Feeding Your Baby - 6 to 9 months • Back to Feeding Your Baby • Baby Food • Vegetables • Fruit and Fruit Juices • Meat and Meat Alternates • Sample Menu - 6 to 9 months Cereals with added breast milk or formula, fruit or vegetables are still considered a cereal serving. They do not replace fruit, vegetables or milk in your baby’s diet. Baby Food When your baby is eating solid foods (anything other than breastmilk or formula), you will need to decide what kind of foods to offer your baby. Making your own baby food can save you money and time, allows your baby to eat a greater variety of food and helps make the change in texture of foods easier. Here is a general guide for adding liquid (sterilized water, breastmilk, or formula) to cooked foods for making baby food. Food type Amount of liquid Yield Blender time FRUITS 75-125 ml (1/3 – ½ cup) cooked fruit 10 ml (2 tsp.) liquid if necessary 75-125 ml (1/3 – ½ cup) 15-45 seconds VEGETABLES 200 ml (3/4 cup) cooked vegetables 45 ml (3 tbsp.) liquid 75-125 ml (1/3 – ½ cup) 1-2 minutes MEAT (beef, fish, poultry) & ALTERNATIVES (beans, lentils, & legumes) 60 ml (4 tbsp.) liquid 73-125 ml (1/3 – ½ cup) Process until smooth The Leeds, Grenville, and Lanark District Health Unit has a resource called Making Your Own Baby Food, which contains recipes and more information on making baby food at home. Contact the Health Action Line (1-800-660-5853)for more information. Commercial baby food is another option for your baby. A few things to keep in mind if using commercial baby food: Read the labels to avoid unnecessary ingredients like starch, citric acid, and sugar. The first ingredient listed on the label is present in the largest amount. Make sure the safety seal on the jar of baby food has not been broken. When you open a jar of baby food, listen for a “popping sound”. If it does not make this sound, throw it out. The food inside may have spoiled. Opened jars of commercial baby food can be kept covered, in the fridge, for up to 3 days. A note about heating baby food: You can thaw frozen food in the refrigerator or as you reheat it. An egg poacher, double boiler or a dish in hot water are excellent ways to warm baby food. Be sure to stir the food and test the temperature on the back of your hand before serving it to your baby. What feels warm to you may feel hot to your baby. Do not use a microwave to heat baby food. This can create “hot spots” of steam that can burn baby’s mouth. Texture It is important to challenge your baby by changing the texture of food, from pureed, to strained, to soft mashed, and then to regular table foods. To the top Vegetables Offer vegetables about 2-3 weeks after you offer pablum or meat/meat alternatives. Vegetables are often introduced before fruit so your baby will not expect all foods to taste sweet. Choose mild tasting vegetables such as squash, peas, sweet potatoes, green or yellow beans. Try the strong tasting, higher fibre vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli and brussel sprouts when your baby is a little older. For a baby less than 6 months of age, do not mix “high nitrate” vegetables with their cooking water e.g. carrots, spinach, beets, broccoli, cauliflower, turnips, rhubarb, and radishes. The nitrates in the cooking water can make your baby sick if they are present in high amounts. To the top Fruit and Fruit Juices Offer fruit 2-3 weeks after you’ve offered vegetables. Avoid commercial fruit desserts. They are not pure fruit. Mild-flavoured fruits such as apples, pears, peaches, apricots, plums or bananas are good first choices. It is best to delay juice until baby is eating a variety of cereals, vegetables, fruit, and meats. Babies do not need fruit juice - you can wait until your baby is close to a year old before offering juice, and only offer juice in a cup. When juice is offered, you should dilute 2 ounces of juice with 2 ounces of water. You can offer juice when starting your baby on a cup. Limit your baby to less than 4 ounces of diluted fruit juice per day. Juice should not replace the nutrients found in breast milk or formula in your baby’s diet. To the top Meat and Meat Alternatives Meat and meat alternatives are good sources of iron. At first, serve only 1 teaspoon (5ml) of pureed meat. Offer plain pureed meat, not mixed with vegetables. Offer one new meat every 3-4 days. Commercial “meat and vegetable” dinners are low in meat content. It is better to buy meats and vegetables separately and then combine them on your own. Begin with pure meat products. Chicken, turkey, veal, lamb, beef and lean pork are good choices. Limit meats such as bologna, ham, wieners or sausage because of their high nitrate and salt content. If you make your own baby food, make sure you remove all bones and chunks of meat. These could cause your baby to choke. Egg Yolks can be offered as an alternative to meat. The yolk can be separated from the egg white and cooked, or it can be removed after the egg is hard-boiled. Do not give egg white to your baby until he/she is 12 months old because it can contribute to an allergic reaction in young infants. (Note: egg yolks have very little iron) Legumes such as cooked, mashed kidney beans, chickpeas or lentils can also be offered instead of meat. To avoid gas and cramps, introduce legumes in very small servings, such as every second day or as your baby tolerates. Milk Products - Offer mild shredded cheese and yogurt to your baby after meats have been introduced. Milk products add variety, fat, calcium and protein to your baby’s diet. Milk products for baby should not be low fat choices - they need the fat for brain development. To the top Sample Menu 6 to 9 Months Feeding Kind of Food Early Morning • Breastmilk or Iron-fortified formula 6-8 oz. The early morning feeding may not continue past 7 months, depending on your individual baby. Breakfast • Breastmilk or Iron-fortified formula 6-8 oz. • 3-4 tbsp. infant cereal Lunch • Breastmilk or Iron-fortified formula 6-8 oz. • 1-3 tbsp. Vegetables • 2-3 tbsp. Fruit • 1-3 tbsp. meat or meat alternatives Late Afternoon • Breastmilk or Iron-fortified formula 6-8 oz. Supper • Breastmilk or Iron-fortified formula 6-8 oz. • 3-4 tbsp. infant cereal • 2-3 tbsp. Vegetables • 2-3 tbsp. fruit Evening • Breastmilk or Iron-fortified formula 6-8 oz. Adapted from “Sample Menu Ideas for Babies on Solid Foods”, A Guide to Infant Feeding from Birth to 24 months, KFL&A Health Unit, 1995. oz.=ounces  tbsp.=tablespoon  infant cereal=pablum   To the top