What Food To Give Babies After 6 Months

What Food To Give Babies After 6 Months

Posted On February 11, 2025

Let Us Learn what food to give babies after 6 months and food for six-month-old babies and how to feed 6 Months Babies.

Why Solid Food Should be Introduced For Babies After Six Months

For infants beyond 6 months of age, breast-milk alone is not adequate. The introduction of food supplements along with breastfeeding is necessary for infants after 6 months of age. Providing suitable supplements to young children prevents malnutrition. Hygienic practices if ignored, while preparing and feeding the complimentary food to the child will lead to diarrhea.
For an infant, breast-milk is the best food. In India, most rural mothers are able to breast-feed their children for longer periods. In fact, this is a boon to Indian children, otherwise, the prevalence of under-nutrition among children would have been much higher. However, most children are solely breastfed even beyond the age of one year in the belief that breast-milk alone is more than enough for the child until he/she becomes independent to pick up food and eat. This results in malnutrition among young children. Working mothers, on the other hand, are not able to breast-feed their children for longer periods, as they go to work outside and not able to spend time with their children.

What Should Baby Eat After 6 Months?

Foods that we regularly feed to the infant, in addition to breast-milk, which provides sufficient nutrients are known as supplementary foods or complementary foods. These could be liquids like milk or semi-solids like kheer, khichdi in the case of infants, or solid foods like rice, dal, vegetables, etc., in the case of children over the age of one year.

Why Introducing Solid Food For Babies Is Important After 6 Months?

After birth, breast milk alone is enough for the infant. Requirements of all the nutrients increase with the infant’s growth. And also, the breast-milk secretion in the mother comes down with time. Therefore, infants are in need of other nutrients due to the two factors, that is, increased nutritional requirements and decreased availability of mother’s milk. Normally, these changes occur at the age of six months. Therefore, the promotion of optimal growth in infants, needs the introduction of good food supplements in addition to breastfeeding, from the age of six months onwards.

Preparing Baby Food For Babies After 6 Months. Homemade supplements

Food supplements can be prepared at home only from commonly used ingredients such as cereals like wheat, rice, ragi, jowar, bajra, etc., pulses like dhals, etc., groundnuts, sugar, jaggery, etc. Homemade supplements are easily digested by all infants. And also, homemade supplements are prepared in a hygienic manner and with care.

How To Feed infants and Babies After 6 months

Infants are not able to eat large quantities of food at once. Therefore, they should be fed small quantities at frequent intervals, 3 to 4 times a day. The food should be in semi-solid consistency for easy swallowing. Infants tend to spit out food when it is offered initially. This doesn’t mean the child dislikes the food. The fact is that the young child is not able to achieve the full coordination needed for the act of swallowing, and therefore, brings out the food by movements of its tongue. It develops swallowing when the food is given regularly every day.

Hygienic factors to be followed

Needless to say that hygienic practices should be followed. Vegetables, cereals, and pulses should be washed thoroughly to remove contaminants. Food should be properly cooked before feeding the infant. At the time of preparation and feeding, the mother should follow personal hygiene and the utensils used for cooking should be washed or sterilized properly. Pre-cooked or ready-to-eat foods should be stored in clean jars or bottles. As feeding an infant is time-consuming, the cup or the plate from which the infant is being fed should be kept covered to protect it from flies. Most of the time, diarrhea is caused by unhygienic practices adopted by mothers. The weaning foods which are properly cleaned and well-cooked are safe for infants.

As the introduction of supplements is very important for an infant, utmost care should be taken while preparing and feeding the infant. And most important is to start nutritious home-made food for an infant. Good and healthy food always keeps the body and mind healthy.

Gigglezz preschool aims at setting the stage for success. What children eat is very important, healthy food means a healthy body and healthy mind. Let’s together aim at providing good nutritional value for kids. To know more about Gigglezz preschool, visit our website https://www.gigglezz.com and follow us on our FB Page- https://www.facebook.com/gigglezzpreschool1/

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