Weaning schedules
By the time children get to know weaning, they will get more
and more interested in the variety of foods (normally from 6-9 months old). You
should start making plans for daily breakfast, lunch and diner for your
children. Even when they don’t feel hungry, you should maintain the schedule. You
should serve children 2-3 meals a day and add light meals (it could be weaning
cookies, crunchy snacks, fruits, whey or yogurt…) between them. To prevent
children from being thirsty, you should provide them with milk in addition.
There’re suggests of sensible weaning schedules:
Children who are 4-6 months old should have 2 food meals a
day with 2-4 teaspoons of foods each.
Children from 7-12 months old should have 3 meals a day, little
food each.
How to start a meal?
The following information is really important; moms should
take notice of it. When children eat, they will put their hands on their mouths
or throw foods. For that reason, their hands should be clean.
Start a meal with cleaning children’s hands, comfort
children and make them sit straight. You should turn off TVs and music so that
children can focus on the meal and easily feel the satiety. Above all, children
really like throwing foods, and it’s completely normal. Children do that to
make the meal interesting, so you shouldn’t be angry about it.
It’s okay if
children be a little frisky during the meal.
What should children eat?
Weaning foods play an important part in the progress of
children, so make sure that children’s meals include:
Single grain cereals (for children at around 4-6 months old):
the iron supply in mother’s uterus will decrease after the labor and be at the
lowest point by the time children are 9 months old. Grains (rice, oats) provide
children with a great amount of iron, which is why whole-grains are chosen to
be one of baby’s first feeding.
Pureed vegetable, fruits and meat: Some doctor share that if
moms feed children fruits before vegetables, they can create a long-term
interest in sweets in children; there’s no research supporting the thought yet,
though. Therefore, whether to feed children bananas before carrots is totally
up to you.
Minced or ground foods (for children at around 9-12 months
old): If children are not ready for the weaning stage, you should continue
feeding them pureed foods. When children are able to eat mince or ground foods,
you should feed them soft fruits, green vegetables and minced meat. At that
time, children can also eat rice and casseroles.
Foods children should avoid
You should take notice of foods children shouldn’t eat
during the time.
Honey can cause
poisoning to children.
·
Honey: If you let children eat honey too early, they can
experience severe poisoning.
·
Citrus fruits: You should consult doctors to know whether your
children are allergic to those fruits’ components because if they are, they can
have heat rashes.
·
Cow milk: It’d better if you keep on providing them with breast
milk or formula milk.
·
Seeds, corns, dried grapes and peanuts: you must be careful to
those foods as children can get chokes eating the foods.
The mentioned are basic things
moms should remember when weaning babies. This is one important stage of
children’s developments. It requires much of care and love. Hope your children
have good weaning.
