A lot of mothers want to go the natural way when weaning their baby. They want to prepare their own meals and that’s great. Cereals are often recommended as first foods but you don’t necessarily have to start with cereal. That said, however, store-bought unflavoured infant rice, barley and oatmeal cereals are the least allergic grains and can be trusted not to cause an allergic reaction in baby’s first foods. They are easy to make into a smooth and creamy puree when mixed with baby’s usual formula or breast milk.
Importance of Iron in Baby Food
More importantly, they are also iron fortified. Iron is a key nutrient that’s important in your child’s first solid food. It is important for optimum growth and development. Without it, your child may be at risk of iron deficiency anaemia.
A Malaysian pediatrician says babies need lots of iron to support their growth and transformation of “fetal” blood to adult form. He says anaemia in babies in this age group is often caused by their lack of iron supplementation in their diet. The anaemia may cause a slowing of their growth spurt. And this is why most cereals are iron fortified.
Key Nutrients for Baby’s First Foods
Of course, baby requires more than just iron. If mum wants to cook and prepare baby’s food, here are common every day local foods that are a wonderful source of key nutrients for baby.
IRON
- Red meat (beef, lamb, mutton)
- Eggs
- Chicken
- Ikan bilis (anchovies)
- Dark leafy green vegetables such as spinach, kangkung, bittergourd, fern shoots
- Whole grains
- Iron-fortified cereals
- Chickpeas
CALCIUM
- Ikan bilis
- Tofu
- Legumes
- Tempeh
- Spinach
- Broccoli
- Kai Lan
- Dairy products (milk, cheese, yogurt)
VITAMIN A
- Eggs
- Dairy products
- Deep orange and yellow fruit and vegetables such as carrots, pumpkin, mangoes, papaya,
- Sweet potato
VITAMIN D
- Eggs
- Dairy products
- Sardines
- Tuna
- Cod fish
- Salmon
PROTEIN
- Red meat, poultry and fish
- Beans
- Lentils
- Nuts
What Foods to Give to Start Weaning?
It is always good to start cautiously and begin with single foods.
According to Weaning Diet & Dental Health ─ PORTAL MyHEALTH, Ministry of Health, Malaysia, after trying one by one to check for allergic reactions, you can then work your way to introducing a wide variety of foods.
Their suggested first foods include:
- Mashed/ puréed fruit – ripe banana, apple/pear (stewed), papaya
- Well-mashed cooked vegetables – either stewing of steaming method (potato, carrot, pumpkin, sweet potato, cauliflower etc)
- Cereal or baby rice mixed with your baby’s usual milk (breast or formula milk), at the right consistency
What Foods Should be Avoided?
The Weaning Diet & Dental Health, MOH guidelines say there are certain foods to be avoided as baby is being weaned.
- Avoid adding sugar or honey or other sweeteners to your home-made weaning food. Naturally occurring sugars are already found in milk, fruits and vegetables. Too much sugar can lead to dental problem such as tooth decay as baby gets his first teeth.
- Never add salt, soya sauce or flavouring to your baby’s food as it is not good for your baby’s kidney. Salt should be limited to less than 1 gram per day for babies under one year old.
- Avoid giving foods containing gluten, eggs, fish, shellfish, liver, nuts and seeds, low fat foods and wholemeal foods to a baby under six months of age.
Additional Weaning Tips
1. Start with Small Servings
Baby’s stomach is small at six months of age ─ it’s only about the size of his clenched fist. He can only eat a few babyspoonfuls at a time. His first meal will only be in the amounts of one or two ice-cubefuls.
2. Introduce New Textures Slowly
Baby’s first foods should be watery purees and very diluted. As he gets used to eating, moving his tongue around and swallowing, you can decrease the water content until it reaches a thicker constituency. Baby can only manage finely chopped foods or coarser textures at about eight months onwards. Of course, there is no hard and fast rule to this as each baby is different and may take a longer or shorter time to get used to new textures.
3. Be Mindful of Food Safety
Always practise good hygiene when preparing baby’s food to avoid contamination, food poisoning and unnecessary gastro-intestinal problems to baby afterwards.
For more weaning stories, go to Motherhood.com.my