Introducing healthy eating habits early in life is essential for proper growth and development in babies. Eating the right food for babies at the right age helps ensure they get all the necessary nutrients, vitamins, minerals and other essential components for healthy growth.
In the first years of a child's life, the developments occur at an incredible rate. For example, the weight and the length of your baby doubles in the first year. The body composition changes at a rapid pace, and with it with it, the need for nutrients (macro- and micronutrients).
For proper growth and development of babies and toddlers healthy nutrition is essential from the very beginning. And although toddlers can basically eat what's in the pot, their needs are still different from those of adults. For example, a toddler between the ages of 1 and 4 needs 6 times more iron as an adult.
An unbalanced diet at a young age can have long-term health effects. Scientific research shows that nutrition both through the mother before birth, and in early age after birth, greatly affects health in adulthood.
Healthy and varied nutrition that exactly matches the age and development of the child is therefore a basic requirement for a good start. So it is certainly and definitely useful to gain knowledge about babies foods.
So were’re here to help you out with an age by age guide on what foods are best suited for babies during their first year of life. It will also discuss how to prepare nutritious meals and snacks that can help them learn to enjoy a variety of tastes and textures while providing the necessary nutrients.
Breastfeeding is the best nutrition for babies until at least the age of 6 months old. Experts worldwide agree on this. Breast milk contains virtually all the nutrients that an infant needs and provides protection against diseases and infections. Breastfed babies do need to take a supplement of vitamin D and K.
Breast milk does not contain enough vitamin K and vitamin D to meet the child's vitamin K needs in the first weeks after birth. Breastfed babies need 150 micrograms of vitamin K drops for the first 12 weeks. It is recommended that all children aged 0-4 years, regardless of diet type, receive 10 micrograms of vitamin D supplementation daily. Moms who avoid all animal products are recommended to take a vitamin B-12 supplement to prevent nutritional deficiencies in themselves and the baby.
If circumstances make it impossible to breastfeed, an infant formula which you buy at the pharmacist is the only safe and complete alternative. The composition
of this is largely established and supervised by law to ensure that all foods for sale
under the name infant formula meet the needs of babies during the first 6 months. Proper selection of the type of formula and proper preparation are very important.
In addition to the standard varieties, there are also foods for specific target groups, such as babies born prematurely, or babies who suffer from cow's milk allergy, cramps, spitting up, metabolic disorders or lactose intolerance. These are foods for medical use, which should be used on the prescription of a medical professional.
For the first 6 months, your baby needs an average of 150 to 180 ml of formula per kg of body weight. With breastfeeding, your child drinks on demand until satiated.
From 4-6 months, a baby needs more energy and nutrients, and it's time to start feeding alongside breast and/or bottle feeding to begin the first snacks. With bottle feeding from 6 months, follow-on milk is the right choice because its composition is tailored to the nutritional needs of this age group.
Between 4 and 6 months, a baby is ready for the first practice snacks, for example mashed or pureed fruit or vegetables, fresh or from a jar. For taste development it is important for babies early on to try many and often different flavors. If the child is introduced to various tastes at an early age, he will also later in life appreciate more different flavors.
If you start earlier than 4 months, your little one's digestive tract is not yet ready for solid food. This can cause food hypersensitivity, such as cow's milk allergy. If you start after 6 months, your baby may have more difficulty getting used to different tastes and textures.
Also, the risk of a food allergy is higher if you start after 6 months. Therefore, during the period between 4 and 6 months, watch your baby carefully and start when he seems ready.
For this age group there are medical foods available for babies with special health problems, to be used in consultation with medical professionals.
These practice snacks are not yet a substitute for breast and/or bottle feeding. Until the age of one year, breast or bottle feeding, in addition to solid food is still an important source of nutrients.
Every child has his own pace. One child will want to put a spoon full of rice porridge in his mouth sooner than the other. Your baby will tell you when he is ready for supplemental feeding.
From 8 months, the snacks gradually become real meals, gradually allowing the food to have a coarser structure. In principle, all the healthy foods listed in the nutritional pyramid, are suitable for feeding. There are also ready-to-eat baby products for this age group. These are easy, offer a lot of variety and must meet high quality requirements.
Almost all the healthy things you eat, your baby can eat too. For example, give him well mashed bites of vegetables or fruits. It is wise to start with mild flavors, such as banana, peach, carrots or cauliflower. Then the difference with the sweet milk food is not so big. If this goes well, you can let him try other flavors. You can then let him try pieces of bread (up to seven months without crust) or mashed potatoes or rice. Your child may even try finely ground (well done) meat or fish.
