Introducing food to your infant – What I learnt from my experience

Weaning, is a process of introducing your baby to the world of outside food… here come in a lot of questions, And the first one being – what to begin with? what do I introduce first? How much is the right quantity ? How do I track allergies?

The weaning process for my babies started when they turned 6 months old after being exclusively breastfed. 6 months is generally when outside food is introduced to the babies.

Always check with your pediatrician before you start introducing outside food to the baby, as he/she knows the best, considering your baby’s health history.

Here are a few quick tips for the mother who is planning to introduce outside food:

• Begin with simple liquids
  • Fruit Juice
  • Moong Dal water
• Their stomach is really tiny and a few spoons to begin with is sufficient
• Whatever you plan to introduce, do so in the first half of the day, reason being, you give enough time to your baby during the day to track any reaction/ allergy. Avoid anything new in the evening ,should there be a reaction, the nights can be difficult
• Whatever you start with, continue the same preparation for 3-4 days, this helps your baby to settle with that preparation well
• When you introduce the next option, replace the earlier preparation with the new preparation. Once the baby is comfortable with what has been introduced earlier, the same dish can be give in the second half too
• Keep their vessels,strainer, spoons etc separate to avoid being mixed with the other regular utensils
• Avoid adding any sugar in any of the food before they turn 1.
• Tiny quantity of salt,  turmeric and hing is sufficient to add some taste to the preparation in the beginning
• So begin with only liquids and then gradually introduce varieties. Only moongdal water can be mixed with rice and dal water and then gradually thickening the consistency
• Fruit juices can be altered
• Soups, especially pumpkin is extremely good for your baby’s stomach
• Introduce boiled water, few spoons to begin with to help them digest their food

Most important, take it easy and go slow in introducing new preparations. give you baby the time to adapt.

Also, your pediatrician is someone you can always rely on for smallest of doubts considering they know the background well. I will be happy to answer any queries, so feel free to connect.

Happy Weaning!

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