Moving your baby from milk to solids is the very first feeding milestone. This blog will help you to know how much to feed your child in the first year. It is always best to discuss your plan of starting solids with your pediatrician. Do talk to elders in the family; bringing up babies isn't new; we all have been brought up.
Whenever you introduce a new food, your baby's tummy is going to take couple of days to adjust; wait for a minimum of 2-3 days to see how the new food will react in your baby's body; usually the poop color would change.
Before we dive into food stages for your baby, I would like to mention 2 things:
- There is no replacement for breast milk; even WHO highly recommends BREAST FEED at least for first 6 months. Infants should be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life to achieve optimal growth, development and health. Most Pediatricians would suggest to start introducing solid foods along with the usual breast milk or formula, by the 4th month.
- Personally, I am strongly against store bought and preserved food for infants. I try avoiding store foods as much as I can.
I breastfed my daughter until 18 months. You can start to introduce SOLIDS to your babies, once breast milk/formula is not sufficient for the child's appetite as they grow.
Stages:
With most South Indians, I have observed that they change to solid foods around 4-7 months and change to heavier food mostly around 8-10 months window; after 10 months, they tend to feed babies with day to day normal food with reduced spice levels. But certain growth specific foods like homemade sathumavu/malt are given throughout the childhood.
The below mentioned stages are the most common categorization for your baby's food intake:
