The Complete 1st Year Nutrition Guide For Your Kid

According to experts, breastmilk gives newborns all the essential nutrition they need up to the age of six months. But don’t worry. In your baby’s first year, there are several nutritious meals you can introduce to the little one’s diet apart from breastmilk and formula (if advised by your prediatrician) to be rest assured of your child’s healthy development.

Till six months of age, you should exclusively breastfeed your child. When your newborn is past the six month mark, you can begin feeding them single-grain cereals mixed with breastmilk, baby formula or water. Fortified cereals supplement your baby with iron. The little one is born with a natural reserve of iron but it begins to deplete post six months of age.

At six to eight months, your baby can begin tasting the wonders of pureed or strained fresh fruits and vegetables. Start with different individual flavors and wait a few days before introducing a new flavor to check for any allergies. As your baby gets more comfortable with swallowing the purees, you can introduce different mixes of fruits and vegetables to see what flavors they enjoy.

At eight to ten months, you can introduce cooked and mashed fruits and vegetables to your little one’s diet. It’s a good time to give your bundle of joy small amounts of dahi mixed with sugar. Make sure you’ve mixed the sugar into the dahi well enough that there are no crystals in sight. Eggs, scrambled or hard-boiled and cut into tiny little pieces, is another addition to your baby’s menu during this time.

By the time your little one is ten to twelve months old, they can eat most of the foods that adults eat albeit they are cut up and mashed properly making it safe for them to chew and comfortable for them to swallow. It’s recommended to avoid whole cow’s milk and honey until at least one year of age.

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