The nine-month-old has already tried many of the foods that caring parents prepare for him every day, changing tastes and experimenting with baby recipes. Let's take a look at what changes in the baby's menu at 9 months and how to properly build a diet for babies at this age.
Features of the diet of a 9-month-old baby
- A baby at this age already needs less mother's milk or an adapted formula, but doctors do not recommend canceling them. Let the breastfed baby continue to apply to her mother's breast early in the morning and before bedtime, and also wash down new dishes with breast milk. The artificial child is advised to continue giving the formula after waking up and at night.
- The list of foods introduced into the diet of breastfed babies and artificial babies became the same at 9 months of age. The only difference is the volume of some dishes. Their bottle-fed babies are given more because of the earlier start of complementary feeding and the increased requirements for minerals and vitamins. We are talking about mashed potatoes and juices from fruits, cottage cheese, yolk and fermented milk drinks.
What foods can be added to the diet?
The kids who were fed according to Komarovsky's scheme begin to eat the same way as the rest. Artificially fed babies or babies who, for a good reason, began to feed before 6 months of age, are not introduced to new products at 9 months, but only increase the amount of products and make food more varied due to new combinations of products.
But the baby, who was fed only with mother's milk for up to six months, is introduced at 9 months of age such new products:
- Yolk. It is usually given in the second meal along with porridge.
- Cottage cheese. It is added to the fourth meal of the fruit puree.
- Fermented milk drinks. They are also given on the fourth meal along with fruit, cottage cheese and baby biscuits, thus forming an afternoon snack.
- Cow's milk. They cook porridge on it.
How much should a baby eat?
To determine the total daily amount of food for a nine month old baby, you need to know the weight of the baby. By dividing the mass of the toddler by 8 or 9, you will find out how much a child of this age should eat per day.
Recommendations for complementary foods:
Diet
A nine-month-old baby still has five meals a day, like at 7 or 8 months. They are evenly distributed throughout the day at intervals of 3 to 4 hours.
For example, if the baby wakes up for the first feeding at 6 am, then the next meals will be at about 10 am, at 2 pm, at 6 pm and the last meal at 10 pm. If a child eats breakfast at 8 o'clock, then the second meal will be at about 11-12 o'clock, lunch at 15-16 o'clock, the fourth meal at 18-19 o'clock, and feeding at night at 22-23 o'clock.
Sample menu
For a baby exclusively breastfed up to 6 months of age, at 9 months the menu will look like this:
For a nine-month-old baby, whose acquaintance with complementary foods occurred at 4-5 months of age due to the insufficient amount of breast milk from the mother, the menu for the day will be as follows:
For a bottle-fed baby, the day menu at nine months will look like this:
Tips
Be careful with new products. Although the baby has already got acquainted with a very large number of new dishes, there is always a risk of a reaction to any food product. Start with a small amount of everything new in the morning feed and evaluate the response towards the evening. If everything is in order with the skin and digestion of the crumbs, you can increase the portion.
Consider the following nuances:
- Gradually teach your child to eat not only homogenized food, but also finely ground food. For example, offer the crumbs vegetable purees less often, replacing them with soups, in which the vegetables will simply be mashed with a fork.
- Fruit puree can be given in the full amount recommended for a given age in the fourth feeding, mixing it with cottage cheese, but more often part of the fruit is added to the second feeding (in porridge).
- Always feed your baby fresh food. If you buy ready-made baby food for crumbs, follow the expiration dates on the packaging, and also observe the storage conditions.
- Do not insist if the baby is against a new product. Come up with new combinations that will please the little one and make his menu varied and delicious.
Do you think it is worth giving vitamins to babies at this age? You will learn the answer to this question from our article.
