Have you been wondering how to offer balanced meals to your baby and exposure to a greater
variety of foods? In this video I’m going to walk you through an example
of what a week of creating balanced meals could look like, all while continuing to
safely introduce new foods to your baby. If this is our first time meeting, I’m Dr.
Belousov. I’m a board certified pediatrician and I equip parents with knowledge, so they
can care for their children with confidence. For those of you who are just getting ready to
start solids with your baby, or it’s your baby’s first week of taking solids, I encourage you to
watch my previous video where I walk through an example of what week 1 of solids could look like.
It’s linked up here. Once your baby is 6 months old and showing all the signs of readiness to
safely start solids, I recommend parents try to introduce a new vegetable one day of the week,
a new fruit another day, a new carbohydrate food another day, a new protein food another
day and spend the remaining three days giving the new allergenic food of the week. We find
that children who are exposed to more flavors and textures tend to be less likely to be picky eaters
as they get older. Research supports that early introduction of the allergenic foods, and repeated
exposure can actually decrease the likelihood the baby will develop an allergy to those foods.
Therefore it’s to your baby’s advantage to get exposed to as many different foods as possible.
I find that many parents don’t introduce a wide variety of foods because they don’t have a plan
and a system in place for how they’re going to go about doing this. Of course there are multiple
ways that this can be done. I’m going to give you an example of an approach that I think will
make it easier for you to do this. Regardless of whether you plan to spoon feed your baby purees,
or do baby-led weaning, I’ll cover both approaches in this example. Let’s say that
the first day of the week you’ll be introducing the new vegetable for the week, and let’s say
that it’s going to be broccoli. Once or twice in the day offer the food to your baby. You can
offer broccoli as a puree that you spoon feed, or put some of the puree onto a short handled spoon,
like the ezpz tiny spoon, and hand it to your baby to self feed. If you’re doing baby-led
weaning and giving your baby finger foods, you can offer broccoli as florets that are about ½
to 1 inch wide with some of the stem left on, so the baby can easily grab them. You will need to
steam, microwave cook or boil the broccoli to make it soft before offering it to your baby.
Babies are capable of bringing things to their mouths with good precision at 6 months,
and should be given the opportunity to practice feeding themselves even at the onset of starting
solids. The sooner you start giving your baby the opportunity to practice self feeding, the sooner
your baby will become an independent eater. Keep in mind that especially the first several months,
food is going to be complementary to the breast milk or formula that the baby is already taking,
not a replacement. Babies have to learn how to eat first, before they can increase the
amount of solids they take. So don’t worry if your baby is only willing to take a few bites.
A way you can structure the meal is to offer the new food of the day for about the first 10
minutes or so for your baby to explore the new flavor of the day. Then in the second portion of
the meal is where you can bring back one or two foods that your baby already had previous days.
So let's say you already introduced your baby to avocado several days prior. Avocados are a
great source of healthy fat for the baby’s rapidly developing brain and nervous system.
Babies need more fat in their diet than we do as adults. To add variety and work towards
creating a more balanced diet, you can take fresh avocado and mix it in with the broccoli puree,
and offer that for the next 5 to 10 minutes of the meal. Or you can cut avocado to about
the thickness of an adult pinky finger and 2 to 3 inches in length. Cutting the otherwise
slippery foods using a crinkle cutter does make it easier for the baby to grab and hold them.
Then offer the avocado strips on the plate along with broccoli florets for your baby to self feed.
Now let’s say that on day two you will be giving the new fruit of the week,
and it’s going to be a ripe banana. Give your baby several minutes to explore this new food
as a puree or in the form of strips that the baby self feeds. For the second portion of the meal,
you can offer banana again along with the food you introduced the previous day, which was broccoli.
You might be thinking, it sounds like so much work to be giving foods from previous days in
addition to the new food of the day. Keep in mind that for the foods you have to cook,
it’s perfectly fine to prepare enough for several days, refrigerate it and
then reheat so you can reintroduce it the next 2 to 3 days in the second portion of the meal.
And if you’re giving your baby solids two or three times a day, it’s perfectly fine to give
the same two or three foods for all those meals in that day, instead of feeling like you have
to have different foods on the plate for each meal. Or you can have the new food of the day
at every meal and alternate the second food that you offer to be another one of the foods
that you introduced the previous days. There are many different combinations that you can go with.
Let me know that you’re finding this information helpful by hitting the thumbs up button below.
