Healthy Baby Food Recipes To Keep New Moms & Babies Covered!

Here are a few healthy baby food recipes, that will ensure a nutritious yet tasty diet for your little ones, according to their age group!

One of the gazillion things that new mothers fret about is healthy baby food. As their kid grows old enough to have their first meal, starts the battle between endless suggestions and baby recipe books. 

When the hunt for healthy baby food begins, it is important to find the right food for each particular stage of growth.

By the end of this post, you would be fully equipped to take your kid by surprise with the yummy as well as healthy baby food recipes that I’m about to reveal to you.

Get set to put a smile on your baby’s face!

As you are aware, kids’ food intake changes with age, and so does their taste. What they seemed to like earlier wouldn’t be on their best books a month later. They seldom follow the same path as they move from suckling infants to chomping toddlers.

However, finding their course is not going to be a mystery forever. All we have to do is follow their lead. A closer watch at the stages of development of your kid will give you a cue if he/she is ready for solid foods. Here are a few secret codes your baby signals to you and how you can break it. (The age mentioned need not be exact for every kid. It might vary from one to another.)

Healthy baby food for 4 months to 6 months

In this stage your little one shows the ability to take in a small amount of solid food without choking and ability to move his/her head with minimal support. It’s now time to introduce your kid to rice cereal.

Never miss real stories from India's women.

Register Now

Take it slow and steady. The body of the kid is running out of natural iron and is in need of a supplementary. To start, let the cereal be cooked properly from a diluted version to a comparatively thicker one since, the baby has to get used to swallowing bigger particles. Give a variation of cereals containing oats, wheat or barley, for the reason that kids do not choose to stick to one flavor for long. Take one step at a time by testing small quantities and watch out for allergies.

What to feed:

• Breast milk/ formula
• Rice cereal
• Pulse soup

Healthy baby food for 6 months to 8 months

The growing interest in family mealtime, readiness to taste anything new, crawling all over the house and picking up items on their own using their thumb and forefinger are signs of willingness to explore more with tastes and nutritious food.

Move to fruits and vegetables, starting with squashed vegetables to semi-solid, in the meanwhile increase the amount of intake. Nonetheless, do not go the extra mile to feed your baby by forcing him/her to eat a little more. The quantity will increase gradually.

What to feed:

• Breast milk/ formula
• Fruit/ vegetable puree (banana, peaches, pears, plum, carrots, squash, beans etc.)
• Boiled rice water
• Pulse soup

Healthy baby food for 7 months to 10 months

If your kid has started picking on food items off your plate, it is surely a sign for moving to the next phase of the dietary chart. They might show disinterest in eating though, since they have learnt to try out new things on  their own and get easily distracted.

This is the time you will have to pay more attention than usual. The baby at this stage will be on the lookout for additional sources of protein and iron. If you find them restraining from swallowing lumpy food, remember repeated exposure could get them adapted to the particular food.

What to feed:

• Breast milk/ formula
• Grains and millets
• Fruits – mashed/ cut into small pieces
• Vegetables – cooked/steamed

Traditional first foods differ from one country to another, however, everything comes down to one single objective, this is, feeding the little ones with nutrient-dense food. Work on the menu and make mealtime a relaxed and pleasant occasion.

PS: If the roadmap to feeding solid food gets rocky, stay calm. Every child learns to climb its way up in its own pace.

First published here.

Picture Credits: Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

Comments