Baby nutrition: in a nutshell

By Raising Children Network

Breastmilk or formula offers all the nutrition babies need until they’re six months old. By about that age, they’re ready for their first spoonful of solids.

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Feeding up to six months

Breastfeeding is great for your baby. According to health experts, breastmilk is all babies need until they’re six months old. So it’s worth making every effort to breastfeed.

Most problems with breastfeeding can be overcome with information and support. For some mothers, though, issues such as mastitis make it difficult to continue breastfeeding. If you can’t breastfeed, baby formula from a bottle is the next best thing.

Instead of propping your baby up with a bottle in bed, holding your baby during bottle-feeding is safer and can help you bond and connect. It’s also a great opportunity for partners to take turns at bonding with their baby.

Cow’s milk, goat’s milk and soy milk aren’t suitable for children under 12 months. These products don’t have all the nutritional elements a baby needs to grow and thrive.

If you’re breastfeeding and are vitamin D deficient, it could be difficult for your baby to get enough of the vitamin. For more information about breastfeeding, bottle-feeding and nutrition, see our sections on how to bottle-feed, supplementing breastfeeds, newborns nutrition and babies nutrition. You might also like to read about healthy eating and drinking for new parents.

Breastfeeding and working
Going back to work doesn’t mean you have to stop breastfeeding. You can express and refrigerate or freeze your milk, or you can partially wean. If you do continue feeding, slowly introduce your baby to a bottle or cup before you start back.

Introducing solids

You can start slowly introducing your baby to solids at around six months. It’s wise to introduce foods one at a time starting with a little bit of very milky baby cereal (mixed with breastmilk or formula). This can help identify food allergies or intolerances.

Here’s a quick guide to what foods you can introduce and when:

Six months: your baby is ready to try a world of different tastes and flavours. Along with baby cereal, available from the supermarket, you could also offer cooked pureed fruit (apple, pear) or vegetables (potato, pumpkin, carrot). See our homemade baby foods guide for how to make your own.
Seven months: keep using the above foods. Try introducing pureed meat and toast fingers or sugarless rusks.
Eight months: it’s time for a bit more coarsely mashed food, like minced meat, chicken and rice. You can also introduce finger foods such as soft, chopped fruit, soft-cooked vegies, bread and toast, pasta, grated cheese (pasteurised), yoghurt and custards.
12 months: at this age, your baby is ready to eat a little of what the rest of the family is eating – as long as you cut foods into small pieces. Baby can also drink plain pasteurised milk at this time.

All babies are different, and this time frame is just a guide. There’s no point trying to force a child to eat anything. If a food gets knocked back one week, try it again next week. Babies can be offered a new food many times before deciding to try it.

Try not to worry if your child is a fussy eater. A relaxed approach is the best way to establish good habits and avoid later problems. As a parent, you decide what healthy foods to offer your baby. Your baby decides how much of them to eat.

Generally, food additives don’t cause harmful effects. If your child is sensitive to one or more food additives, speak to your doctor.

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Food and milk schedule after six months

When children eat lots of different healthy foods, they get the nutrients they need for growth and development. It also helps them learn healthy eating habits for life. Once your baby is eating well, you can start a meal schedule. Your schedule might look like this:

Time of day	Meal
Early morning	Breastfeed or bottle
Mid morning	Breakfast and breastfeed or bottle
Early afternoon	Lunch and breastfeed or bottle
Early evening	Dinner and breastfeed or bottle
Late evening	Breastfeed or bottle (if needed)

This means 4-5 milk feeds a day. You can reduce this to three milk feeds as your baby starts to eat more solid food (between 6-9 months). Of course, your baby’s own milk intake might vary from this.

When babies are between 9-12 months old, you can put healthy leftovers in a blender and reduce to a textured pulp. Spoon into ice cube trays or small plastic containers and freeze for quick meals later in the week.

Foods to avoid

After six months, you can introduce small amounts of boiled and cooled water. Children can have other fluids after 12 months – but fruit juice and soft drinks aren’t recommended.

Salt, sugar or caffeine: babies’ systems can’t handle foods high in salt or sugar, or foods with caffeine (found in cola drinks and chocolate).
Juice is expensive and high in sugar: it’s better for babies to get their nutrition straight from fruit. If baby is thirsty, plain tap water is best – it’s fortified with fluoride, which helps build enamel on baby’s developing teeth.
Honey and unpasteurised dairy products: these might contain dangerous bacteria and are unsuitable for babies under 12 months.
Cow’s milk, goat’s milk and soy milk: these aren’t suitable for children under 12 months. Babies need the nutrients found in breastmilk or formula.
Biscuits and sweets: if you can avoid the temptation to give your child biscuits and lollies (at least for the first two years), you might be rewarded with fewer mealtime battles.
Nuts: some babies have a tree nut or peanut allergy, which might cause a severe reaction if they eat nuts or nut products. Also, nuts can be a choking hazard for infants and small children.
Bad fat: this kind of fat comes in the form of saturated fat and trans fat. Learn more in our article on good and bad fats.

Microwaving tip
Try to avoid microwaving milk and food in plastic bottles or bowls, unless they’re specifically marked as ‘microwave safe’. Microwaves make ‘hot spots’, which could burn your baby, and ‘cold spots’, where bacteria might survive. If you stop and stir the food midway through, then heat it further, you can overcome this issue.

Healthy habits

You can help your child establish healthy behaviour, eating and activity habits from birth. This can help prevent your child becoming overweight or obese. Our article on healthy habits offers tips to help you.

Baby play and learning: in a nutshell

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Newsletter snippet: Baby nutrition: in a nutshell
By Raising Children Network
Breastmilk or formula is all your baby needs until he’s six months old. When it’s time to introduce solids to your baby’s diet, you can start reducing milk feeds.

Introduce foods one at a time, so you can identify any allergies or intolerances. You might like to try the following:
- six months: baby cereal, cooked pureed fruit or vegetables
- seven months: pureed meat, toast fingers or sugarless rusks
- eight months: coarsely mashed food, soft fruit and soft-cooked vegies
- 12 months: a little of what the rest of the family is eating, cut into small pieces.
Avoid:
- salt, sugar or caffeine
- fruit juice, cow’s milk, goat’s milk and soy milk
- nuts, honey and unpasteurised dairy products
- biscuits and sweets.
This article is an extract only. For more information visit raisingchildren.net.au/nutrition/babies_nutrition.html.
Sourced from the Raising Children Network's comprehensive and quality-assured Australian parenting website, www.raisingchildren.net.au.