What To Feed Your Child

You probably already know that your child can eat pretty much anything they can get hold of, so give them some of all the food your family eats to see what they start to enjoy as well as making mealtimes a little easier. That being said, all meals need to have nutritional value. Make sure they have portions of animal produce  such as dairy, eggs, meat, fish and chicken, plus vegetables, fruits and nuts. Here’s a look at what to eat and when as your baby gets a little old and very curious.

How much Food and how often?

Your child can eat between three quarters to one cup of food four times a day, along with a couple of  snacks between meals.

Foods to avoid

It’s fairly obvious what you should avoid, junk food and soft drinks are just as tempting for children and they won’t want it if they don’t know what it is. Anything with added sugars, high levels of salt or chemicals are good for the child and should be avoided. Growing baby’s need as much nutrition as possible and bad habits are easily avoidable.

Mealtime tips

Weaning is a fun and interesting time in a parent’s and baby’s life, but it gets messy fast. Weaning is essentially letting your baby learn about foods independently by putting their food on a plate in front of them and letting them learn about touch, taste and coordination. 

As you can imagine this gets very messy so buying a coverall bib is suggested to help make clearing up fast, as it will catch all the food that doesn’t make it to their mouth.

What to do when they refuse to Eat certain Foods

Make sure they’re hungry for every mealtime and haven’t been eating snacks just before. If you’re still also breastfeeding, make sure you only do it after their meal. At 1 year plus, they should eat solid food first. 

Textures and mixing foods is key to trying solid foods. So if you find they don’t like particular foods, just experiment with different combinations so they get all the nutrients they need. It’s very trial and error based, another idea is to feed them the vegetables first when they are really hungry followed by the parts they like.

The key is to stay calm and understanding. Give your baby positive encouragement when they do eat certain foods and don’t make it an issue when they refuse to eat. Just remove the food, cover it up, and offer it to them a little bit later.