When should we start to eat baby? This is surely one of the questions that most often comes back when you become parents and for which we still hear a lot of different things.
Some health professionals recommend the introduction of purees to the age of 4 months. However, several recent studies, demonstrate that the baby's digestive tract is not yet mature enough at this age and does not manage to digest food.
After the 6 months of baby, its nutritional needs evolve, and milk alone is no longer enough, even if it remains the basis of its diet.
But then, when is it the right time ?
We will never repeat it enough: each child is different ! Give him and trust yourself, your little bit will surely show you in his own way that he really wants to discover food.
Here are some criteria that will allow you to identify well when your baby is ready to start the BLW :
- Baby is 6 months old (in corrected age, that is to say 6 months if your baby was born in the long term)
- Baby knows how to stand straight when he seated in his chair. (Be careful, that does not mean that he knows how to sit alone!)
- Baby knows how to turn his head from left to right
- Baby knows how to hold and bring objects to his mouth: to be able to taste the food you will offer him, baby will have to be able to grasp it and bring it alone to his mouth. We are talking here of being able to grasp large caliber foods with the entire hand. (There is no need for baby to know how to use the pliers of his fingers to catch small pieces at this stage, it will come over time).
Photo: © Moon and the other
Do not rush
Starting the introduction of food is a very exciting moment for the whole family.
From four months, family pressure wishing to make baby discover "something other than milk", will be able to shake your convictions and desires to wait for the 6 months of baby. However, remember that your little one will have a lifetime to eat and discover foods , so we are not two months old!
Beware of false alerts!
We may have the impression that baby is interested in food very early and we imagine "depriving" him of this discovery . However, if he is interested in your plate and what you do, it is more out of wish to imitate than to taste the content of your plate.
What can we put in place while waiting for baby to be really ready?
Baby is not yet ready to eat but that does not mean that you cannot initiate it to the pleasure of family meals. Baby is curious, he has seen you eating for several months and it is starting to interest him. Do not hesitate to install it with you in your high chair at meals. There are a multitude of ways to be able to stimulate baby during meals without eating . You can present rattles with different sizes and textures. This will allow baby to explore his mouth . You can also offer him dummy food, cutlery, plastic glass, ... This will allow baby to already be able to familiarize himself with the different kitchen utensils .
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