Feeding Basics

Your daughter’s eating habits will dramatically change during these few months. Her staple diet will move from liquid to solid foods and she may switch from bottle or breast to a cup. These changes give her lots of experiences with the taste, texture, and enjoyment of food that make for lively mealtimes! There’s no rule about when a baby should stop breast- or bottlefeeding. My boys switched to solid foods and a sippy cup around their first birthday, but my daughter clung to her bottle until past two. (In fact, when she began carrying around her juice bottle as if it were a favorite blanket, my husband and I decided to “lose” it on a family outing.)As you begin to introduce solid foods, your daughter will let you know what she needs. You might find that she does not want to nurse or bottle-feed as often. If this happens, you should cut back one feeding at a time, starting perhaps with a midday meal (because this tends to be the smallest and least convenient feeding). Most parents hold on to the last feeding before bed for quite a while after the first birthday. Others continue to provide bottle or breast milk “snacks” at the baby’s request until she loses interest. If you are breast-feeding, you may decide at this time to completely wean your daughter. This should be done slowly so that your breasts have a chance to adjust. If you suddenly stop, they will become engorged with milk and that can be very painful. Cut out one breast-milk feeding a day at first and then two, and so on. If your daughter is not yet a year old, you should switch to formula rather than cow’s milk even if you wean your daughter off the breast to a cup. Here are some guidelines to help you decide if it’s time to wean from bottle or breast: Has your daughter lost the tongue-thrust reflex that caused her to instinctively push things out of her mouth? Does she easily, without gagging, swallow pureed foods? If so, she may be ready for the switch. Is your daughter able to sit up by herself? This is a good indicator that she’s ready to sit down for a good meal. Does your daughter reach out to grab for food? This could be a sign that she’d like to experiment with nonliquid foods.Once you have introduced a variety of single foods (as discussed in the last chapter), you can start to mix it up, serving a combination of fruits, cereals, and vegetables (still thoroughly pureed, of course). When your daughter can sit on her own and is handling pureed food well, you can start offering coarser textures. You can also start introducing finger foods. Be sure these are soft and cut into small pieces—she will either swallow them whole or let them dissolve in her mouth. Favorite finger foods include bits of cooked carrots, potatoes, or peas, bits of whole-wheat bread or crackers, and Cheerios or a similar cereal. (At first you’ll find that your daughter smushes, spatters, and throws far more food than she eats. It’s all part of the learning process.) Many children are prone to gagging and even throwing up when they are learning to eat. This may happen if your daughter has too much food in her mouth or if she encounters a new taste or surprising texture, like a lump hidden in smooth pudding. If this happens to your daughter, give her only small amounts and continued experiences with foods of different textures. If the gagging reflex continues, be sure to mention it to her doctor. This is the time that many babies like to experiment with drinking from a cup with a spouted lid. When you first offer a cup to your daughter, don’t expect a civilized reaction. She will shake it, bang it, and throw it—so it’s best to fill it with just a bit of water at first.Demonstrate how to use it and encourage her to sip from the spout. Once she gets the hang of it, you can then offer breast milk, formula, or water to drink from the cup. Once your daughter is eating fruit, you can try fruit juice, but don’t overdo it—it’s better for babies to learn to eat fruit (which has more fiber) and drink water (which has no sugar) than to get them bonded to juice (which has a lot of sugar and sometimes causes diarrhea). The sweet taste of fruit juice can seduce some children into becoming habitual high-volume juice drinkers, crowding more nutrition-rich foods out of their diets. A baby of one year, for instance, shouldn’t drink more than about four ounces of juice a day. In fact, it’s fine for a baby to drink no juice at all, as long as she eats fruit. For ease of use, try giving your daughter a two-handled cup, either open on top or with a top that has a spout. Some baby cups have a valve in the spout that prevents spills, allowing the liquid to come out only when the baby sucks it. These are neater, but be sure you clean the spout thoroughly. And switch off with other cups so the baby also gets to sip, rather than only suck.