When is the best time to wean your baby?

When the baby is still in the mother's womb, it absorbs nutrients together with the mother's body and continues to develop in the amniotic fluid relying on the mother's nutrients. The baby is originally a whole with the mother and is accustomed to the mother's environment, so breastfeeding your baby is the best choice. However, what worries mothers is that if they adopt breastfeeding, when is the best time to give milk to their babies? This question confuses many mothers. Some mothers are reluctant to let their babies cry and wait until the baby is one year old before weaning the baby. So when is the best time to wean the baby? Let me introduce it to you below.

Generally, weaning can be done between 9 and 12 months, and the appropriate time can be chosen based on the specific situation. Weaning is not very difficult. As long as you make sure your baby's diet after weaning is adequately supplemented with nutrition, the following are some of the foods your baby should eat after weaning.

1. Weaning and complementary feeding should be carried out in parallel. It is not because of weaning that the baby starts to eat complementary foods, but the baby has been eating complementary foods well before weaning. Therefore, there is no obvious change in the addition of complementary foods before and after weaning, and weaning should not affect the baby's normal complementary foods.

2. What should the baby drink after weaning? As usual, in addition to giving the baby milk during the day, you can give the baby a small amount of 1:1 diluted fresh fruit juice and boiled water. If the baby is weaned before the age of one, he should drink infant formula. After the age of one, the amount of breast milk consumed by the baby gradually decreases, and the amount of milk consumed should be gradually increased, but the total amount per day remains basically unchanged (children aged one to two should drink about 600 ml per day).

3. What should the baby eat after weaning? The daily diet arrangement for a one-year-old baby: five meals a day, three meals of breakfast, lunch and dinner, and two snacks. Emphasis is placed on balanced diet and a combination of coarse and fine, rice and flour, meat and vegetables, with the principle of crushed, soft and rotten food. After being completely weaned (breast milk), the diet is mostly fixed to three meals a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner, and the baby should be transitioned from porridge to thick porridge and soft rice, from meat puree to minced meat, and from vegetable puree to minced vegetables. When the baby is almost one year old, you can train him to eat by himself and must be weaned (breast milk). If you continue to feed the baby with breast milk, the child may not drink milk, have a poor appetite, and all aspects of nutrition cannot keep up with the baby's growth needs. At the same time, you have to follow a step-by-step approach to add complementary foods to the baby, from less to more, from thin to thick, from fine to coarse, and add one when the baby is used to it. Add when the child is healthy and has normal digestive function. If there is a reaction, pause for two days and resume after the baby recovers. An 8-month-old baby will gradually adapt to the transition from milk to food, and I believe the baby will definitely adapt.

After weaning, infants and young children need about 1100 to 1200 kcal of energy and 35 to 40 grams of protein per day, which is a relatively large amount. Because infants and young children have poor digestive function, they are not suitable for eating solid food. On the basis of the original complementary food, new varieties should be gradually added, and liquid and semi-liquid diets should be gradually changed to solid food. Soft and easily digestible food is preferred. In view of this, the diet of infants and young children can include dairy products, cereals, etc. When cooking, food should be chopped and cooked. It can be cooked by boiling, stewing, roasting, steaming, etc. It is not advisable to fry or use irritating ingredients.

After weaning, infants and young children cannot eat all cereal foods, nor can they eat the same meals as adults. The staple food should be thick porridge, soft rice, noodles, wontons, buns, etc. The side dishes can include fish, lean meat, liver, eggs, dried shrimps, soy products and various vegetables. The staple food is rice and flour, about 100 grams per day, which gradually increases with age; soy products are about 25 grams per day, mainly tofu and dried tofu; one egg a day, which can be steamed, stewed, boiled or fried; meat and fish are 50 to 75 grams per day, gradually increasing to 100 grams; soy milk or cow's milk, 500 milliliters per day, gradually reducing to 250 milliliters after 1 year old; fruit can be supplied appropriately according to the specific situation.

Mothers can selectively wean their babies according to their children's specific physical conditions and weather conditions. There is no requirement to wean their babies in a certain quarter or a specific month. These are not clearly stipulated in science, so mothers do not need to worry too much about them. For young babies, weaning is not scary. As long as the child's nutritious diet is provided in the later stage, weaning can be carried out. Mothers should also note that many people will tell you their weaning methods. The methods of the older generation are a bit unscientific and unhygienic. Mothers need to choose the weaning method carefully.