Breastfeeding and complementary foods – What should be considered?

Babies should – if possible – be fully breastfed at least until the beginning of the 5th month of life. Depending on whether there are already signs of maturity, supplementary feeding can be started from the 5th month of life. However, as the introduction of complementary foods is slow and gradual, breastfeeding should continue. In the beginning, the complementary food did not replace a whole meal, so that breastfeeding is usually necessary in addition to the midday porridge. Gradually, however, the complementary food replaces milk meals until they are completely superfluous.

Which side dishes are recommended?

In principle, a simple teaspoon can of course be used to feed the supplementary food. There are, however, special teaspoons that are smaller and narrower and therefore may be more suitable. The spoons are also made of relatively soft plastic and may therefore be more comfortable for the child than a teaspoon. For the feeding parents, long-stemmed spoons are particularly suitable, as they can also be used to reach the bottom of the pap jar. Of course, this only applies to those who use pap jars.

At what point should my baby start eating meat?

The first side dish with meat is the vegetable-potato-meat porridge. The introduction, however, will be gradual. First of all, vegetable porridge is used.

If these are well tolerated and removed, potatoes and oil are added. Finally meat is added. The addition of meat can begin approximately from the 2nd to 3rd week after the introduction of Beikostein.

Is there any side dish to drink?

No. Supplemental food is something the kids are supposed to eat. The little ones are already accustomed to the right drinking through their mother’s milk for several months, it is now important that they slowly get used to eating. From the time of feeding the baby with supplementary food, it is of course important to provide the child with something to drink in addition to breast milk. For example water, highly diluted fruit juices or unsweetened teas.

Is there also a vegetarian side dish?

Of course there is a vegetarian side dish. The supplementary food consists first of vegetables and potatoes. Then meat should be added.

The recommendation for parents who want to feed their children a vegetarian diet is to replace the meat with cereals. The second and third porridge (milk-cereal porridge and fruit-cereal porridge) are vegetarian anyway. Parents who are vegetarians and want to feed their child in the same way only have to find substitutes for the meat meals and possibly fish meals.

Meat is an important source of iron. Therefore the iron has to be supplied differently. For this purpose cereal products are suitable.

These include oat flakes and wholemeal pasta. Vitamin C promotes the absorption of iron, so in both vegetarian and non-vegetarian diets, porridge should be combined with vegetables containing vitamin C (cauliflower, kohlrabi, spinach) or fruit (citrus fruits). A vegan diet should not be used for a child, as it deprives the child of essential nutrients.