A new mom or a pregnant woman has a lot of questions and concerns about her baby’s health and wants to take the best possible steps that may help her child’s mental and physical growth. One of the major concerns of a parent is regarding the baby’s diet and what the baby eat before age one. Parents need to start new foods in the baby’s diet before one, as breast milk or formula can no longer provide all the nutrition required by your little one.
Introducing solid foods in the baby’s diet may be a great milestone for the family and helps the baby to adapt to a new world of flavors, though bringing this change may be a hard thing to achieve as the baby’s taste buds are a little sensitive. Before introducing the new diet, parents should be well aware of when and what they should feed their baby, and this can be very tricky.
Are you a new mom struggling to find the answers to all of these questions? Are you looking for different ideas to add new foods to your baby’s diet before their first birthday? If yes, then there is no need to worry because in this article we will answer all of your questions.
The idea behind this goal of introducing foods to your child’s diet before turning one is to feed your baby a variety of foods that have different textures and flavors to get your baby used to them. Furthermore, introducing solid foods to your baby before one helps in developing motor skills, which is very important. Most babies may only eat 10 to 15 foods before 1. Baby-led feeding is a way of introducing solid foods to your baby.
What Is 100 Foods Before 1
Some parents have a goal of introducing their child to 100 different types of food before they turn one. This is famously known as “100 Foods Before 1”. The idea behind this is to help the baby adapt to different textures and flavors.
One way to do this is through baby-led weaning or BLW. This is a practice in which babies are introduced to solid foods or finger foods immediately without first introducing them to mashed-up foods and purees.
This allows your little ones to self-feed themselves the nutritious foods they like the most. Moreover, baby-led weaning also helps in developing motor skills in the growing child as the baby learns to chew solid food.
A baby should start solids at around six months of age for better mental and physical growth. But before doing so, parents should first consult pediatric experts for advice that best fits their situation.
100 of The Best Foods to Feed Your Baby
There are many different kinds of foods you can feed your babies before they turn one through the help of the baby-led weaning approach. Before doing so, you should first know when to start feeding solids to your baby.
Most babies learn to eat finger foods at the age of four to six months. That might not be the case for your child. Now you must be wondering:
How can I tell if my baby is ready to switch to new foods?
Well, you can look for the following signs in your baby to know if they are ready to eat solid foods:
Baby can push food back to their throat: If your baby keeps pushing food out of their mouth, not because they do not like the taste of the food, but because they are having a hard time figuring out where they need to push it, then you should stop feeding them solid foods for a little while.
Baby looks interested in eating: If your baby shows interest in different meals and mimics your way of eating, then you may start giving them solid foods.
Baby can sit up on their own: If your baby can sit on a chair on their own, you may start feeding them solid foods. Solids are avoided before this milestone mainly to avoid choking.
Even if your baby shows all of these signs, you may visit medical professionals who may help you decide whether it is the right time to start feeding solids to your child.
In addition to baby-led weaning, you can look for many baby food recipes online that can help to introduce solids. Moreover, there are many different kinds of programs that can help you in meal planning and finding foods that are safe for your child’s consumption.
These plans can help in introducing new foods to your child’s diet before one, but before starting any of these programs you should consult a qualified healthcare provider for advice. Following is a list of 100 foods you can feed your child before one:
Fruits
You can give small, cut-up portions of fruits to your baby. These are rich in vitamins and classified as nutritious foods. Your baby can start eating a variety of fruits like apples, bananas, blueberries, melons, cantaloupes, pineapple, oranges, peaches, mangoes, strawberries, blackberries, grapes, avocados, etc.
Vegetables
Your baby can eat many different vegetables before turning one. This helps in introducing your baby to the taste of different vegetables, allowing their taste buds to adapt to it. This may lead to the child being less picky as a toddler.
Through baby-led weaning, your baby can eat vegetables like onions, green onions, carrots, broccoli, cucumbers, cauliflower, zucchini, beets, peas, peppers, Brussels sprouts, pickles, kale, etc.
Starches
Babies digest starch very well. It helps children who frequently spit up their food. Starchy food is often recommended for babies undergoing medical treatments. These starchy foods include potatoes, gnocchi, butternut squash, spaghetti squash, sweet potatoes, etc.
Meats and Proteins
Moms are often advised by doctors to give appropriate amounts of protein to their children as protein deficiency can lead to improper development in babies.
Make sure that your baby has enough protein in their diet through foods like chicken, salmon, bacon, shrimp, tofu, halibut, ground beef, ground turkey, eggs, etc.
Dairy
Your baby can eat many different kinds of dairy products, like cheddar cheese, mozzarella cheese, Greek yogurt, cream cheese, sour cream, parmesan cheese, goat cheese, etc.
