Baby feeding at 12 months: meals like the grown-ups!

There you go, baby is getting ready to blow out his first candle! During this first year of feeding, he went from very regular small feedings or small bottles to four meals a day, very complete and composed of purees and pieces. A nice progression which is far from over!

Food: when does baby eat like us?

At 12 months, that’s it: baby eats almost like us ! The quantities remain adapted to its age and weight, and raw ingredients such as milk, eggs, raw meat and fish remain prohibited. up to at least three years. Its diet is now well diversified.

We remain measured on the amounts of sugar and salt, but we can start if necessary to add a little to baby’s meals. So we can eat almost the same plates vegetables, starches and legumes, crushing baby food a little more.

What meal for a 1 year old baby?

At twelve months or one year, our child needs 4 meals a day. In each meal, we will find a contribution of vegetables or fruits, a contribution of starches or proteins, a milk contribution, a contribution of fat and, from time to time, a contribution of proteins.

The food should be well cooked and then mashed with a fork, but you can also leave it next to the small pieces, well cooked too, that could be crushed between two fingers. Thus, our child will have no difficulty crushing them in his jaw, even if he does not yet have small teeth!

Example of a meal day for my 12 month old baby

  • Breakfast: 240 to 270 ml of milk + a fresh fruit
  • Lunch: 130 g of coarsely crushed vegetables + 70 g of well-cooked wheat with a teaspoon of fat + a fresh fruit
  • Snack: a compote + 150 ml of milk + a special baby biscuit
  • Dinner: 200 g of vegetables with starchy foods + 150 ml of milk + a fresh fruit

How many vegetables, raw fruit, pasta, lentils or meat at 12 months?

As for the amounts of each ingredient in our child’s meals, we adapt to their hunger and growth curve. On average, it is recommended that a 12 month or 1 year old baby consume 200 to 300 g of vegetables or fruit at each meal, 100 to 200 g of starch per meal, and no more than 20 g of animal or vegetable protein per day, in addition to his bottles.

In general, we recommend give fish to her 12-month-old child twice a week at most.

How much milk for my 12 month old child?

Now that our child’s diet is well diversified and that he eats correctly, we can gradually reduce and according to his needs the quantity of bottles of milk or the feedings he drinks each day. ” From 12 months, we recommend on average no longer exceed 800 ml of growth milk, or breast milk if you are breast-feeding, every day. Otherwise, it may make too much protein for the baby. », Explains Marjorie Crémadès, dietician specializing in infant nutrition and the fight against obesity.

Likewise, cow’s milk, sheep’s milk or plant-based milk made from soy, almond or coconut juice are not suitable for the needs of one-year-old babies. Our child needs growth milk until he was three years old.

What if baby refuses an ingredient or pieces?

Now that the baby has grown well, he too is concerned with recommendations such as eating 5 fruits and vegetables per day ! However, from 12 months, and especially from 15, babies can begin to refuse to eat certain foods. This period is called food neophobia and concerns nearly 75% of children between 18 months and 3 years old. Céline de Sousa, chef and culinary consultant, specialist in infant nutrition, gives us her advice to face this period… without getting nervous!

« We are often helpless as parents when faced with this “no!” baby, but you have to succeed in telling yourself that it is not just a passing and not to give up! If our child starts to refuse foods that he liked before, we can try to present it in another form, or to cook it with another ingredient or a condiment that would sweeten its taste.

A good method too is to put everything on the table, from starter to dessert, and to let our baby eat in the order he wants … It’s a little disturbing but the important thing is that our child eats, and too bad if he soaks his chicken in its chocolate cream! We have to involve our baby as much as we can at this time of the meal: show him how we cook, how we do the shopping … The key word is patience, so that baby regains a taste for eating!

Last very important point, it is not recommended to react by depriving our child of dessert: the important thing is that he eats and that his meal is balanced, so we do not cook anything else if he refuses to eat his rice, but we keep the contribution of a dairy product and a fruit. Let’s try not to see this period as a whim of our baby, but more as a way for him to assert himself.

And if we feel that we are no longer able to cope or that our child’s food neophobia has consequences on his growth curve, we should not not hesitate to consult your pediatrician and to talk about it around you! », Explains chef Céline de Sousa.

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