Feed Different Foods to your Baby

Backgrounder

In a small village a health worker meets a woman with a beautiful baby girl. Here is how she greets the woman.

“Good morning. My goodness your baby is growing so big and strong! She’s been nursing very well and she’s been gaining weight every week. It’s easy to see that she’s nice and healthy.

You probably know that the best possible food for your baby during the first four to six months of its life is your own milk. Your milk has all the good things in it that your baby needs to be healthy and happy, and to grow well at this time.

Of course, as your baby grows, the time will come when she needs more than just breast milk. When that time comes, the baby won’t be able to get all the nourishment she needs from breast milk. She must have other good foods to eat which will give her strength to keep growing well. So, you should continue to breast feed, but you should also give other foods which will give her strength.”

That is what the health worker says to the woman with a beautiful baby girl. Let’s think about this for a few moments. If you

have a baby, here are some things you must do. Although we will be talking about feeding a baby baby, everything I say is just as important if you have a baby boy.

When your baby is 4 to 6 months old, start giving her other foods as well as your breast milk. There are plenty of good foods you can give your baby at this time. The more good food she learns to eat and drink, the better.

For example, start with cereal grains. You can take the grains you have such as rice, corn (maize), wheat, millet, or barley. Select two or three of these and then pound or grind them into a fine meal and cook them. You could do this in two different ways. You can make the meal into a paste, then add boiling water and cook it; then let it cool. The other way is to add the meal slowly to boiling water while you keep stirring the mixture so there will be no lumps. This way you can make a thick soupy mixture and after boiling it, let it cool. You could also cook and mash some potatoes or yams. These are all good foods and food prepared like this is easy for the baby to swallow.

To make the food even healthier for your baby, mix this cereal or root with a legume food such as soybeans, lentils, peas, nuts, groundnuts, or split peas.

It is also very important to add a bit of vegetable oil to the meal for extra energy.

So this basic mix of cereals, legumes, and vegetable oil is a very good meal for your baby. But there are some other foods that could make the meal even more nutritious. Children grow best when they get a variety of foods.

Vegetables are an important food and add vitamins and minerals to the baby’s diet. You could serve boiled vegetables with any of the other foods.

Think of some other types of foods you might add. If you have some chickens in the yard, take one egg and break it and mix that with the cooked cereal. That’s another good food for the baby. Or add some powdered milk, meat or fish if you have it.

Delicious! Your child will really like this meal made up of a combination of one or two cereal grains, legumes, some vegetables, a little vegetable oil, and maybe an egg or some fish.

Feed your baby often, if possible 4 or 5 times a day. And give her food to nibble between meals.

As your baby is learning to like these foods only give her a very small amount each day to begin with. When you do this the first few times, do so when the baby is hungry, just before you nurse her. These are foods that the baby can gradually get used to and they all have good things in them that the baby will need when she can’t have your milk any more.

If you find that the baby doesn’t like this new food the first time, don’t force her to eat it. Wait until the next day and try again with a fresh lot. Probably, after 2 or 3 days, you will find that she won’t be moving her head away and spitting it out.

Any food that you and your children are eating, you can probably give to your baby when she is 4 to 6 months old. But when she is very young, don’t feed her any foods that are very strong in flavour or have salt or spices in them. Just use natural foods without anything added to them.

Keep giving breast milk for at least a year or two years, if possible. There will be a time when you will realize that you have less breast milk. However, if you have been feeding your child enough of these good solid foods every day, together with the breast milk, then your child will be getting enough food.

She will be strong and won’t lose weight when you stop breast feeding.

Remember:
1. When your baby is between 4 and 6 months old, start giving her frequent meals which include a variety of other foods as well as your breast milk.
2. You can make a nutritious meal by combining cereals (maize, rice, millet, barley), with legumes such as soybeans, lentils, groundnuts, or split peas.
3. It is important to add a bit of vegetable oil to the main food for extra energy.
3. It is also important for babies to have some vegetables which have vitamins and minerals in them.
5.Continue to give your baby breast milk, if possible until she reaches 2 years of age.