Articles and Advice: Your Baby 6-12 Months

Here are the topics we'll cover in this article:

• When to start
• Tips on feeding your baby solid foods
• How much is enough?
• Avoid getting frustrated
• Feeding don'ts
• Finger foods

When to start

Your baby's doctor, nurse, or nutritionist will advise you about when you should begin offering infant cereals and strained baby foods and which foods to introduce, according to the individual needs of your baby. Solid foods provide energy, nutrients, and a variety of new tastes and textures for a baby. They set the stage for the change to adult table food.

Solid foods are not nutritionally necessary in the early months of life. The Canadian Paediatric Society Committee on Nutrition recommends beginning to offer solid foods at 6 months of age.

Babies should not be encouraged to eat beyond their needs. Some parents or other caregivers might be tempted to insist that babies finish the last drop in the bottle or the last spoonful of food from a dish, which may lead to overfeeding.

Don't put anything in a bottle except breast milk or formula. You may have heard that mixing a bit of rice cereal in your baby's bottle will help him sleep through the night. Research has shown that this does not make a difference in how long or how well a baby sleeps. Babies usually begin sleeping for longer periods when they are developmentally ready and able to fall back asleep on their own.

Tips on feeding your baby solid foods

Most babies begin eating solid foods, starting with iron-fortified infant cereals, at 6 months. It's best to start only one new food at a time in case the baby has an allergic reaction. The cereals are usually introduced first and are followed by strained fruits and vegetables—then meat, slowly introduced over the next few months.

Some general guidelines for introducing solid foods are outlined below. As with any feeding decision, it is best to check with your baby's doctor or nurse for specific recommendations.

• Between 6 and 9 months, consider introducing an iron-fortified infant cereal.
• Between 6 and 9 months, you may start puréed cooked vegetables and puréed cooked fruits.
• Between 6 and 9 months, offer puréed cooked meat, fish, chicken and egg yolk. At 9 to 12 months, mince or dice these foods; you may also offer rice and pasta.

Through all this, your own milk or infant formula continues to be your baby's most important nutritional source. However, as your baby gets older and begins to eat more and more solid foods, his intake of breast milk or formula should decrease until the majority of his nutrition comes from solid foods.

As babies make the transition to solid foods, it can be tough to ensure they're getting the nutrition they really need.

Watch for these developmental signs, which indicate a baby's readiness to begin eating solid foods. Your baby:

Here are some more helpful tips

• Talk to your baby's health care professional about appropriate weight gain for your baby and how to achieve it.
• Feed solid foods from a spoon. Spoon feeding helps your baby get used to sitting up, taking mouthfuls from a spoon, resting between bites, and stopping when full.
  Increase the size of the spoonfuls very gradually, until your baby gets the idea.
• Feeding cereal: At first, make the consistency of the cereal very thin so it's easy to swallow. Try mixing three tablespoons of liquid with one tablespoon of cereal. Once he gets used to the texture of solid food, make the cereal thicker by adding less liquid. This thin-to-thick approach will help prepare him for the introduction of more solid foods over time.
• Begin by feeding small amounts—one or two teaspoons of cereal at a feeding—and slowly increase to four tablespoons.
• Try to be flexible when it comes to feeding times since there's really no right or wrong time to offer cereal. You may discover that the best feeding time is when your baby is hungriest or bored, or when you are most relaxed and don't feel pressured.
• Don't worry if he won't finish the cereal. The breast milk or formula you also feed him will provide the calories and nutrients your baby needs.
• Reinforce your baby's new skill. Talk to him during mealtime: "Mmmm, see how good this is?" Introducing new foods
• Introduce one new food at a time and wait several days before introducing another. This step-by-step approach helps you identify the cause of a food reaction if one develops and lets your baby learn to enjoy each new flavor and texture.
• Similac Step 2 or Isomil Step 2 can help you bridge the nutritional gaps and be sure that you are providing a source of complete nutrition for your baby.
• Definitely don't feed cow's milk until after your baby reaches 9-12 months.
• If juice is given it should be limited to a total of 4-6 oz/day, and only after baby’s first six months.
• Hotdogs, nuts, grapes, raisins, raw carrots, popcorn, and rounded candies should be avoided in children less than 4 years of age.
• In the first year, foods should be sufficiently mashed or pureed so that they can be swallowed without risk of choking.