Now for day three let's say you’ll be introducing the new carbohydrate food of the week, and it’s
going to be sweet potato. Allow your baby to spend the first portion of the meal experiencing the new
flavor of the day. During the second portion of the meal you can offer sweet potato again,
along with one or two foods from previous days. The ezpz mini mat works great for this. In one
compartment I have banana puree, broccoli in the other, and sweet potato in the third compartment.
Or if doing strips of food, you can place all three foods into the different compartments.
Your baby will get to explore the different flavors and textures of food from three different
food groups, for a more balanced meal. As babies make the transition from breast milk or formula to
a predominately solid food diet, which for most babies happens sometime between 8 to 12 months,
carbohydrate foods will become the main energy source for their rapidly growing bodies.
And just in case you’re wondering what foods are great carbohydrates for your baby to have,
this group includes the starchy vegetables and whole grains. The vegetables that fall
into this category include sweet potato, white potato, peas, the different squashes, and corn,
just to name a few. This group also includes the whole grains like oatmeal, barely, buckwheat,
rice and whole wheat. If you want to know what other foods fall into this category,
or any of the other 4 food groups, I have a blog post on my website friendlykiddoc.com.
It includes lists of foods that fall into each of the categories. It’s linked in the
description below, if you’d like to check it out. For day 4, let’s say you will be giving the new
protein food of the week. The protein food group includes meat and plant protein foods.
Eggs and fish also fall into the protein group, as well as the allergenic food category. Most babies
are born with enough iron stores to last them for the first 4 to 6 months. But after that to
ensure healthy growth and development, it's very important for them to have an iron rich diet.
Since the iron that comes from meat sources is more readily absorbed by our bodies than iron
from plant sources, meats are a great source of iron for the baby. Let’s say that the new meat for
this week is going to be beef. I find that cooking meat in a pressure cooker or slow cooker is the
easiest way to make it tender and soft. However, if you don’t have those appliances in the home,
you can cook it on the stove or in the oven. It’s best to prepare a fattier part of the beef,
especially if giving strips of meat for the baby to self feed. Babies are less likely to choke
on fattier more tender strips of meat than dry strips of meat. If you will be pureeing the beef,
you can mix it with breast milk or formula, or with one of the foods that you already
introduced in previous days, like sweet potato. In the first portion of the meal offer the beef,
then during the second portion offer the beef again along with one or two foods from previous
days, like sweet potato and broccoli. If you’re offering strips of beef, be sure to have them
about the thickness of an adult pinky finger, or a little thicker and about 2 to 3 inches long.
Your baby might just suck on the strips of beef, or take small bites using the gums. Either way,
your baby will get iron and other nutrients from the juices in the meat.
For day 5, 6 and 7, you can introduce the allergenic food of the week. Since babies have a
higher risk of reacting to the 8 common allergenic foods than the other foods, out of an abundance
of caution offer the same allergenic food three days in a row. Foods that fall into this category
include milk, peanut, egg, fish, soy, tree nuts, wheat and shellfish. Healthcare professionals
used to recommend putting off starting the allergenic foods until babies got older.
But the most recent research suggests that early exposure to these foods and frequent exposure can
actually prevent the development of an allergy to them. There’s a lot of benefit for your baby to
start getting exposed to the allergenic foods starting as early as 6 months. Let’s say that
this week your baby’s new allergenic food is going to be egg. I don’t want you to be afraid
of introducing this allergenic food. Only about 2% of kids are allergic to eggs. The likelihood
that your baby will react is low, so don’t delay offering this food, which is a good source of iron
and other nutrients. There are different ways that you can prepare eggs for your baby. Hard
boiling does make the egg a little more rubbery in consistency. You can offer it as a puree with the
egg white and egg yolk mashed or blended together with some breastmilk or formula. You can also fry
the egg on a pan. First add a little oil or if you’re using butter, be sure that your baby has
been exposed to a milk product several times already without having an allergic reaction.
After breaking the egg into the frying pan, I like to break the yolk and mix it with the egg white.
Once it becomes cooked on one side, flip it over to cook the other side all the way through. It can
be mashed up or cut into strips. Serve just the egg to your baby in the first portion of the meal.
Then for the second portion of the meal bring back another one to two foods from the previous days.
An example would be to put egg, sweet potato and broccoli onto the plate,
and give your baby the opportunity to explore the different flavors and textures of foods from
three different food groups. I hope you’re able to follow my train of thought. By doing an approach
like this, not only will you expose your baby to 5 new foods a week, but you’ll ensure that they’re
coming from a variety of different food groups. And by bringing back foods from previous days in
the second portion of the meal, after spending the first portion focusing on the new food,
you will be able to offer more balanced meals to your baby. Let me know your take-aways,
or if you have any questions, enter them in the comment section below. See you in the next video.