Introducing Semi-solid Diet To Your Infant

Hello people! My last post was all about how to introduce and engage your kid to eat semi-solids (SS). In this post, I would like to share a semi-solid diet chart that can be introduced when you put your child on a SS diet. However, don’t discontinue breastfeed. It is still a wholesome baby food meal for another 6 months. So, new mommies, make sure to keep your milk supply up.

An ideal semi-solid diet chart of a 6-month-old baby:

1. Breastfeeding

3 to 6 times a day. It could vary from a snack feed to a whole kids’ meal. At times, it could just be for comfort. A mother can easily identify her baby needs and accordingly feed the baby.

2. Top feed

Cow’s milk (toned)/Formula milk. Again, there is no fixed quantity for this. It could be anywhere between 5 ml to 120 ml or even more. Depends on the capacity of your baby.

3. Semi-solid (SS) diet chart

Initially, once a day (start with a few spoons and progressively increase the quantity) and gradually make it thrice a day (breakfast, lunch & dinner).

These items (in no order) are super quick healthy recipes and can be easily digested by your infant:

1. Breakfast

If you are looking for easy to make recipes then try Fruits, mashed apple/pear/sapodilla (cheeku pulp)/banana. You can also make soup recipes or a shakeout of these lovely fruits, e.g. Apple and Carrot can be given in the form of a nice warm soup. Banana milkshake is also equally acceptable.

2. Lunch

Vegetables: Mashed potato/pumpkin/long melon (lauki). Add a pinch of salt to make it appetizing. Serve it warm. This is one baby food recipe which is one of my favorite quick healthy recipes.

3. Dinner

To meet the needs of protein, iron, and fiber, one of the meals should include lentils/rice-based preparation. Broken rice and/or in water form (chaawal ka paani)/split yellow-red lentils (moong daal ka paani) – mashed and in soup form/broken rice prepared in milk (rice kheer)/semolina prepared in milk (suji kheer). Add a pinch of salt or sugar. But, just a pinch, please… I usually serve it all bland! Now isn’t it quick and healthy?

Sips of water in between is mandatory.

Make sure that your veggies, fruits, lentils, and rice are washed with filtered water.

Your baby is full if he/she shows the following signs:

1. Starts spitting food out
2. Turns his/her head away from food/leans back in his/her chair
3. Refuses to open his/her mouth for the next bite

But don’t give up if this happens too often. There are times and especially at the beginning when your kid might wince and reject baby food by spitting it out or by showing any of the other signs as mentioned above. This doesn’t necessarily mean that your child is full. Your baby might not eat enough or at all in the beginning. Don’t worry! Just don’t be upset. Never feel like you’ve failed. It’s just a and this phase won’t last too long and in no time the baby gets a hang of all that is being served. A few rejections and bingo! You see him/her accepting all that is being offered.

So tell us how your experience was. Happy baby feeding!