The steps of feeding baby solids

1. Put only the amount of solid food you plan to give into a bowl or warming dish instead of feeding baby right from the jar.
2. Place the dish of food into a pan of hot water or warming dish to warm. Use caution when heating food in a microwave—do not heat in the jar. After heating, stir well. Whichever method of heating is used, always check the food temperature before feeding your baby.
3. When feeding your baby, sit in a comfortable position and hold your baby in the curve of your arm. Keep baby's head and back raised to prevent choking. A high chair may be used when your baby can sit upright. Always secure baby safely in the high chair.
4. Put a small amount of food on the tip of the spoon. Let your baby taste it.
5. If your baby spits it out, place the food midway back on his tongue and let him swallow it.
6. Have patience and let him learn how to swallow. Feed him slowly, allowing plenty of time to swallow the food between bites. Remember, feeding will take time and be messy for a while.
7. If your baby resists taking the food, do not force him. Stop and try again the next day. Or, if your baby is extremely hungry, try to give part of his breastfeeding or formula first and then offer the baby food.

How much is enough?

In the first few months of eating solid foods, how much your baby eats is not as important as the experience of eating. When your baby first starts eating solid foods, she should still be getting the majority of her nutrition from breast milk or an iron-fortified infant formula. She may only eat one or two teaspoons of solid food at a meal.

Later, when she has a little more experience with solid foods, she may eat three or four tablespoons at a meal. Even then, the majority of her nutrition will come from breast milk or infant formula.

As babies make the transition to solid foods, it can be tough to ensure they're getting the nutrition they really need. American research has shown that about half of babies between the ages of 1 and 2 years are not getting the Recommended Dietary Allowance of iron and calcium.1 When you supplement solid foods with Similac Step 2 or Isomil Step 2, you can help bridge the nutritional gaps and be sure you're providing a source of complete nutrition for your baby.

Avoid getting frustrated

Just about every developmental stage has its joys and frustrations. These tips can help feeding time go more smoothly:

• Use a baby-sized spoon.
• Keep plenty of easy-to-wash bibs handy.
• Hold your baby in your lap like you do when breastfeeding or bottle feeding, except a little more upright.
• Place a little bit of food on the tip of the spoon, and gently place it on the middle of her tongue. Be patient and try again if she rejects the food.
• If she rejects the solid food, try offering your milk or formula beforehand to help her adjust to the new feeding.

Feeding don'ts and allergies

• Don't add sugar or salt to your baby's food.
• Don't give your baby honey during the first year. It may contain bacteria that can cause a very serious illness called infant botulism.
• Never put your baby to bed with a bottle. He could choke. What's more, after teeth come in, using a bottle during sleep can cause "nursing caries"—unsightly decay of baby teeth that may interfere with later dental development. This can also lead to ear infections.
• Don't put anything in a bottle except breast milk or formula. At about 7 months, try offering your baby a sippy cup of juice, formula, water or breast milk.
• Don't feed cow's milk until after your baby reaches 9-12 months of age..
• Remember that now is the time to teach good eating habits that will carry into later life. Your baby will tell you when he's had enough. Do not encourage him to eat more than he wants to.
• By the ninth or tenth month, diarrhea, a skin rash, or persistent vomiting that follows the introduction of a new food can mean your baby is allergic to that food. Don't offer the food again until you talk to your baby's health care professional.

Finger foods and choking

By the ninth month, a baby has usually mastered the pincer grip—how to hold finger foods and other objects between the thumb and index finger. To help your baby develop coordination skills and promote independence, choose finger foods that can easily dissolve in his mouth without a lot of chewing or gumming.

Good examples of starting finger food include crunchy toast, well-cooked pasta, cereals, crackers, small chunks of banana, cooked and tender vegetables, and soft, cooked chicken. Avoid hard, round foods such as nuts, grapes, hot dogs, and pieces of raw carrot, which can easily cause choking.

Most parents worry about their baby choking during the early days of finger feeding. The foods most likely to cause problems are those that are slippery or round. To be on the safe side, stay away from the following foods for now:

• Nuts
• Globs of peanut butter
• Pieces of raw carrot, grapes, popcorn, or nuts
• Hotdogs—if you'd really like to offer this popular food, cut one lengthwise and then into smaller pieces.

Reference:
1. USDA: Food and Nutrient Intakes by Children, 1994-1996 & 1998, Table Set 17. (Numbers have been rounded.) Based on 1989 RDA levels. Back to Top