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The menu of a child at 5 months is not very diverse yet. If your baby is breastfeeding and gaining weight well, he usually does not need anything extra. And if he is artificial, or he is underweight, it is time to introduce the first complementary foods. What foods to include in the diet, the pediatrician will advise, but the mother herself will not be superfluous to study this issue.
Approximate timing of the introduction of complementary foods
If a baby is not gaining the required weight by 4 months, pediatricians advise starting to add porridge to his diet. The most useful cereals for the first feeding are rice, buckwheat, corn, oatmeal. Complementary foods are introduced slowly, starting at 1 tsp. in a day. The first cereals should be one-component. And only after the child tastes the new product and gets used to it, you can begin to get acquainted with the next type of porridge.
Vegetables and cereals can be included in the child’s menu for 5 months
You should not rush to add new components to the diet. Mom must make sure that the baby is not allergic to a particular type of porridge. And acquaintance with other products should be postponed for a week or two.
If the baby is gaining weight well, then the introduction of complementary foods can begin at 5 months. And in this case, vegetables are the first to be introduced into the baby’s diet. The best vegetables to start complementary foods are courgettes, cauliflower, and broccoli.
Breastfed and bottle-fed babies for a week
Thus, in addition to milk or infant formula, vegetables and porridge should be present in the child’s diet if the baby did not gain weight well and began to receive complementary foods from 4 months. And his diet will look like this:
- At 6 am – breast milk or formula.
- At 10 o’clock – porridge, and then – supplementary feeding with mother’s milk or formula.
- At 14 o’clock – vegetable puree, and then – supplementary feeding with mother’s milk or a mixture.
- At 18 pm – breast milk or infant formula.
- At 22 pm – breast milk or infant formula.
At one time, the child needs to eat about 200 ml of food.
And if the child began to receive the first complementary foods only at 5 months in the form of vegetable puree, then during the second feeding the baby should be given mother’s milk or infant formula instead of porridge.
5 months is the time to start exploring new flavors. And for now, in addition to breast milk or formula, only cereals and vegetables can be in the child’s diet. It is still too early to give him meat, fruits, cottage cheese. Having tasted sweet fruits, the baby can give up vegetables. And his body is not yet ready for meat and cottage cheese.
New foods should be introduced patiently, and the child should not be forced to eat if he does not want to. Just keep offering small amounts of the vegetable or porridge every day. Gradually, the baby will get used to the new taste. The variety of the diet will form the correct taste habits in the child.