Babies: Nutrition
Breastmilk or formula offers all the nutrition a baby needs until she is six months. By about that age, she’s ready for her first spoonful of solids.
Feeding up to six months
Breastfeeding is great for your baby. According to health experts, breastmilk is all your baby needs until she is six months old. It is worth making every effort to breastfeed, and most problems can be overcome with information and support. However, for some mothers, issues such as mastitis make it difficult to continue breastfeeding. If you can't breastfeed, feeding your baby formula from a bottle is the next best thing. Cow’s milk, goat’s milk and soy milk are not suitable for children under 12 months – they don't have all the nutritious elements a baby needs to grow and thrive.
If you have to go back to work you can continue breastfeeding, but plan to slowly start introducing your baby to a bottle or cup before you start back. There are options for whether you express and refrigerate or freeze your milk, or whether you partially wean.
For more information about breastfeeding, bottlefeeding and nutrition (yours and your baby’s), see the Newborns Nutrition and Babies Nutrition sections on the Raising Children website.
Introducing solids
You can start slowly introducing her to solids at around six months. It's wise to introduce foods one at a time (this can help identify food allergies or intolerances) starting with a little bit of very milky baby cereal (mixed with breastmilk or formula).
Here's a quick guide to what foods you can introduce and when:
- Six months: 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 The Raising Children website's homemade baby foods guide for how to make your own.
- Seven months: You can try introducing some lumpier food and broaden the variety offered.
- Eight months: Time for a bit more coarsely mashed food, like minced meat, chicken, rice. You can also introduce finger foods such as soft fruit, soft-cooked vegies and toast, also grated (pasteurised) cheese and yoghurt.
- 12 months: By this age, you can cut up in small pieces a little of what the rest of the family is eating so you can share the same meals.
All babies are different and this time frame is just a guide. If a food gets knocked bach one week, try it again next week. Babies can be offered a new food many times before deciding to try it. There's no point trying to force a child to eat anything. Avoiding fussing or worrying is the best way to establish good habits and avoid later problems.
Food and milk schedule from six months
Once baby is eating well, you can start a meal schedule. Your schedule may 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) |
Fussy eaters
A fussy eater can cause all sorts of angst for worried parents. Fighting over food with babies can lead to eating problems later. As a parent, you are responsible for offering a variety of healthy food; your baby decides how much of it to eat.
Foods to avoid
- 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 her developing teeth.
- Honey and unpasteurised dairy products may contain dangerous bacteria and are unsuitable for babies under one year.
- Cow’s milk, goat’s milk and soy milk are not suitable for children under 12 months - they need the nutrition from breastmilk or formula.
- Biscuits and sweets. If you can avoid the temptation to give your child biscuits and lollies (at least until she is two), you can congratulate yourself and may be rewarded with fewer mealtime battles.
Microwaving tip. Try to avoid microwaving milk and food in plastic bottles or bowls, unless they are specifically marked as ‘microwave safe’. When you microwave pureed food, be sure to stir and heat further – microwaves make ‘hot spots’ which could burn your baby and ‘cold spots’ where bacteria may have survived. Stirring can overcome this.
Glossary:
Mastitis: Inflammation of the breast due to infection.
