Hello and a warm welcome back to Video 2 of our Starting Solid Show. And as you already know
I’m Rachael. Nice to see you all again. So in my first video I focussed mainly
on when to start solids, signs of readiness, Vitamin D and follow on milks.
In this video I’ll cover some more practical tips on starting solids
and I’ll talk you through Vitamin D again. So parents often ask is there any particular
way that first foods should be offered. So I am going to go through loads of points here that hopefully
you'll find helpful. So first thing is it doesn’t matter if your baby’s first taste of food
is in the morning, afternoon or evening. It’s much better to pick a time of day
that you’re relaxed so you can fully focus on your baby. In terms of volume of food, be guided by your
baby’s appetite initially and we refer to that as responsive feeding. Every baby is different. Some
babies will take to food really quickly and others will take a wee while longer to get used to it.
Initially, it’s just about flavours, colours, textures rather than the amount of food. This is
just a wee small bowl of some mashed cauliflower I’ve got here and again, if your baby eats all of
this in the first few days that you are offering food - great but if your baby takes half of that
or a quarter of that, that’s also fine. Remember the first bit is just about the experiences of the
touching and the tasting. And also remember, at this point their usual milk feed is giving them
all the nutrients they need so please don’t worry about their nutritional status at this point.
So, this brings me on to say the first few times you offer your baby's food,
start off with their usual milk feed just so they’re not hungry and distressed.
As Sandra mentioned in her lentil curry video, start off with a few single ingredient foods
just to see your baby’s initial reaction. And if you start with less sweet foods,
so for instance cauliflower or broccoli, which we’ve got here. So, here’s some cauliflower
and this here is some frozen cooked broccoli. So, things like broccoli and cauliflower are
less sweet, and when your baby is already used to the taste of sweet breast or formula milk,
these are good to offer first, before you start introducing things like fruit.
At the beginning, you might find that your baby will accept some foods more readily
than others – this is totally normal and is nothing to worry about. Just don’t let this
put you off as it can take sometimes, and in some cases, even up to 10 times for a particular food
or taste to be accepted so please don’t worry if there’s something that your baby appears not to like.
Foods, which are known to be potential allergens, so that could include eggs, food containing nuts,
dairy foods, well cooked fish and seafood and wheat containing foods, so for instance bread and pasta,
can be included in your baby’s diet one at a time, when starting solids begins around 6 months.
Unless these foods cause a reaction, you should offer them to your baby on a regular basis,
which actually helps the baby reducing its chance of developing a food allergy in later life.
We recommend that you always sit your baby in a highchair with a bib as they'll be a lot of mess,
in fact there’s going to be loads of mess and mess is great. Let your baby play with the food
so they can experience the texture, the smell, the colour and the taste of all the different
things they are getting on offer and this is just a normal part of their learning process
so just enjoy that as much as you can. Once your baby is used to sitting in that highchair,
they will quickly learn to associate the highchair with eating food and what you
will then find is that they will happily accept their food before their milk feed. But again,
there is no time limit on that, so just please don’t worry about that. Always supervise your baby when
they are eating and never leave them alone with food. When you’re feeding your baby don’t put
too much on the spoon and just make sure they swallow what’s in their mouth. So again just a
small amount on your spoon and don’t overload it. It’s totally normal for your baby to gag on food,
particularly at the start as they get used to moving the food around their mouth and sometimes
later when lumps and bumps are being introduced a wee bit more, so again – that’s normal.
From a choking risk, there are certain foods you would want to be particularly careful with.
And examples of those include, things like grapes and cherry tomatoes,
which I’ve got here. So these kinds of foods need to be quartered – you don’t need to take
the skins off them – but your baby can still pick up, put into their mouth and chew and swallow
safely.
Whole nuts shouldn’t be given to a child under the age of 5,
however, things like chopped nuts, small seeds, like sesame seeds that I have got here,
or nut butters, again which we’ve got here, are all acceptable to use from around 6 months.
If a baby was choking, you’ll find they are unable to make a noise, they probably won’t cough and
they will start to change colour. For information on how to deal with a choking baby, check out the
link to a video by the Red Cross, which you can access via a link at the bottom of the screen.
And finally, meal times should be a sociable event spending time with your baby and your
family. And remember, babies from a really early age learn by copying our behaviours,
so where we can we try and lead by example. So for instance, try and keep distractions to a minimum
at the table, so for instance - you might want to put your telly off, you might want to put your
phone away and the copying behaviour also applies to our eating habits. So, if your baby sees
us having healthy meals ourselves, it's much more likely that they're going to follow that too.
My final point is on Vitamin D. So, Vitamin D is the only vitamin supplement that is needed
for healthy term babies and children if they are getting a balanced diet.
Our Scottish Government recommend that babies are given up to 10 micrograms of Vitamin D per day.
And within NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde we have got a new Vitamin D product.
All children aged 3 and under are entitled to free Vitamin D drops as well as all breastfed
and mixed fed babies who are having less than 500 mls of formula of milk a day. Also,
all breastfeeding mums are entitled to free Vitamin D tablets, so if you are breastfeeding,
you will receive the first bottle of vitamins on the maternity ward, which contain around a 4 month
supply. After that, you just collect them from the pharmacy – you just need to ask at the counter.
If you need any more information on this, just please ask your health visitor.
So to summarise: be guided by your baby’s appetite, particularly at the start;
Let your baby experience lots of different flavours, colours and textures. Remember
to always supervise your baby with food and lastly, don’t forget about your Vitamin D.
From a personal point of view, my own two children were very different when they were offered solids.
My son, would have eaten everything that he was offered very quickly, whereas my daughter
took a lot longer. And as a parent, sometimes everything is just so worrying when you hear
what’s right and what should happen. Please don’t worry about any of this – as long as your baby is
accepting food and you’re following the guidelines that we’re offering, you will get there, so just
try and relax, as much as possible, and enjoy the whole experience.