At 1 year, your baby is learning to eat his/herself. At this stage, solid foods are his/her main source of nutrients and energy. Therefore, your baby can eat what you can eat, and it’s an important task for parents to find a suitable and healthy diet for their baby.
The menu of babies of this age may look a lot different compared to early age, but they can still benefit from sticking with a healthy eating schedule and diet. Here are some baby feeding tips for you.
- How Much Should I Feed?
You can feed your baby three to four times a day, and schedule two to three healthy snacks between meals with eating opportunities spaced about two to three hours apart. But remember, all babies are different, some like to eat less and more often, and others may go longer between feedings.
Try to notice your baby’s hunger cues before he/she start crying, which is a late sign of hunger and would make the feeding harder. Licking lips, sticking tongue out and fussiness are some typical signs of hunger.
Children have little tummies, thus, it’s normal that your baby eat less or skip meals sometimes. Allow your baby to respond to his/her own feeling of hunger o fullness and watch for the signs. Stop feeding when your baby closes the mouth or turns his/her head away from foods, these may be the signs that your baby is full.
- What Foods Should I Feed or Avoid?
It’s important to provide foods that are rich in the nutrients babies need to grow.
Iron is one of the minerals that baby’s body needs for growth and development. Make sure your baby gets enough iron-rich foods in the diet, like meat, fish and beans. Provide healthy snakes for your baby, such as fresh fruit. Avoid high-sodium foods and empty calories that can’t provide any nutritional benefits for your baby. Don’t give your baby junk foods, soft drinks or flavored milks.
Food preferences are set early in baby’s life, help your baby develop a healthy food taste as early as possible.
- What to Do When My Baby Refuses Solid Foods?
Although breastfeeding still has some benefits for babies this age, but do it only after meal, because they should eat solid food first.
Give your baby the healthy foods that he/she like or try to mix the food your baby likes with what he/she doesn’t like. Different food combinations may sometimes. If your baby still refuse to eat, don’t force him/her or give your baby junk food. You should stay calm, just take foods away and offer it to your baby again later. Give your baby a positive react when your baby do eat.
- Other Feeding Tips
If your baby is just start to eat solid foods, feed him/her only one new food each time and wait 3 to 5 days to see if your baby has any reaction, like rash, diarrhea or vomiting.
Giving your baby his/her own bowl will help your baby learn to eat him/herself. First with their fingers and then at around 15-19 months of age, your baby will explore to eat with utensils. Give your baby chances to practice this skill and give him/her a hand when your baby have trouble in it.
At first, your baby will eat slowly and messily, give him/her encouragement and lots of love during meal time will be the right choice. Sit in front of your baby and interact with him/her through eye contact, smiling or talking. Praising them for eating will help to build your baby’s confidence.
Children like to assert their independence, the table is one of the places you can give your baby some sense of control. Provide your baby a variety of healthy and nutritive foods and plenty of time to eat, let him/her decide which to eat and how much he/she eat.
Feeding a baby isn’t an easy task, be patience to your baby and make mealtime a happy time!