Baby food diversification: the rules to follow

Diversification: four meals a day for babies 6-8 months old

This is one of the objectives of dietary diversification: to get to this rhythm, from 6-8 months, and keep it later to avoid snacking, the cause of dietary imbalance, or even overweight in predisposed children. . The ideal is toestablish regular hours for the four meals of the day (morning, noon, afternoon and evening). This does not exempt you from continuing to bottle-feed at the same time. Until 1 year old, your little one needs at least 500 ml of breast or infant milk per day.

Start food diversification gradually

Food diversification must be done gently, in small doses, at the rate of a few teaspoons to start. We often tend to give too much of everything to this baby whose progress is so prodigious every day! However, each child evolves at his own pace. At the beginning, we introduce new foods, to make him discover other flavors and textures.. It is only after several months that they will participate in food balance of the child.

Introduce one flavor at a time to baby’s plate

The interest of this initiation is to make him appreciate by the eyes, the taste buds… and the fingers, new foodstuffs. It is therefore preferable to separate food well (except, at the beginning, the mixed meat and fish, which are too dry), andopt for one flavor at a time. The idea is of course to allow babies to discover tastes one by one but also to identify possible allergies.

Diversification: a variety of foods are offered to your baby

It’s here frequency of food and consistency changes that best train babies to accept new things. We start with sweet flavors and foods that are easy to digest. At the beginning, we forget the cabbage, the peppers, the green of the leeks… In practice: Monday, we try the carrot puree, Tuesday that of green beans, Wednesday, the leek-potato soup… Later, the melting pieces potatoes, finely grated raw vegetables …

Food diversification: we don’t give up!

Just present a food that the child does not like a priori at least eight times, so that he begins to enjoy it. The ruse: we intercalate him, every other day with the one he knows and loves very much. For a food diversification that “works”, you need skill and patience : every child is different.