Feeding Your 6-12 Month Old Helpful Advice & Tips
If you already have a Maternity Nurse or a Maternity Nanny, you will definitely find them a really useful resource for the best tips and feeding methods which will have been tried and tested over the years!
If, however, you don’t currently have any help and are looking for some good advice and information regarding practical tips on feeding your 6-12 month old, then we hope the following will be useful and will help create a way forward with their feeding routine and development:
- It is worth noting that babies under 12 months do not need snacks, so if you think that your baby is still showing signs of hunger in between the usual routine of mealtimes, then the best advice is to offer them extra milk feeds.
- At around 6 months old, when you are beginning to think about offering your child some solid foods, bear in mind that it is generally best to start with grains and vegetables first ie not sweet foods. If you can aim to do this before you try them on fruits and higher protein foods, you stand a much better chance of preventing them from expecting that all food tastes sweet! This will also increase the chance of them being willing to experience and get used to other flavours first.
- In the same way, and for the same reasons as above, try as much as possible to introduce them to natural, wholefoods first. This can then be followed by the introduction of processed foods such as jam or fruit juices.
- When you decide to start introducing them to new food groups, flavours and textures, timing is key! Go for the optimum time, which is of course when they are at their most hungry!
- Try as much as possible to follow your child’s hunger levels and food preferences wherever you can, whilst at the same time try to gently expand their repertoire with high-quality, nutrient-rich choices. You may notice, particularly as they reach a year old, that their appetite changes a bit and they don’t seem to need as much food as before. Don’t worry though as this is a natural response to a slowing down of their rate of growth. Children should be allowed to respond to their own feelings of hunger and fullness and you will soon learn their cues!
- At each meal, aim to offer a wide variety of food which will give them plenty of opportunity to pick and choose for themselves a little bit!
- Don’t’ forget there is no need to add sugar or salt to any cooking at this stage.
- Try and make mealtimes as regular as you possibly can and also sit at the table with them while they eat to show it is a shared experience. This is particularly so if they have siblings who can sit and eat with them at the same time or indeed if the whole family are at the table too, this is a wonderful learning experience! It is never too soon to help them begin to understand and notice the whole ‘social’ aspect of eating together and the importance of family time together. It is also a great way of encouraging their curiosity about food as they will be able to see and smell what everybody else is eating and you never know they may just want to try something new!
- As well as all the above benefits of family mealtimes, you will also be introducing them to the concept of good table manners (such as not talking with your mouth full!) and taking it in turns to speak/the art of conversation.
- Ensuring your child learns from an early age that you ‘sit’ when you eat is important as it can greatly help reduce the risks of choking.
The hope is, that by adopting some of these tips and the advice above, your child will reach 12 months having experienced a nutritious and wide variety of mashed and pureed foods including: avocado, green vegetables, eggs, mashed beans & lentils, meat, chicken, some fish and various fruits.
Parenting we can all acknowledge is hard work and requires patience! Every child is of course unique, so you need to be prepared to try lots of different foods to help them find what they like, but also get them used to giving things a try! It will help using some of these guidelines, but it is also important to accept that not everything will work and it is definitely not a good idea to compare your child either with their siblings or other children – just like adults, we are all different in our likes and dislikes.
Also remember that there is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to approach this: what matters is it is ‘your’ way and you decide what to do with your child.
Wishing you good luck and please also remember that you can only do your best, and that is definitely good enough!
