44 HEALTH
All you need to know about…
weaning When to start weaning and what you should be feeding your baby – your essential weaning checklist starts here.
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When should I start weaning? You
should introduce your baby to solids somewhere between 17 and 26 weeks (six months). Before this time, your baby’s digestive system is generally not ready, and early introduction can increase the chance of obesity in later life or risk of food intolerance. You know when your baby is ready when she has good head control, is showing interest in food, starts to look for more milk feeds for a weekor more, and is able to sit up with support.
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What should I start with? First foods should be smooth vegetable purées without any lumps. Cooled boiled water, breastmilk or formula milk can be used to thin a purée and make it more familiar to the baby. Choose a time when your baby is not too hungry and introduce one new food at a time. Good foods to start off with include root vegetables like carrot and sweet potato. Leave one or two days between each new food to check for a reaction or intolerance.
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What should my baby drink? Cows’ milk is not suitable for drinking until after one year, but can be used after six months in cooking. As your baby progresses with spoon-feeds, the most suitable drink other than breastmilk or a bottle is cooled boiled tap water. Or if the tap water isn’t suitable, use bottled water that has a sodium content less than 20mg per litre, which should also be boiled and cooled. Juice is not recommended until your baby is at least six months old and then should be unsweetened, 100 per cent juice diluted down to one part juice and eight to ten parts water.
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How do I move on to the next stage? Once your baby has
reached six months old and is used to the spoon, it’s time to introduce some texture to her food. Add a little mashed or grated food to the usual purée and slowly build up the texture as she gets used to it. Your baby will also start enjoying easy finger food like banana, bread or cooked pasta. Meat should be introduced after six months as your baby’s iron reserves from birth will be depleted. By eight or nine months, most family foods are now suitable for your baby in a chunky, mashed texture, moving slowly to chopped and bite-sized pieces. Make sure baby’s foods do not have any added salt or sugar. Finger foods such as toast, melon, cheese, cooked broccoli or carrot, meatballs or rusks are great. Avoid any unpasteurised dairy products or honey, and don’t give whole nuts to babies under the age of five due to the risk of choking.
MI Aug-Sept 2014_Weaning.indd 44
Q
How much should my baby eat? Try just two or three
small spoons to start with, and build up when your baby starts to demand more. Once your baby has mastered taking food from the spoon, slot in solid meals between milk feeds, two a day to start with. Never put purées into a bottle; instead, always offer food from a spoon.
FIND OUT MORE For more weaning tips, log on to www.hse.ie or visit www.safefood.eu. Annabel Karmel has a number of excellent weaning cookbooks and guides, including the New Complete Baby & Toddler Meal Planner (€22.35 from www.eason.ie).
29/07/2014 11:27:18