The introduction of solid foods (or weaning) is recommended close to the completion of the first 6 months of life. The exact time to start can be adjusted for each child depending on his physical growth, his needs, and his neurological maturation, but in no case should you begin before the completion of 4 months of life. In the months that follow, you will gradually introduce solid foods alongside your baby’s milk.
Babies have innate preferences for sweet and savoury flavours and an aversion to bitter tastes. Preferences for healthy foods, however, can be cultivated. Repeated administration of a variety of vegetables when introducing solid foods has been shown to increase long-term preference for vegetables, which are one of the main food groups in the traditional Mediterranean diet.
An infant may need to take a new flavour at least 8 to 10 times before its final acceptance, so we encourage you to insist on offering a new food, including more bitter-tasting vegetables, as well. Foods that are initially discarded are often accepted later.
The texture of the food is recommended to change gradually to meet the evolving potential of your baby:
Blended or mashed foods should gradually be replaced by chopped food and small pieces, that your baby will be able to grab with his hands and consume on his own, always under supervision.
Up to the age of 10 month of life, mashing of food should gradually be stopped. Prolonged feeding with mashed or blended food after this age has been found to increase the likelihood of problems with chewing and swallowing solid foods after the first year of life, which will significantly complicate the child’s transition to the rest of the family’s diet.
While feeding your baby we encourage you to adopt an interactive/responsive feeding method. In this way you will learn to recognize and respond to the signs of hunger and satiety of your baby. Mealtime is an opportunity to express feelings of tenderness and love and should be a pleasant experience for your child. Have constant eye contact as well as a positive supportive communication by offering food slowly, patiently and without the use of verbal or physical pressure. Allow the baby to experiment with new foods, play with them and eat on his own depending on his developmental abilities. The infant’s attention should not
be distracted by other stimuli (e.g. television). The baby is also encouraged to eat as often as possible with the rest of the family. The interactive way of feeding helps your baby to develop the ability to self-regulate food and energy intake.
Failure to follow these recommendations has been associated with negative eating behaviours, unbalanced eating habits and an increased risk of overeating and obesity.
It should be noted that the child’s taste habits will be acquired between the first and second year of life. Therefore, after the second year it is extremely difficult to add new categories of food (e.g. bitter, sour, etc.).
ACCORDING TO AGE WE RECOMMEND:
When starting the introduction of solid food, you can also begin to offer boiled water at room temperature to your baby. This will help the kidney function and avoid constipation.
4 to 6 months
What to eat
• Breast milk or infant formula
• Mashed vegetables (sweet potatoes, sweet pumpkin)
• Mashed fruits (apples, bananas, peaches, pears)
• Rice flour
• Small amounts of unsweetened yogurt (do not give cow’s milk to children until they are one year old)
Start with 1 teaspoon of mashed food or 4 to 5 teaspoons of rice flour or other creams dissolved in water or milk.
Increase this amount by one teaspoon every two days.
6 to 8 months
What to eat
• Breast milk or infant formula
• Mashed fruits (bananas, pears, boiled apples, peaches, avocados)
• Mashed vegetables (well-cooked carrots, sweet pumpkin, sweet potatoes)
• Mashed meat (chicken, beef, lamb or goat)
• Mashed tofu
• Small amounts of unsweetened yogurt
• Mashed legumes (black beans, fava beans, chickpeas, soybeans, lentils, red beans)
• Cereals
1 teaspoon mashed fruit. Add 2 to 3 teaspoons every 4 meals
1 teaspoon mashed vegetables. Add 2 to 3 teaspoons every 4 meals.
8 to 10 months
What to eat
- Breast milk or infant formula
- Small amounts of pasteurized milk, cottage cheese and low-fat yogurt
- Mashed vegetables (cooked carrots, sweet pumpkin, potatoes and sweet potatoes)
- Mashed fruits (bananas, peaches, pears, avocados)
- Egg starting from the yolk first after the 9th month
- Other foods (Cereals with milk, scrambled eggs, diced potatoes, chopped pasta, teething crackers, Thessaloniki bun or bread crust)
- Protein (chopped and well-cooked meat, tofu, well-cooked beans, lentils)
- Fish without bones after the 9th month.