In addition to these, there are many other foods you can feed your baby before their first birthday. Make a list of new items that you want to introduce to your child and come up with different recipes according to that. Keep in mind that most babies will only taste a new food for the first time after familiarization; that is, they need to see and touch the food before eating it.
Remember, always consult a registered dietitian before switching your baby from breast milk or formula to new foods. To be on the safer side, find a baby food chart online that may help you in meal planning.
What Foods Can Babies Not Have Before Turning 1
You may be very eager to introduce your baby to all the meals you like yourself, but keep in mind that there are a lot of things that should not be fed to a child before one.
You should avoid giving these foods to your baby at all costs, as they may lead to improper mental and physical growth and can also lead to a medical emergency.
In addition to this, you should also be aware of your baby’s allergies. Anything that triggers those allergies can lead to various uncomfortable situations.
Foods to Avoid Giving Babies
Giving your baby certain foods before one can have adverse effects on their health. Avoid feeding your baby the following list of things before they turn one.
Salt
Too much salt intake can lead to kidney problems, especially in a baby. Try not to add salt while boiling water for cooking, and also try not to use stock gravy or cubes as they are too high in salt.
Make this a part of your family cookbook if you are planning to give the baby food from the family meals.
Saturated fat
Products like cakes, crisps, and biscuits often have high levels of saturated fat, which are not good for a baby’s health.
Honey
You should completely avoid feeding honey to your child before one because it may contain spores of a bacteria called clostridium botulinum. This bacteria does not harm adults but can cause botulism in infants.
Smoked meat
The majority of smoked meats, like bacon, bologna, and even fish, have high levels of nitrates, sodium, and animal fat in them. Thus, these should be fed once in a blue moon to babies younger than one.
High mercury fish
Studies show that feeding fish to children is of great nutritional value and may help in boosting your child’s IQ. But moms should avoid feeding their babies fish that contain high levels of mercury.
Raw or lightly cooked eggs
Most families love to eat lightly cooked eggs as a part of their breakfast, but eggs prepared in this way can be harmful to a baby and may lead to other complications. Avoid feeding your baby foods like homemade ice creams, uncooked cake mixture, etc.
Fruit juice
Fruit juice is also called “sugar water,” as it has a lot of calories but little nutritional value. Fruit juice may cause your baby’s appetite for breast milk, which should be their main source of nutrition, to decrease. Too much juice can cause tummy troubles along with diarrhea and tooth decay.
Hence. you need to consult a medical provider who can suggest different baby foods and may also provide you with a baby food chart for better understanding.
Along with this, you should be well aware of your baby’s allergies to avoid any kind of complications. If your baby has severe allergies, you should contact a doctor who can dispense medical advice that best fits your situation. If your baby is taking medication for any other issue, then you should ask the doctor for food recommendations that go along with the treatment.
At What Age Should Babies Have 3 Meals a Day
Starting your baby on proper meals at the correct time is important. Starting solids too early or too late can have an adverse effect on your baby’s mental and physical health. Babies learn to chew at a very young stage of life and can be fed proper meals around ten months. But this does not mean that your baby should stop drinking milk. After every meal, you can feed your baby milk.
By ten months, the baby should be enjoying a wide variety of flavors and textures and should be able to eat finger foods on their own, both of which can be achieved through baby-led weaning.
By this time, families should eat meals together to encourage the baby so that they eat until their little tummy is full. Eating together as a family makes meals a lot more fun for the new family member.
Baby’s First Solid Foods
Usually, parents first introduce solid foods through mashed-up versions of different kinds of fruits, starches, etc. Another way of introducing solid food is by using the baby-led weaning method in which babies are given finger foods.
Babies learn to chew by biting on finger food and the whole process is fun since the babies can manipulate the food in their hands. Though food waste is a big issue in the baby-led weaning approach, it is still a widely-used method to introduce new varieties of foods to babies.
Take Away
There are a lot of different kinds of food a baby can eat before turning one. Starches, dairy, and meat, among other food groups, are of great nutritional value. You can introduce solid foods to your baby’s diet through a variety of methods, one of which is baby-led weaning in which children are given finger foods as a way of introducing them to solid foods.
Many pediatric experts recommend this way of making babies familiar with new flavors and textures of food. In addition to this, having family meals together is a great way of encouraging babies to eat and it makes the whole process fun.
Keep in mind that there are certain foods that you should avoid feeding your child before one as they can be harmful to the baby’s health. You can follow a baby food chart that will provide you with a list of food for your baby that is safe for consumption. Before following any of these methods or charts, consult the advice of medical professionals.
