How to teach a child solid food

Child solid food

How to teach a child solid food: useful tips. 

Child's transition to solid food

There are several stages in the development of children, during which they begin to try certain types of "adult" dishes. We will tell you how to make a child's transition to healthy food.

  First Stage: School Starts Solid Foods

For many pediatricians, it is advisable to start with stable food for four to six months. At the moment, children are losing their tongue-pressing reflex. It is necessary to suck the breasts or drink from the feeding bottle. But the child's transition to hard food is difficult in the presence of this reflex. If the child has reached this age, he has learned to sit back with support, is interested in the food that adults eat, and most likely you will teach to teach him to eat hard food.

Second Stage: From Potato Curd to Dish

A child's transition to denser food is a long process. But during the weeks when the child is used to eating, not to drink, he gradually became familiar with solid food. Addressing the introduction of new products is not worth it. It is better to start with ground bananas or avocado. In specialty stores, you can buy ready-made meals for children, ranging from mashed potatoes to mashed potato mash and mashed potatoes with slices. To agitate complex foods, the baby does not always have teeth, he can do it with gums.

Third stage: sitting in a high chair

If a child is ready to eat hard food, that is, he can sit upright with adult support, keep his head independent, then he can sit in a high-chair. Trays and seat belts help keep it upright.

Stage 4: The ability to eat by hand

From seven to eleven months, the child tries to remove something eatable and eat it by the adult. Initially, he tries to fall off with his palm, but soon the child's transition to the so-called "tweezer clamp" begins when he takes small items, pushing them between his index fingers and thumbs. In this way, the child learns to eat independently. Many types of healthy and nutritious foods are suitable for the baby to eat by hand. The products are cut into small pieces. For example, you can cut diced chopped pasta, carrots, zucchini, soft meat.

Fifth transition to solid food: the ability to use a spoon

As soon as the child is used to feed the spoon, he starts to inquire about this cutlery, trying to grab it and put it in his mouth.

Of course, many children year after year eat food with a spoon, but younger children, if they are interested in a spoon, should be allowed to practice. The spoon should be a soft tip so that the baby can hold it when adults feed it with another spoon. So the child will learn to keep the spoon alone.

When parents realize that their child can eat without their help to get started, you can offer him sticky thick meals such as mashed potatoes, yogurt, cottage cheese, cream cheese.

Sixth Stage: Transition to highly allergic products

Sometimes pediatricians are advised to introduce very allergic products such as fish and eggs after a year. But recent research suggests that waiting for this age doesn't make sense unless the child has food, inherited the allergy.

There is currently no evidence that the introduction of highly allergic products for up to one year makes the child a food-borne allergy. Therefore, many doctors advise children to deliver these products without waiting for the year. However, shellfish and peanuts should be used with extreme caution as they cause allergic reactions that are hazardous to health.

  Step Seven: Introduction to Water Nutrition

It is believed that in the first year of life the child does not need water and he receives the required amount of food and milk from the child. Infants under six months of age cannot get water because it fills small stomachs and does not leave enough space for the nutrients needed for development and growth.

If a child is already half a year old and is interested in the water when adults drink it, you can give him some sauces. But she should never replace baby food or breast milk.

water nutrition

Eighth Stage: Ability to eat independently

Learning to use spoons and forks while eating is a long process. Many children under one year of age do not know how to do it. Adults should encourage the child to try to learn to eat himself.

Parents do their best to teach a child different skills as soon as possible. But, despite all of their pedagogical abilities, patience, and persistence, children are stubbornly refusing to take certain actions. It is particularly offensive to look at when a child does not want or cannot eat hard food. Instead of eating a piece of food, he eats porridge food. What to do with it? How to teach your child to chew?

When can I turn too hard food

He should only receive pure and homogeneous purees from the first months of child feeding. This is due to infertility in the digestive system, as well as a lack of banal teeth. For half a year, children are being pushed into a pushing reflex that saves children from heavy objects in his mouth. The introduction of additional foods in the past six months is not worth it, it simply pushes food, it can even come close to vomiting.

Over time, the baby begins to try harder pieces. This is due to the toothbrush and the desire to scrape the gums. It is very important to be careful and careful. The child has a dangerous bread or biscuit shrimp - a child can choke on a hard piece.

How to understand that a child is ready to chew hard food?

Here are some good examples.

