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When should I start feeding my baby solid foods? Are packaged baby foods as healthy as homemade? My baby keeps spitting out the food! My toddler won’t eat, and when he does he’ll only eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, is he getting enough nutrients? Solid foods can be an adventure! Babies vary in many ways, including when they are ready for solid food. Be sensitive to your baby’s behavior and you’ll know when it’s time. You’ll know if you’ve started too early when your baby spits out the solid food you try to feed her. It’s perfectly normal for your baby to reject solid foods at first. The texture and taste are new and take time to get used to. Babies have more sensitive taste buds than adults and definite opinions on what they like! It’s also normal for children to go through periods where they will only eat certain things (peanut butter and jelly, macaroni and cheese, hot dogs, etc.). Remember the three P’s: be prepared, be patient, and be persistent as you and your baby take off on the adventure of solid foods! Food safety tips Feeding infants and children is different from feeding anyone else. Taking simple precautions can ensure the safety of your child during the transition to solid foods and thereafter. The following tips will help make your job easier: Wash hands frequently—both yours and your baby’s. Doing so during food preparation helps prevent cross-contamination of foods. This is especially important when preparing meats, following each diaper change, after touching a pet or animal, and after touching soil. Transfer only the amount you think your baby will eat to a plate or bowl from the baby food container with a clean spoon. Placing the spoon into your baby’s mouth and then into the jar or dish introduces bacteria to the food that may grow and become dangerous if allowed to multiply in the refrigerator. Throw away leftover baby food in the dish or jar from which your baby has been fed. Use extra care to keep all foods you give to your baby at the proper temperatures at all times. Warming in the microwave can create hot spots in foods, which may lead to burns. Honey and syrups can be poisonous to babies because they can contain spores of Clostridium botulinum that can cause your baby to develop botulism. Symptoms may include constipation, swollen bladder, saliva pooling in the mouth, and “floppy” head, and it can lead to death. Do not feed honey to babies under 12 months of age. CHOKING CAN BE A MAJOR HAZARD TO BABIES. Begin feeding your baby with pureed foods only when he has demonstrated a good ability to swallow, and then move to “chunky” foods. Avoid hard and small pieces of food that may choke. Be particularly aware of potential choking hazards like small spherical shaped items – especially grapes, hot dog pieces, hard candies, peanuts, and popcorn. Gel candies can also cause serious injury or death, as they can become lodged in the throat and cause suffocation. Click here to review the Heimlich maneuver. To learn even more, consider attending an infant and child CPR and first aid course at your local YMCA, American Red Cross, or community center. For more information on food safety and your baby, visit our section on Food Safety (add link here!), U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition, or FoodSafety.gov. At what age should babies begin solid foods? Most infants shouldn’t begin eating solid foods until at least 4 months of age. However, every baby is different, and you should watch your baby for signs that he’s ready. If your baby is breastfed, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests that no other nutritional source be given for the first 6 months. When beginning solid foods, start with bland, soft to soupy foods like infant cereals mixed equal parts with breast milk, formula, or water. Remember that your baby is used to milk and may be hesitant at first. If your baby spits it out, he may not be ready yet, or he may still be learning to swallow. Try again in a few days to see how he responds. Introduce a variety of pureed vegetables before moving on to pureed meats. Add fruits to your baby’s diet last because the sweet taste may cause him to refuse other foods. Some tips for introducing your baby to solid foods can be found at Beechnut's consumer web site. While this is a commercial site, it offers good advice on infant feeding whether or not you choose Beechnut products. Are purchased baby foods as nutritious as homemade? Making your own baby food is easy to do! Most things that the rest of your family eats can be pureed and fed to your baby. Freezing is a good way to preserve leftover baby food when making more than your baby can eat at one sitting. Canning requires more time and additional skill. If you choose to can homemade baby food, consult these helpful canning links for safety information: the USDA Food and Nutrition Publications, Guides to Home Canning or the National Agricultural Safety Database. Use caution when feeding your baby home-canned baby food because improper canning can lead to serious illness or death. While there are lots of positive things about homemade baby food – you control the quality, you know all the ingredients, it can save money – it can be time consuming. For this reason, you may want to choose packaged baby food. The United States Food and Drug Administration regulates baby food, so it must meet stringent regulations on content, handling and packaging, and minimum vitamin and mineral content. Purchased baby foods are just as nutritious as those you can make at home and may be more nutritious when fortified. However, for our child’s optimal health, be sure to watch salt and sugar content, as these can be high in some processed foods. My toddler won’t eat, or will only eat one food--is he getting enough nutrients? The truth is that children are much better at regulating their eating than adults. Kids eat when they’re hungry and stop eating when they’re full. Encourage your child to eat nutritious foods, not only the sugary foods he craves. Don’t force your child to eat because this will teach him to ignore his inner satiety signals--those signals that tell us when our stomach is full and we should stop eating. It isn’t uncommon for children to go on “food kicks” where they’ll eat only one or a few items for a short amount of time. This isn’t dangerous in the short term. One way to deal with it is to have a variety for them to choose from. Avoid non-nutritious junk foods high in fat and sugar. Healthy snack choices like fresh fruits and vegetables are great choices. Only introduce one new food at a time. If your baby will not eat the new food at first, reintroduce the food for a few days in a row. Watch carefully for sensitivity to food including a rash, swelling, or other symptoms of allergy. Introduce cereals first, followed by meats and vegetables. Sweet fruits should be introduced later because they may cause your baby to refuse other foods. Share with your children some of your favorite healthy foods. Let them know it’s okay of they don’t like it, but it doesn’t hurt to try! When parents model good eating habits, children follow suit. Children should not be allowed to maintain an unhealthy high sugar, high fat diet because this can lead to obesity, diabetes, and nutrient deficiencies. See the Healthy Mealtimes and Snack Choices for more information on feeding your toddler. You can check the growth charts established by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at http://www.cdc.gov/growthcharts/ to see if your child is growing at the proper rate. Of course, children are very individual and growth rate is, too. However, if your child isn’t growing or is growing very slowly there could be other problems. Resources Beech-Nut Naturals Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: Botulism Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National
Center for Health Statistics: Growth Charts Feeding Infants and Toddlers Under Two Years Find a Dietitian in Your Area FoodSafety.gov Heimlich Institute National Network for Child Care (NNCC) U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for Food
Safety and Applied Nutrition U.S. Food and Drug Administration Center for
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