Weaning
For many parents weaning a baby can be a very challenging and stressful task. This is the process where the baby is moved away from formula milk or breastfeeding and moved onto solid foods. Introducing your baby to solid foods and weaning him or her off breast or bottle milk isn’t always easy, and parents should seek advice from their doctor or health visitor if they are finding it difficult to wean or are experiencing real difficulties. There are some pointers that can help you to introduce your baby to a diet of solid foods, and this includes:
- Wait until the infant is six months of age before you start to introduce solids into his or her diet. A baby that is younger than this will not be able to properly digest the food and needs to remain exclusively on breast milk or bottle formula.
- Look out for the symptoms of when your baby is ready to be weaned, as in many cases looking out for certain signs can indicate that your baby is ready to go through the weaning process. This includes a change where the baby wakes up wanting a feed in the night whereas he or she used to sleep right through.
- Many professionals in the field suggest that you should start off with something simple such as baby rice in order to start the weaning process. However, remember to make this with breast of formula milk and not with cow’s milk due to the difficulties your baby may have in digesting this.
- Use fruit and vegetables as early weaning foods. These are not only rich in nutrients and vitamins, but will help your baby to develop a taste for these types of foods, which will add to a healthy diet later in life. Puree the fruit or vegetables to make it easy to digest, and remember that if you are using vegetables that you are also using to cook a family meal you should avoid putting salt or preservatives in the cooking.
- From around six to nine months you can also look at introducing meat and fish to your baby’s diet in pureed form, as well as some dairy products such as cheese and hard boiled eggs.
- Your doctor or health visitors can also provide valuable advice on weaning your baby, so don’t be afraid to approach the professionals and ask them if you need advice on how to wean your baby or what sort of foods to introduce to his or her diet.