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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Feeding your baby: 8 months and over
Learning to feed themselves, sitting up well in a high chair, becoming more and more curious - there’s a lot to look forward to with your eight month old. It is important that at this stage you offer food before their usual milk feeds. This means that your baby will begin to get more of their nutrition from food than in the earlier stages.
At meal times they might enjoy eating their meals with the rest of the family and they’re probably keen to handle their own spoon or even eat with their hands. This is a great way for them to learn, experiment and be more independent at meal times. It’ll also improve their hand-eye coordination.
Here are a few tips to start you on the journey
- Prepare for the mess – it’s part of the fun! Your baby has discovered a whole new world to play with. Putting down newspaper or plastic sheeting under their highchair is a good idea as it’s surprising how far a little chunk of banana can travel.
- Damp cloths – have plenty of these handy for wiping messy faces and fingers, you might also want to invest in a large sized bib. Clean them up at the end of the meal as wiping a babies face while they are eating turns them off enjoying their food.
- Let them try – give your baby plenty of space to learn using fingers or spoons, but be close by to give them a hand if they need it.
Carry on with breast or formula feeds alongside solid foods, as milk will still be providing much of the nutrition your baby needs. Now you can offer solids before milk so they are more hungry for their food.