What can I give a baby at 5 months? Vegetable and fruit purees for children

2024 Author: Priscilla Miln | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-15 22:35

Questions about the timing of the introduction of complementary foods and the list of foods allowed for each month have various controversial answers. After all, 20-30 years ago, children were given the first adult dishes in the form of drops of juice in the second and third months of life, but today it is strictly prohibited, and the period of acquaintance with new products has moved to 5-6 months. In addition, the rules and order of introducing complementary foods have changed. Some mothers find themselves in difficulty and cannot decide what to give a child at 5 months? To understand this, you need to consider the modern point of view of scientists, based on many years of experience and research activities.

When to start?

After conducting large-scale studies in the field of nutrition of crumbs in various countries of the world, WHO has developed recommendations that most pediatricians and mothers with experience agree with. In themcomplementary foods are said to be given from six months of age in addition to breastfeeding.

In practice, today, children's specialists adhere to the WHO methodology and for babies with normal indicators of growth, weight, he alth and development, they recommend waiting up to 5, 5- or 6 months. Complementary feeding of a child at 5 months is recommended to start if the child eats an adapted mixture. This recommendation is especially relevant for babies with underweight, poor appetite or, conversely, with a constant feeling of hunger, as well as problems in physical development (if there is low hemoglobin, rickets, and others).

Allowed Foods

Having de alt with the period of administration, mothers ask the following question: what can be given to a child at 5 months? The main goal of complementary foods is to provide the baby's body with additional calories and energy, so the prepared portion of the new product should have a high energy and vitamin-mineral value.

By this age, iron and zinc deficiency begin to appear in babies, which means that one of the dishes is suitable for dating: vegetable puree or gluten-free porridge. The successful introduction of complementary foods has happened - in 2-3 weeks you can choose the next product.

A 5-month-old baby's diet may include a mixed vegetable mix, porridge, and fruit puree. Each dish has its own nuances, which should be understood so as not to harm the fragile body of the baby.

Meat food will be next, but his babyreceives by the seventh month. Fish, cottage cheese, kefir, yogurt, egg, biscuits and juices are introduced later.

Eating mode

At the age of five months, the baby eats 5 times a day. Feeding a baby at 5 months with artificial nutrition and successful assimilation of complementary foods includes the following steps:

• The first time after waking up in the morning, a mixture is necessarily given.
• The second meal in the form of porridge will gradually develop in the baby after a year into a full-fledged milk breakfast. After porridge, you can offer dessert - fruit puree.
• Third time at lunch, the baby gets a vegetable mass.
• Fourth and fifth feedings unchanged: familiar formula.

When breastfeeding, the scheme is the same, only additional products are given at the second breakfast and the fourth meal, since a break of 6-8 hours is fraught with a decrease in the lactation process in the mother's body.

Vegetables

The most preferred first serving of adult food is vegetable puree. It is relatively high in fiber, minerals and vitamins. Vegetables for complementary foods are chosen when the toddler has normal or overweight or trouble with stools in the form of constipation. Such products are excellent for the functioning of an insufficiently mature intestinal tract.

There is another nuance. After tasting sweet porridge, so close in taste to the familiar milk, a small gourmet vegetable may be dismissive.

It is important to know what vegetables can be given to a child at 5 months. Choosing the first product is bettergive preference to zucchini, cauliflower, light pumpkin or broccoli, and other foods at this age are still undesirable. If the novelty is well accepted by the baby's body, then after 10-14 days you can try to offer a mixture of two vegetable components.

Which is better: homemade meals or canned food?

Some mothers cook their own crumbs, others choose vegetable purees for children in jars. Actually both options are good.

Preparing a vegetable serving for a baby is easy, especially in summer and autumn. Choose a seasonal vegetable, boil it without adding s alt, and then whisk until smooth and thick. It will be useful to cook it in a double boiler - it cooks quickly and almost all vitamin components are not destroyed.

Food from jars is no worse, it is especially useful in the winter-spring season, when the amount of vitamin and mineral components in natural vegetables is reduced. When buying, you need to pay attention to the composition, age group, production period and shelf life. Children's finished product for this age should not have artificial additives and a large number of ingredients. You need to be prepared for the fact that at first mom will have to eat almost all the puree from the jar. It is good for no more than a day when stored on the shelf of the refrigerator, and if you are late with a meal for more than 24 hours, then the next day the portion will no longer be suitable.

