eating certain types of foods or getting in a certain amount. Check out my STARTING SOLIDS RIGHT food introduction course where you will learn how to apply these goals when first starting to introduce solids.
