Nutrition & Food

Tips on Food & Feeding

• Start with small amounts of high iron foods like iron-fortified infant cereal or well-cooked finely minced meat, poultry or fish. Mix with breast milk, formula or water. Use a single grain, iron-fortified infant cereal to start with.
• Offer cooked well mashed vegetables like yams, sweet potatoes, potatoes, squash, carrots, and mashed fruit like pears, peaches and bananas. Continue to offer meat, poultry and fish while adding other high iron foods like cooked egg yolk, lentils, beans and tofu.
• Health professionals recommend that egg white not be given to babies until 1 year to lower the chance of an allergic reaction.
• Offer food at regular times.
• Always stay with your baby while he or she is eating or drinking. In addition to their safety, babies and children enjoy company while eating
• Expect a mess. It’s part of learning to eat! You decide what foods to offer. Let your baby decide how much and whether to eat.
• Avoid foods that can cause choking such as popcorn, peanuts, nuts hard candies, carrots and other hard raw vegetables, whole marshmallows, jellybeans, globs of peanut butter, ice cubes and chips. Hot dogs and grapes should be sliced lengthwise first, then into small pieces.
• Honey can cause botulism poisoning in babies and is not recommended for babies under one year old.
• Milk, juice, and soft cheese, such as feta, brie and camembert should be pasteurized.