Porridge

This is a dish most little gourmets eat with pleasure. Porridge will gradually replace the second breakfast,providing the baby with an energy reserve, protein, fiber and vitamin and mineral components. It perfectly solves the problem with missing grams, therefore it is assigned to crumbs with low body weight as the first complementary food. When introducing it, you should know what you can give a child at 5 months from cereals. For this age, buckwheat, rice or corn porridge is suitable. Only such cereals are classified as hypoallergenic, since they do not contain gluten. This type of protein provokes tummy pains in babies and problems with the completely immature digestive system. Acquaintance with he althy oatmeal should be postponed for up to eight months, and with semolina - up to a year.

How to cook porridge?

At the age of 5 months, the baby should not cook porridge with cow or goat whole milk. It contains amylase, which the baby's body cannot break down due to the lack of certain enzymes. There are two ways to prepare a serving of porridge.

The first is to boil ordinary washed cereals well in water and grind with a blender into the finished mass. Sweetening or s alting is not recommended

Second is to purchase age-appropriate industrial-made dry porridge from the baby food section. It is enriched with vitamin and mineral components and has a balanced formula. This method is more reasonable, since such porridge not only cooks quickly, but also has a pleasant taste, which is why it is very loved by growing gourmets

When to introduce fruit puree?

As recommendedexperts, complementary foods for a child at 5 months begin with vegetable dishes, then porridge is added to the diet. After the successful introduction of the listed items, fruit puree can be offered as an additional dessert to the baby. It stimulates the secretion of certain gastric and intestinal enzymes. With such an additional intake with other types of products, a fruit portion not only does not irritate the mucous membrane of the digestive tract, but also helps to better digest other dishes.

Can fresh juices and fruit purees be given?

Everyone knows that the richest food in vitamins is fruits. In addition, they, as well as fresh juices or fruit puree, contain a wide variety of acids, coarse fiber and fructose, and therefore irritate the gastrointestinal mucosa.

As a result, the crumbs may experience such an adverse reaction as regurgitation, disorders in the form of diarrhea, intestinal colic, abdominal pain due to high gas formation or allergic skin rashes. Because of this, the introduction of fresh fruits is delayed until a later date and is not suitable for a five-month-old baby.

What should fruit purees look like?

At the age of 5 months, the baby can only eat fruit purees from jars prepared by industrial enterprises. They have undergone heat treatment, therefore they do not cause irritation of the digestive tract and in most cases do not have allergic consequences. Puree in jars contains such thickening elements as starch, pectin and guar gum, whichcharacterized by enveloping and softening functions. Thanks to them, the irritating properties of fruits are also reduced. Many types of puree are additionally enriched with mineral and vitamin components.

Before buying a jar of the product, you need to pay attention not only to the period of suitability and the recommended age, but also to the composition. Fruit puree should not contain sugar, sweeteners, various food acids, colorants and similar ingredients. An opened jar can be stored for a maximum of 24 hours (only on the refrigerator shelf).

Mom can make mashed potatoes in the home kitchen. To do this, fruits need to be baked or boiled, and then chopped with a blender or rubbed through a sieve.

The most suitable fruit purees for five months of age come from apples, pears, plums or bananas.

Product table

To make it easier for mothers, experts have developed a list of products included in the baby's diet, by month. The table below contains information on complementary foods, brief recommendations, and portion sizes at 5-6 months of age.

Product table

Dish	Recommendations	Serving size
Vegetable puree	Start with a one-component mass of white-green vegetables, after 2 weeks add another ingredient	First time ½-1 teaspoon, then after 5-7 days serving is about 150-170 g and replaces milk feeding
Dairy-free porridge	Only gluten-free cereals. After successfully introducing one species, you can try the next one	Initially, the baby tries ½-1 teaspoon, then a single serving (150–170 g) will force out formula or breasts from one feeding
Fruit Puree	It is necessary to start with a one-component dish prepared using the heat treatment of fruits, and as it is well digested, you can enter the following form	The initial sample of dessert after porridge is ½ teaspoon, in 5–7 days the dessert additive increases to 60–70 ml

Conclusions

WHO and currently the Ministry of He alth of Russia emphasize that the feeding of a child at 5 months consists mainly of breast milk or an adapted formula. Complementary foods from "adult" products are introduced as needed. It simply complements the breast or mixture, but by no means completely replaces it. That is why, at this stage of development, the introduction of new dishes in the indicated quantities should not become an end in itself for the mother.