Honey because it might contain bacteria that makes children up to one year old very sick. For example, this bacteria can cause their muscles to sag.
Other bacteria sensitive food are raw meat or fish or raw eggs. Your baby is still very sensitive to the bacteria in them. For example, he can get toxoplasmosis.
Fruit juice can drown tender appetites for breast milk or formula which is still very important in this life stage. Too much juice can cause tooth decay, diarrhea and other chronic belly problems.
Cow’s milk and dairy products since they don’t have the nutrients such as iron and vitamin E a baby needs to grow and develop.
Sugar. Babies are generally born liking the taste of sweet foods, so we get why parents enjoy giving them to their little ones. The problem is, the earlier you introduce added sugars, the more likely your baby or toddler is to prefer and choose sweet foods into childhood and throughout the rest of their life. Eating foods that are high in sugar throughout childhood can lead to preventable diseases, such as heart disease, obesity and high blood pressure.
Foods high in salt. Your baby's kidneys are not yet fully developed. Therefore, they cannot process a large amount of salt properly.
Most smoked or cured meats and smoked fish since they contain nitrates and other chemicals and are high in sodium and animal fat.
Hooray, your baby is a toddler! Now that your child is 1 year old, he can eat all the things you cook on a daily basis. He eats three meals a day, for example a sandwich in the morning and afternoon and a hot meal in the evening. In between, give him two to a maximum of four snacks a day. By limiting the number of meals, you protect his teeth and weight.
Your toddler’s sky-high activity levels and his small tummy size means he needs to eat more often than you — roughly every two to three hours — to stay fueled.
Plan on offering snacks at regular times each day instead of on demand. Start with a mid-morning and mid-afternoon nosh, adding in a third snack if you consistently have a very long stretch in between meals.
A child tells itself how much it needs. So don't worry if it eats less. The next meal will make up for any deficiency by eating more.
How much children between the ages of 1.5 and 3 eat depends on their growth, age, gender and activity. On average, they need the amounts below per day.
| Daily amount | Alternative | |
| Water | 0,5 liter | |
| Bread | 1 - 3 loafs | |
| Potatoes | 1 - 2 pieces(50 - 100 g) | |
| Vegetables | 50 - 100 g | |
| Fruit | 1 - 2 pieces (100 - 200 g) | |
| Milk | 4 cups (500 ml) | Soya milks (made from soybeans) have similar protein levels to cow’s milk and so are often a good choice of milk for toddlers following a plant based diet. Pea milks are really good milk alternatives for toddlers as they are higher in protein compared to most other milk alternatives. They are fortified in calcium, vitamin B12, D and iodine. |
| Cheese | 10 g | |
| Meat, poultry, fish and meat alternatives (eg tofu, tempeh and microproteins | 25 - 50 g (weighed raw) | Egg: once a week or or legumes: 1 tablespoon weighed dry (15 g) or 3 tablespoons cooked (45 g) |
| Margarine on bread | 5 g per loaf | |
| Margarine or oil for preparation | max. 15 g |
Vitamins are essential for proper growth and development and help your child stay healthy. If your toddler eats according to a healthy diet, he should normally get enough vitamins through his food. The only vitamin he cannot get from his food is vitamin D.
Check our list with vitamins and where to find them in food
Important for: vision, supports the immune system, keeps the skin healthy and promotes normal growth.
Where? From animal foods, such as meat (especially liver), fish, dairy products, eggs, low-fat margarine, and cooking products. You can also find plant-based vitamin A in certain vegetables, such as carrots, kale, spinach and endive. Too much of the animal variety can cause poisoning, so limit products such as (spread) liver sausage and pâté.
Important for releasing energy from food, proper functioning of the nervous and immune systems, building amino acids, proper growth and the production of blood cells, among other things.
Where? Most types of vitamin B can be found in meat, fish, egg, dairy products, but bread, cereal products, potatoes, legumes and vegetables also contain many healthy B vitamins.
Important for your child's general health and immune system. It can also help their body absorb iron.
Good sources of vitamin C include: oranges, kiwi fruit, strawberries ,broccoli ,tomatoes, peppers
Vitamin D is only found in a few foods, such as oily fish and eggs. It's also added to some foods, such as fat spreads and breakfast cereals. But it’s difficult to get enough vitamin D from food alone.
The main source of vitamin D is summer sunlight on our skin. But it's important to keep your child's skin safe in the sun.Children should not be out in the sun too long in hot weather. Remember to cover up or protect their skin before it turns red or burns.
Young children should still have vitamin drops, even if they get out in the sun.
