Baby feeding chart helps parents to ensure the proper baby feeding according to the baby’s age. Proper baby feeding has great importance for the child’s health protection and healthy development. Only if the nutrition is adequate, babies develop rapidly and progress.
Baby feeding chart
The baby feeding chart below contains information about the average number of meals in 24 hours, the milk amount, intervals between two meals and solid food for the specified age of babies.
Baby feeding in the first 6 months of a baby’s life
The feeding of a newborn can be:
- natural nutrition – breastfeeding
- mixed nutrition – breastfeeding and formula feeding
- artificial nutrition – only formula feeding
Mother’s milk is the most refined food for infants. Its chemical composition is tailored to the infants’ needs, so it’s easier to digest and absorb. Therefore, mothers, if you can breastfeed your child, do so! Pay attention, benefits of breastfeeding are:
- provides natural food
- provides a relation between a mother and child
- creates emotional stability
- mother’s milk contains antibodies that protect a baby from infection
- breast milk is bacteriologically correct and sterile
- mother’s milk has an optimal temperature (37°C)
- breastfeeding allows proper jaw development of a baby
Of course, mothers who aren’t able to breastfeed shouldn’t feel guilty or worry about the baby’s health. The infant formula is very similar, almost identical to the mother’s milk. It affects the normal development of babies. No doubt, the most important benefit of breastfeeding is making an effective relationship between mother and child, but mothers who choose formula milk also can and should make an emotional relation with babies, through gentle communication and physical contact.
According to the World Health Organization, infants should be fed exclusively milk for the first six months of life.
Feeding a baby from 6 to 12 months of age
By the latest recommendation of the WHO, you must start non-milk nutrition from the 6th month. Some experts recommend introducing solid food earlier, about 4th months of the baby’s life. In my opinion, a time of starting to introduce solid food in a baby’s nutrition depends, above all, on the baby’s level of development. Therefore, a consultation with a baby’s doctor about it is the best solutions.
However, you should introduce solid food in small quantities (one to two teaspoons), gradually, always one kind only, at the time of future main meals. Getting used to one type of food should take one week. A baby’s first food can include rice, oat, barley, corn, apples, bananas, apricots, carrots, potatoes, parsnips.
Dairy should be maintained for up to 12 months of infants. But, from 8th-month of babies, parents should offer babies solid food first, and then milk. Now, you should introduce quinoa, pasta, millet, broccoli, dairy products (cheese, yogurt), meat products (chicken, turkey) and gradually hard-boiled yolks (a quarter more every week).
From the 9th month, the baby can eat food with fingers from a plate. Also, a child should eat together with other family members teaching socialization. There should be 5 to 6 meals per day. The composition of the meal is varied. Now, you should introduce new food: asparagus, onion, beef minced meat, blueberries, pumpkin, kiwi,…
Finally, from the 10th months, you can introduce in the baby’s nutrition Kamut, citrus, strawberries, tomatoes, corn, and spinach.
What if a baby shows food intolerance or doesn’t accept some type of food?
In cases of intolerance on one type of food, it’s necessary to determine what food is and to eliminate it.
Because the child meets a new food taste for the first time, you shouldn’t force him/her to eat. In the case of rejection, you should try the next day, but with the same type of food.
So, parents’ patience is crucial for accepting new foods. When a child adjusts to food, the meals increase. For the food amount in the meal, self-regulation is permitted. If babies turning their heads from food or spit it, that means that they are the sieve and that parents shouldn’t insist on the meal.
More tips about baby feeding…
In the end, I have two more very important tips for baby feeding. First, you must give regularly vitamin D to a baby. Second, you shouldn’t feed the baby with cow milk for up to 12 months of his/her life. It can be bacteriologically incorrect and can trigger allergies and intolerance.
Above all, did you like our baby feeding chart? Did you find useful information reading this article? We hope that you are. If you want to know how should feed your child for further, read toddler feeding guide. If you have some significant experience or knowledge, share with us. Also, if you need some more advice, contact us and we will be pleased to help you.
