How old can babies eat solid food? What are the requirements for babies to eat solid food?

We all know that babies are generally breastfed soon after birth, and when they grow up to a certain stage, they will start to add complementary foods. There are many things to pay attention to when adding complementary foods to babies, especially the type of complementary foods, most of which will add some liquid food. So at what age can babies eat solid food? Let's take a closer look!

When can your baby eat solid food?

In order to allow the baby's intestines to adapt, in addition to breast milk, you can first eat some muddy foods, such as mashed potatoes, rice noodles, steamed egg yolks, etc., and then slowly add them. When the baby's deciduous teeth erupt around 8 months, you can eat some solid food by yourself, such as steamed bread slices, biscuits, etc. This can exercise the baby's chewing ability and promote the growth of teeth, which is what we call "teeth grinding". However, the mother must hold it personally and observe it at any time to avoid choking.

When babies are 10 to 12 months old, they are curious about watching adults eat, so they usually eat by themselves. My friend's son is 11 months old and he can eat biscuits and steamed buns by himself. Parents should not be afraid that the child will dirty his clothes, because this period is the best time to train the baby's independence.

Due to individual differences, the specific growth and development of each baby is different. The specific time for the baby to eat solid food can be determined by comprehensively considering the baby's teething time, the baby's gastrointestinal digestion and absorption ability, and the baby's acceptance of complementary foods.

What should I pay attention to when my baby eats solid food?

After your baby can eat solid food, there are still many things to pay attention to:

1. Reasonable combination of food types and sufficient supply to avoid malnutrition

Babies are prone to malnutrition problems, which are usually caused by poor feeding by their parents.

When adding complementary foods, breast milk or formula milk powder should still be adequately supplied. In addition, the specific types of complementary foods also need to be reasonably matched, and attention should be paid to feeding the baby in a timely and sufficient manner.

Weight is the criterion for judging whether a baby is malnourished. If it is 15% to 25% lower than the reference value for the same age, it is mild malnutrition; 25% to 40% is moderate malnutrition; and more than 40% is severe malnutrition.

2. Eating solid food is still a long way from eating the same meals as adults.

After your baby can eat solid food, do not feed him adult food, even if it is easy to swallow or chew. This is mainly because adult food contains more condiments, which will burden the baby's digestive and metabolic systems on the one hand, and change the baby's taste, so that he no longer likes his own light complementary food.

What are the taboos for babies to eat solid food?

Must be eaten under adult supervision

When children are given solid food to eat by themselves, an adult must be present to supervise them to prevent choking accidents.

Don't feed your baby while lying down

When feeding your baby complementary food, do not let the baby lie down to eat. We once had an incident where a father was feeding his child, and the child was half lying on the sofa to eat. As a result, the child choked. When his father sent him to our clinic, the child had already gone into shock. It was not known whether the child could be saved after being sent to the hospital. The doctor at the clinic said that the food had entered the trachea.

Don't feed your baby hard food.

Although babies can eat solid food, they cannot eat hard food. When my eldest child was 10 months old, the girl next door fed him a milk tablet without our knowledge. The baby just grew two milk teeth to chew insoluble food, and sugar is not easy to dissolve. As a result, when we found it, the sugar was stuck in his throat and his eyes rolled back. I was so scared that I cried. Later, the doctor in the clinic helped him stand upside down and get half of it out. He asked us to go to the hospital for the other half. Fortunately, the baby vomited it all out. That time was really scary.

Don’t let your baby eat nuts by himself.

Don’t let your baby eat small foods or nuts by himself. Because babies are small, they can easily inhale them into their trachea or get stuck in their noses without knowing what they are doing. If you want to eat them, it’s best to crush them before giving them to your baby.

Stone fruit

When feeding fruits with pits to babies, the pits should be removed first, especially for fruits such as winter dates.

In addition to this, jelly should not be given to children under 3 years old. There are countless cases of children choking when eating jelly.