Here - Health Promotion Agency

sensible for adults, but not for babies,
who need energy for growth.
Don’t encourage a sweet tooth by
giving biscuits and cakes – they will
fill your baby up without providing
the right nutrients.
Your baby should be having a
good mixed diet by now with
probably three or four meals a day.
• Your baby’s diet should contain:
- starchy foods at each meal – these
are potatoes, rice, pasta, bread and
plantain;
- fruit or vegetables at each meal
– use some as finger foods.
Give your baby a wide range as
this is the ideal age for babies to
learn to like lots of different
tastes;
- one or two servings of meat,
fish, eggs or pulses a day.
•
Start to offer two courses at each
meal:
- Give a savoury course of a starchy
food, meat, fish or pulses, and
some vegetables as the first course.
- Give fruit or a milk pudding, or
both, as the second course.
•
As you introduce a milk-based
pudding such as yoghurt or rice
pudding as the second course, you
may find your baby no longer needs
the milk feed after the meal.
•
Remember, red meat (pork, beef
and lamb) is an excellent source
of iron. Serving meat and
vegetables together rather than
at separate meals helps to absorb
iron.
•
If you have decided not to give
your baby meat or fish, make sure
that you give two servings a day
of split pulses (red lentils, split
peas, chick peas), tofu, etc. The
vitamin C in fruit and vegetables
helps to absorb iron so give fruit
and vegetables at mealtimes.
•
Offer a variety of foods. Why not
go back to the foods that your baby
didn’t like earlier and try them
again?
• If you or your family have a
history of hay fever, eczema,
asthma or other allergies, see
page 69 for important
information.
USING CUPS RATHER THAN
BOTTLES
Offer some water from a cup with
meals.
Continue to breastfeed or give at
least 500-600ml (16-20fl oz) of
infant formula as your baby’s main
drink until your baby is one year
old. They contain important
nutrients.
You can go on breastfeeding
your baby alongside giving solid
food for as long as you want to. If
both you and your baby enjoy it,
there’s no reason to stop. A
bedtime breastfeed can make a
good end to the day.
As you cut out breastfeeds, you
can use a cup rather than a bottle.
If you use a bottle or trainer cup,
don’t put anything in it other than
formula or breast milk or water.
Comfort sucking on sweetened
drinks is the major cause of painful
tooth decay in young children.
It’s a good idea anyway to wean
from a bottle by the end of the first
year as bottle-sucking can become
a habit that is hard to break.
Try cutting out a bottle feed at
one meal in the day and using a
cup instead.
Feeding your child
71