That's what my son's doctor as well as the nurse at "Tipat Halav" told me when we came to her for Eitan's 6 month check-up and immunization. "Just mash up with your fingers whatever you are eating and give it to him" Tipat Halav is a center that is operated by the healthcare system in Israel and open at no costs to all citizens. Starting during pregnancy and following through with the child until age 3, the center provides guidance, to parents and soon-to-be parents about their and their child's growth, health as well as providing immunizations according to the schedule set forth by the Ministry of Health.
At 6 months, we arrived at the center for a check-up with the nurse as well as for Eitan's immunizations. The nurse encouraged us to start feeding Eitan solid foods starting with tiny tastes of one food at a time and working up gradually to replacing a bottle when he was eating about 10-12 spoons of food. She encouraged us to give him the foods that I was eating. In her own words "just mash up a bit of whatever is on your plate and give it to him". To me this seemed very natural on the one hand but on the other hand I knew that there were many parents that feed their babies specially made purees for the first few months of feeding. Also, I was concerned about the spices and salt I was adding to my food and whether it was healthy for my baby to eat it.
This type of feeding, of giving him whatever you are eating is called "baby led weaning". In Israel most families decide to go by this approach at least partly when starting solids. For us, it was more about taking a relaxed approach to feeding and getting him used to the flavors and textures of the foods we enjoy as early as possible. There are many other benefits to taking the baby led feeding route.
Today I wanted to share with you what a day in food looked like for us between 6 months to 12 months. Every family and every baby is different but as a mom I find it helpful to hear other parents' experiences. Everyone has different beliefs and comfort levels regarding baby led feeding, this is just what worked for us. It is also important to pay attention to how your child has developed. Can he/she sit upright? Does he/she show interest in the food? Good head and neck control? Just remember, that this is most likely how your parents or grandparents were brought up. Without fancy equipment to make purees at home or the widespread availability of jars and pouches, they ate whatever the rest of the family was eating, with just a few simple alterations.
I also want to point out that although, the advice I got from the nurse was to simply mash up whatever I was eating, I did make some changes in the way I cooked as well as prepare a few things especially for Eitan. I read up on the topic of baby nutrition and baby led feeding/weaning and came up with the approach that would work best for me and my family. I encourage you to do the same! The only book I bought when Eitan was 6 months old was "Baby-Led Feeding" by Jenna Helwig but I also recently purchased "Born to Eat" by Leslie Schilling and Wendy Peterson which also closely aligns with my beliefs and is a great resource. Many of my recipes are inspired by the those in the book by Jenna Helwig and the book really gave me confidence to encourage self feeding by Eitan.
When starting solids, offer the food about an hour after a milk feed so that your baby is not super hungry and getting frustrated that he cannot get satisfied and also so that it does not replace the milk.
Until age 1, food should not fully replace milk though he may start to reduce the amount of milk. For breast fed babies, this may not be so apparent since breastfeeding also has an element of comfort. The food before age 1 is more for learning and exploring the different tastes and textures as well as learning to self feed and reducing the likelihood for allergies. Though of course it is important for the food to be nutritious. Don't get too caught up with the amount your child is eating. Most importantly, food should be FUN until age one and beyond. I believe we are born with an innate ability to nourish ourselves. It starts the moment a baby is born pecking towards the breast and continuing into toddlerhood. By putting too much pressure on feeding time, we diminish the baby's innate tendency.
So now on to our meal plan month by month. Hope it's helpful!
5 months - Most babies actually get the o.k. from their doctor to start tiny tastes of solids at 4 or 5 months. We started at around 5.5 months giving Eitan mashed banana, yogurt, potato, and avocado. I liked using this handy little food feeder by kidsme. To me it seemed perfect because it was like he was self feeding but without the risk of choking. Also, Eitan loved chewing on the pacifier-like feeder.
6 months - Continued pretty much the same way just adding a new food every few days, 1-2 times a day and about an hour after a breastfeeding session. We started to include rice, steamed or baked sweet potato, steamed carrots, broccoli, baked apples and pears, and toast with mashed blueberries or cream cheese.
7 months - At 7 months Eitan started day care so his days were a little more structured in terms of milk and food:
Breakfast - breastfeed, solids at day care - fruit and grain puree, sometimes a bottle (not baby-led at daycare). On the weekends I often made him these simple banana pancakes.
Lunch - Some solids at day care + bottle
Afternoon - Bottle
Dinner - Vegetable puree, softened carrot sticks (steamed or boiled), yogurt with banana, avocado, baked oatmeal, quiche. Sometimes I would mash up the food a little bit more using this handy tool from Nuk.
Before Bed - breastfeed
8-9 months - Started to give mashed up versions of whatever I was eating. If the food is soft enough to mash between your thumb and forefinger you can be sure they will be able to handle it. When I offered a puree I gave him a spoon and let him pretty much self feed by the handful but still fed him a spoon here and there if he showed interest. I know it's messy, but studies show that promoting self feeding from the start is extremely important in development.
Breakfast - breastfeed, solids at day care - fruit and grain puree, maybe some scrambled eggs and soft bread towards 9 months.
Lunch - Solids at day care usually a meat based meal either Bolognese or ground chicken and rice. I can't necessarily say I agree with the solids at day care but it is what it is.
After-nap - Bottle at day care
Dinner - Yogurt with fruit puree, a rice cracker, steamed broccoli, rice, roasted red peppers, grated apples/pears, baked apples and pears, Clementine in a food feeder like the one linked above.
Before Bed - breastfeed
10-12 months - This is when it starts to really get fun. At around 10 months is when I really started to sit down with Eitan for full meals which made for a fun learning experience for both of us. He got to watch us and explore his food while we ate in (relative) peace. Close to
12 months is when I completely stopped preparing anything special for him and just made some variations to my own food to make it more suitable for him. For example, ensuring vegetables are cooked enough to make them soft and reducing the sugar.
Breakfast - breastfeed, solids at day care - eggs, toast, cut up vegetables. On the weekends I also gave him these banana pancakes or whole wheat pancakes.
Lunch - Solids at day care - pretty much the same as previous months but probably more :-)
After nap - bottle
Pick-up - Snack such as teether cracker, fruit puree, yogurt, snack cake
Dinner - rice, pasta, chicken, fish (make sure there are no bones) , quiche - literally whatever I was having. Baked potato and sweet potato were also good options because they are really soft yet can still be picked up.
Before bed - breastfeed
There is so much more I could talk about in feeding my son from 6-12 months and of course beyond 1 year.
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