If you notice that your child is looking at your plaque, trying to pick up pieces of it, you are interested in "adult" food.

If a child puts a spoon in the mouth and does not cause his reflex.

The little child is ready to "slice" if he does not mash the potato mash while feeding, but as if it was removed with the upper lip.

These simple signals indicate that the child is ready for solid food. Usually, pupils eat slices start at 8-9 months. Giving solid food to a child is dangerous in the past. Feeding a hard meal, which should be close, makes it impossible for the child to leave even in the next room.

There are many tips and rules that will help you teach your baby quickly and safely to eat pieces.

If a child eats meals, you should try to slowly walk away from it. After 6 months, use a blender to crush the soups and vegetables and then pour the food through the strainer thoroughly. This will allow you to avoid the presence of food. Over time, after a few months, food should not be strictly homogenized. Now, rather than in a blender, try using a double skim food using a meat grinder. When the child accustoms it, grate the food that grates - first small and then large. After a year the child can teach a lot of harder food - don't use a blender, just mix the cooking with a fork. Thus, the baby will receive small pieces that can be chewed at his age.

As long as your child is not just ready to eat fruit and vegetables, you can use a modern gadget called Nibler. It is a small net bag attached to the handle. Baby, even with all the work, won't be able to open this bag - security is guaranteed. With special manipulation, parents put pieces of fruit and vegetables in this bag and close the design tightly. This is a great device. First, the child learns to encode whole pieces of fruit through a sieve. Secondly, there are no more pieces in the mouth than this cell of the strainer, which means that the child does not get in. Thirdly, the child has a fresh product - namely, juice and microscopic pieces of fresh fruit. Usually, children love to eat their favorite dishes using Niebler.

For young children, there is a special cookie that instantly dissolves at the slightest moisture on it. This is done so that the baby does not obscure when a part of a cookie gets into the mouth. It instantly becomes soft and very easy to eat.

Puppy porridge can be given to a child without additional grinding. But buckwheat, rice, and oatmeal must be processed with a blender. Try to minimize it over time so that your child has small pieces on the plate. You can initially use it to make a compact little rice - its pieces are so small that they can be chewed with success from your child.

Begin to teach your child hard foods with very soft foods that melt when it reaches the mouth. It can be cooked carrots, bananas, pears, peaches, soft pasta. These products need to be cut into small cubes and simply placed on the plate in front of the child. He will do what he needs.

To give the child an incentive to chew, offer him the products he likes the most. It is noteworthy that the crumb with joy to eat pumpkin puree - a slice of boiled pumpkin on the plate. This will create pleasant emotions for the child related to the chewing process.

Remember that the transition to solid food should be continued gradually. After all, the baby's stomach is not ready for a sharp change in diet. Offer your baby a boiled carrot today afternoon tea, and if he likes it, offer it tomorrow. Patience and consistency are key conditions for a successful transition to solid food.

Often the child agrees to eat only food in the form of potato curd. This is particularly worrying if the child is already one and a half years old, but he will not try to change his habits.

Often the following picture is added: the child eats the banana, apple, biscuits, and bread with pleasure, but does not want soup and porridge. If it's your child's portrait, look out for the baby's teeth. Sometimes the child grows late and does not chew for a simple child. You can eat hard food with at least eight teeth.

If your child rejects a solid bit, try treating it with sticky and thick foods. It can be a gel, curd, diluted with kefir, yogurt, cream cheese. Sometimes the categorical rejection of hard food can be pedagogical. Our mothers had no problems such as being unable to teach the child healthy food. The fact is that at that time no family had a blender. That's why new mothers liked to cook cooked food. This, of course, explained the presence of small pieces in the child's feed. Modern, comfortable living conditions allow us to turn soup, porridge and other products into the smallest potato thickness per second without any solid food.

Sometimes mothers say, "Only eat, at least in some way," and continue to feed the baby with mash. Over time, the child does not recognize the pieces, his body cleans everything except pie-shaped food. In this case, you have to face the heart to spray the mixer and crush the baby's food with a fork. But only if the child does not want to eat hard pieces by the age of one and a half. And if the child refuses such food, it will not cause panic. After a few hours, the famine would force the child to take any food, all you need is patience.

In order for a baby to eat prepared pieces of food, you need to give him a variety. use vegetables and butter, do not forget about the greens. And then you will have no problem with feeding and eating hard pieces.