How to add complementary food to your baby

In most cases, you can add complementary foods to your baby when he or she is four months old. However, mothers start to worry at this time. Because the baby's digestive ability is weak, improper feeding can easily cause diarrhea in the baby. So what is the most appropriate way to add complementary foods to your baby? I hope my suggestions below can help you.

Generally speaking, after 4 months of age, babies should be given complementary foods because breast milk is gradually becoming insufficient for nutrition. The additional types of food may include milk, cooked egg yolk puree, fruit puree, vegetable puree, minced fish, etc. The method of increasing is to gradually replace breast milk from thin to thick, from little to more, from once or twice to many times, from one variety to multiple varieties, from fine and easy to digest to coarse and slightly difficult to digest. You must try it at the beginning, feed a little, and see the baby's digestion and appetite. If the digestion is not good and the appetite is affected, it means that the baby is not adapted, and you have to cancel or replace it with something more digestible.

At the beginning, it is best to choose milk that is easy to digest and swallow, or thinner rice porridge with milk. Some fruit puree can be added between breastfeedings; after 5 months, half an egg yolk puree can be added to the milk or rice porridge, and the amount or frequency of fruit puree feeding can be increased; after 6 months, while still feeding milk, you can consider adding an egg yolk, minced fish porridge, mashed potatoes or carrot porridge; after 8 months, minced meat, egg yolk and soft rice can be added. After 10 months, you can alternate between the above varieties, with porridge and soft rice, minced fish, minced meat, liver paste, etc. as the main meals. The time can also be maintained as three meals a day like adults. Between meals and before going to bed at night, you can feed breast milk or milk, porridge, rice paste as a supplement. Generally, breastfeeding can be completely weaned off at 12 months, allowing the baby to transition to a normal diet and use complementary foods as his main meals.

After 4 months, babies grow rapidly and are prone to iron deficiency and mild anemia. So from this time on, mothers can add some jujube paste and liver paste to their babies. Initially, just two jujube pastes (cooked, peeled and crushed), fed twice a day, or a thumb-sized amount of cooked chicken or duck liver, crushed, mixed with milk into a paste, and fed to the baby with a spoon twice a day. If the baby's face and lips are rosy, there is no need to stick to feeding him date paste and liver paste every day.

The process of adding complementary foods is best done gradually. Start by feeding only a small amount, completely liquid, and pay close attention to the baby's digestion. If there is no problem with bowel movements and no vomiting or diarrhea, you can gradually increase the amount. For example, start with half a bottle of milk, then 1 to 2 spoons of rice paste with half an egg yolk, then half a bowl of rice paste with half an egg yolk, half a bowl of rice paste with an egg yolk or minced fish, and half a bowl of rice paste with an egg yolk and minced meat. When eating porridge, you can start with thin porridge, and gradually transition to thick porridge with egg yolk, minced fish or minced meat; fruits and vegetables can be cooked and mashed into a paste first, and gradually transition to chopped vegetables, small pieces of fragile fruit pulp (such as watermelon, soft apples, banana chunks, etc.); minced meat and minced fish are not easy to digest and absorb, so you can try feeding minced fish first, and then gradually try minced pork, and feed minced beef and mutton later, and it is best to use an electric grinder to grind it into smaller pieces.

Don't be impatient when adding complementary foods. Some mothers want to give their babies a variety of nutrients, so they change the same food every day. This is not conducive to the baby's stomach to adapt. It must be "gradually" and consider changing the type at least half a month later. The amount should not be increased too much at once. Carefully observe the baby's appetite. If the baby does not want to drink breast milk for a long time after adding complementary foods, it means that the complementary foods have been added too much and too quickly, and it should be reduced appropriately. If a baby has indigestion, in addition to vomiting and diarrhea, he or she will also have no appetite. If he or she turns his or her head away when you feed him or her anything, and there is a slight bluish purple color on the lower side of the thumb, it means that the baby has food accumulation. You should consider stopping feeding the baby for two days. You can also go to a Chinese medicine store and buy a few packets of "Children's Digestive Tablets" to feed the baby (usually in powder form, just add a little to rice soup, milk or thin milk paste).

Due to the different physiques of babies, you can also add complementary foods for your baby according to the guidance of a pediatrician to avoid indigestion, diarrhea, and vomiting. In daily life, pay attention to not over-hot food and water. In particular, adding complementary foods requires a gradual process, allowing the baby to slowly adapt. I hope my story will be helpful to you, and I wish you and your baby good health.