Babies Eating Habits

It is important for babies to develop good eating habits right from the start. Babies do not have an instinct towards any particular kind of food when they start solids. Your baby's preference on the choice of foods depends on what you start feeding him. The choice of eating in all stages of his life depends mainly on the first foods that you set before him. You can guide him towards good and healthy feeding habits when you make the transition from breast milk and formula to solids.

Tips to Develop Babies Eating Habits

• Encourage him to eat wholegrain products. Give him whole grain bread instead of white bread whenever possible.
• Do not give him sweets or sweetened products. Your baby does not need sugar till he has completed a year. You can serve him fruits at the end of a meal after he has had his other not-so-sweet food such as vegetables. You can consider sweetening his food with natural fruit juice that have no sweeteners rather than sugar itself. The more you put off sweets, the more he will learn to enjoy the savory flavours.
• Your doctor may advise you to give him cow's milk after he is a year old. Give him the milk without flavouring it. Offer him plain milk instead of chocolate milk. Chocolate milk contains lots of sugar.
• Avoid salt for a year. Do not add salt to your baby's foods till he is one year old. Natural salts in the food meet his dietary requirements. So resist giving him those tasty salt biscuits as a snack.
• Serve the same food in different ways. For example, you can feed him a warm cereal one day and serve the same cereal cold another day. You can also feed him different vegetables each day. This helps him get used to different flavours.
• Once your baby is slightly older and understands the "once in a while concept", you can occasionally treat him to special foods like chocolate, etc.
• If your baby turns away from a particular food, try again after a few weeks or a month. He may like it later.
• Pay attention to your feeding habits. Your baby is very likely to follow your footsteps by setting you as an example.