Breast is best
Breast milk is the best milk for babies. Breast milk provides the ideal balanced nutrition and protection for your baby. Maternal nutritional requirements increase during pregnancy and breastfeeding. Therefore mothers’ diets should include a wide variety of nutritious food and healthy snacks.
If you are considering bottle feeding, always seek professional advice as once bottle feeding has commenced it can be difficult to revert to breast feeding. Partial bottle feeding may also adversely affect breastfeeding by reducing the supply of breast milk. Always use and prepare infant formula as directed by the manufacturer; unnecessary or improper use of infant formula can be hazardous to the health of your baby.
Before using infant formula, always consider the social and financial implications, such as issues of convenience and cost to the household of using infant formula for at least 12 months. If you are considering using infant formula, it is important to discuss this with a health professional.
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Food for your toddler: 12 months on
Once solid food is a major part of your toddler’s nutrition it’s time to start introducing new flavours, colours and textures to encourage their development. From 12 months you can also move on to Heinz Stage Four foods. These are the Little Kids meals with the orange labels. These are designed to provide them with the right mix of nutrients for their age.
Your baby can now eat most of the foods that grown ups eat. Make sure you give them a good selection of tastes and textures to keep them interested.
Here’s what to look out for:
- Self feeding – your little one is probably pretty keen to feed themselves at this stage. This is great for their mental and physical development.
- Prepare for the mess – it’s part of the fun! Your baby has discovered a whole new world to play with. Have a large bib and plenty of damp cloths on hand.
- Hanging out – mealtimes are social and your little one will probably want to join in with the rest of the family.
- Chewing – learning to chew is an important part of your toddler’s development. They don’t need all their teeth to do it – chewing with gums is fine.
- A little suspicious – it’s normal for toddlers to be a little dubious of new foods at this age. Keep offering up variety and plenty of finger foods. They’ll move past this stage.