How much to eat a day
- 1/4 to 1/3 cup dairy
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup iron-rich foods
- 3/4 to 1 cup of fruit
- 3/4 to 1 cup vegetables
- 3 to 4 tablespoons high protein food
10 to 12 months
What to eat
- Breast milk or infant formula
- Small amounts of pasteurized milk, cottage cheese and low-fat yogurt
- Mashed vegetables or simply pressed with a fork
- Mashed fruit or in small pieces
- Pasta like chopped pasta
- Other foods (Cereals with milk, scrambled eggs, diced potatoes, chopped spaghetti, teething crackers, Thessaloniki bun or bread crust)
- Protein (minced and well-cooked meat, fish without bones, tofu, well-cooked beans, lentils)
How much to eat a day
- 1/3 cup dairy
- 1/4 to 1/2 cup iron-rich foods
- 3/4 with 1 cup of fruit
- 3/4 with 1 cup vegetables
- 1/8 to 1/4 cup pasta
- 3 to 4 tablespoons protein-rich foods
INSTRUCTIONS
There is no rule that defines the order in which each nutritional group is introduced in the child’s diet. Depending on the baby’s needs and conditions, other times you may want to start with cereal cream or vegetable cream or fruit cream.
The only ingredients we avoid during the first 12 months are:
- Honey (risk of botulism)
- Salt (impairs kidney function), as well as foods that contain it
- Sugar (predisposing to obesity), as well as foods that contain it (sweets)
- whole-non-humanized cow’s milk (high protein load for the immature kidneys, low iron, etc.) or goat’s milk (risk for megaloblastic anaemia).
- Shellfish and molluscs. They are allowed after two years.
- Nuts, (after two years) due to risk of choking and allergies.
- Beware of round fruits (e.g. cherries) due to the risk of choking.
- Soft drinks & standard fruit juices or fruit drinks, due to increased sugar content
We recommend:
- After 6 months start the chicken,
- at 9 months the egg, starting from the yolk well boiled with a little oil or lemon and then the egg white after 2 weeks.
The only encouragement is to try each new food for a few days before another food is introduced, so that you make sure that your child tolerates it well. You do not have to stop what you have already tried, and you know it does not cause any problem, just add only one new food every time. For example, if you try chicken for the first time, you will add it to the creams you already give (vegetables and cereals), but for 4-5 days the new food will only be “chicken”.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PREPARATION
Cereal or rice flour cream is an important source of calories as well as iron (all the commercial products are now enriched with iron). Start with rice (vanilla rice or plain vanilla means rice flour along with cow’s milk powder, so just add water, pure rice flour is just rice powder so we make it with baby milk), then one by one, oats (the well-known Quaker or oat flakes), corn (in its natural form or cornflower), barley and lastly wheat (flour) and a combination of cereal or cookie cream. Instructions for their preparation are listed simply and in detail on all packaging. We recommend switching as soon as possible from commercial creams to the natural form of cereals (e.g. rice and corn ground with vegetables, raw oats with fruit and wheat as pasta).
We give the vegetables mashed or blended after we boil them first. And here the rule of introduction one by one applies. Prefer to start with mild flavours such as: potato, zucchini, pea and carrot, celery, onion, while spinach, beetroot, radish, turnips and fresh beans are best given after the 6th month (may cause methemoglobinemia) and should be consumed immediately, without remaining in the refrigerator. The beginning is always made with small quantities of 1-2 pieces of seasonal vegetables, e.g. 1-2 small potatoes or 2 carrots or 2-3 zucchini and then add the rest. After washing them well, cut them into small pieces and let them boil in enough water for about 1 hour (depending on how hard they are). Then mash in a blender, add a little rice flour (since the rice flour has already been tasted plain, not with vanilla) or rice to “tie” the cream, as well as 1-2 teaspoons of oil and lemon. Do not add salt, spices, or sugar to your baby’s food.
Fruit cream is an essential source of carbohydrates and vitamins. Always introduce one fruit at a time, and always use seasonal fruits, preferring for starters: pear, apple, apricot, peach, or banana and lastly the orange. And here we start again with one fruit which we mash in a blender. After 4-5 days try the new fruit following the same procedure.
Meat soup is the next food, for which use 100 g of beef or chicken, rabbit, lamb, without fat or skin, seasonal herbs (if you have already tried them), 1-2 teaspoons of oil, a little lemon and rice flour. As always, try each meat separately for 5 days. After the baby progressively tastes all kinds of meat then you can alternate them daily.
Then follows the fish soup with medium-sized fish, red mullet, scup, redfish, cod, sea bream, flounder, and any other lean fish, and it is prepared like meat soup.
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