Nutrition for a child at 5 months

What foods can you feed your baby at five months old to dilute the diet and give you maximum health benefits? We will talk about this in the article and tell you about the nuances of introducing complementary foods, as well as an approximate menu for the day.

What can a child eat at 5 months

At this age, nutrition is still based on breast milk or formula. After all, the child has not acquired a mouthful of teeth and is only learning to swallow, and the small ventricle is not ready for adult food. therefore to the choice of food must be approached with great care.

Your doctor may recommend complementary foods if you are underweight or have low hemoglobin levels. Therefore, the following diet is prescribed:

• small amounts of fruit purees;
• chicken or quail egg yolk;
• dairy-free cereals;
• vegetable puree;
• the juice;
• cottage cheese.

In summer, there are no problems with fruits and vegetables, so you can cook everything yourself. Fruits are grated on a fine grater, and vegetables are boiled and grated.

Cottage cheese is bought especially for children or you can make it yourself.

If the child is gaining enough weight, blood tests show good results, then you can postpone complementary foods. But, as a rule, many mothers are already impatient to introduce their baby to new food.

Menu for a baby at 5 months

If you decide to introduce complementary foods, then the approximate diet of the child for the day should look like this:

First breakfast. Breast mmilk or milk mixture.

Lunch. Dairy-free porridge, cottage cheese or fruit puree. The juice.

Dinner. Milk or mixture... Vegetable puree.

Afternoon snack. 1/2 yolk and juice.

Dinner. Milk or mixture.

Fruit puree, which is recommended for a 5 month old baby, is an apple. A pear is given only if the baby is constipated. Basically, this problem occurs with artificial feeding.

Allowed vegetable purees:

• zucchini;
• broccoli;
• cauliflower.

Such a small variety, in our opinion, gives the child a lot of pleasure from eating. New tastes and smells make the baby interested in food. The main thing is not to add salt or sugar.

How much should a child eat at 5 months

It all depends on the baby's appetite and the fat content of the milk. That is, the fatter it is, the longer the child stays full. The mixture does not give a long feeling of fullness. Therefore, the baby may ask for food more often. If we consider the exact numbers, then for 1 meal should be eaten at least 180-200 g. For a day, if the child eats 5-6 times - from 800 to 1000 g.

Many mums stick to on-demand feeding - when they want to, then they eat. In this case, less can be eaten at one time, because not much time has passed since the previous feed.

When feeding on demand, it is important to remember that the interval between feedings should not be less than two hours. If it is smaller and the child constantly requires food, then you should consult a doctor.

Mom should also be alerted to the following situations:

• If the child does not take a pacifier, but often asks for breast. It turns out that the baby overeats, and the milk does not have time to gain. Are occurring frequent regurgitation. The stomach empties and the feeling of hunger reappears. And the mother again gives the breast in order to calm the baby.
• The child hardly cries and sleeps all the time. Perhaps the mother has little milk and the baby simply does not have the strength to cry and ask for food. In this situation, you need to pay attention to the baby's weight. If the increase is small, then the doctor may prescribe supplementary feeding or complementary foods.

Therefore, after the experience of feeding, at the request of the mother, they switch to the hourly diet. So the baby becomes calmer, he knows that he will soon be fed. And it's easier for mom - the baby can be safely left with dad or grandmother.