Weaning: What food does my baby need?
Here at Bump to Baby we often get asked, what foods should I be feeding my weaning baby? So here, Specialist Pediatric Dietician Raphaella from Latch to Ladle offers advice on the variety of foods to offer to your weaning baby.
What foods should I be feeding my weaning baby?
“Some days little ones will eat lots and have great variety and other days they won’t and that’s absolutely fine.”
Generally speaking, we would expect to see babies being offered combinations of flavours/ textures of food and having three small meals per day by the 8-9 month mark. That being said all babies are unique. Some may race up to three meals per day and others may take a little longer. By the age of 9 months, we would be wanting little ones to have a variety of the following foods groups:
| Food Group | Foods Included | Main Nutrients | Infants 9-12 months |
| Starchy Carbohydrates | Bread, cereals, couscous, pasta, rice, potatoes, pizza bases, pancakes, buns | Carbohydrate, B vitamins, fibre, iron, zinc and calcium | Increase to 3-4 servings per day. Note: For babies and toddlers we recommend white versions of food rather than wholemeal/ wholegrain because they can have too much fibre resulting in constipation/ diarrhoea. No need to opt for ‘baby’ versions of cereals/ porridge just go for the standard adult versions. |
| Fruit and Vegetables | Fresh, tinned, frozen and dried fruits and vegetables | Vitamin C, fibre, carotenes | 3-4 servings per day Note: Babies are often fruit monsters! This is because fruit is sweet and relatively easy to eat! Where possible until school age we would suggest offering 2 fruit portions and 2 veg portions per day as too much fibre will affect digestion and can make babies quite uncomfortable. |
| Milk, cheese and yoghurt | Breast milk, formula milk, cow’s milk, yoghurt, cheese, calcium enriched soya/ oat products | Calcium, protein, iodine, riboflavin | Demand breastfeeding or infant formula (500-600mls/day) and portion of yoghurt and cheese. Note: From 6 months you can use ordinary full fat cow’s milk in cooking/ with cereal and can be used as the main milk drink from the age of 12 months. |
| Meat, fish and alternatives | Meat, fish, eggs, pulses, dhal, nuts, seeds | Iron, protein, zinc, magnesium, B vitamins, Vitamin D, Omega 3 (Oily fish) | 1-3 servings per day. Note: Omega 3 can be tricky to fit in but so important to try and offer at least 1 portion of oily fish per week to help support brain and eye development. If you are following a vegan diet the only way to get Omega 3 in is supplementing using Omega 3 DHA Drops. |
| Foods high in fat/ sugar | Cooking oils, mayonnaise, chocolate, confectionary, crisps | Some foods provide Vitamin D | Over 12 months, in addition to but not instead of other food groups. Note: There will always be times when little ones want to have sweet foods. That’s very normal but we advised to try and keep these to a minimum to at least 12 months of age. |
What about Vitamins?
Vitamin D
- All babies from birth to 1 year of age who are being breastfed need to have a daily Vitamin D supplement
- All babies who are having infant formula do not require Vitamin D supplement if they are having more than 500mls formula per day
- Children aged 1 to 4 years should have a daily supplement containing 10µg of vitamin D
Vitamins A & C
- Vitamin supplements containing vitamins A and C are recommended for babies and children aged 6 months to 5 years old, unless they’re getting more than 500ml (about a pint) of infant formula a day
Anything else?
Some days little ones will eat lots and have great variety and other days they won’t and that’s absolutely fine. Try looking at food patterns/ behaviours over the course of a week and look for an average amount of what they have eaten.
How is weaning going for you and your baby? Let us know with a comment!
So you want to feel ready & confident for life with a baby, but you don’t know how to sieve through the duff advice from relatives and online. You want to prepare yourself for any challenges you may face but you’re not sure what questions to even ask. Check out The Baby Chapter Online Post Natal Course!
