How to transition baby from Puree to table food
How To Transition Baby From Puree To Table Food, Best Practices
For a baby to grow, the baby has to be introduced to feeding gradually and procedurally. That is, the baby cannot be suddenly introduced to taking in coarse adult human food. It is the baby’s parents (especially) the mother to oversee this transitioning (from breast milk to solid food).
It is important that this transition is smooth; it should not produce any side effects on the baby’s health, and it should have all the right nutrients needed for the baby to attain mental and physical development.
So, if, as a parent, you are confused about what to do during this period, it is very natural. Especially if this baby is your first. To fully understand what you need to deal with, let’s see the signs that your baby is ready for the transition
How To Know Your Baby Is Ready To Transition To Table Food
Naturally, your baby should start getting ready to transition within the space of 15months above. However, other than the age factor, there are certain signs your baby would show. These signs would be analyzed below, and they should point you to take active steps in welcoming the baby into the world of grown-up feeding.
1. Your baby attempts to hold or use utensils
Your baby has been around you for several months. Through one means or the other, they must have seen and internalized the surrounding approach to doing things. Notable among the very first set of things a baby observes are utensils.
Therefore, it is only natural if the baby attempts to imitate you by feeding with these things. It is an indicator of cognitive and physical growth, and it is a major sign that the baby is indeed ready to transition to eating table food.
2. Your baby demands more food
As a pointer to transitioning, your baby gets increasingly and repeatedly dissatisfied with the same quantity of puree they are used to. Not just that, they consciously make demands for more food. More food demand is most times equivalent to growth. When this happens, try a more grown-up feeding diet.
3. Your baby becomes very picky, especially to pureed food
The baby naturally grows tired of Purees when the time comes for them to feed on a more solid food form. You could call this natural instinct. Therefore, when you notice that your baby starts to reject purees consistently, especially if they are in the age range, try table foods.
3. Your baby becomes very open to trying out new food
There comes a stage when your baby becomes scarily open to trying out almost any kind of food item you feed them with. This is a strong sign that you need to transition the baby. During the phase, the baby falls in love with certain food items whose taste they consider unique. The love for these food items may grow with them into their active teenage years.
How to help your baby transition safely from purees to table food
1. Start with something significant
When you discover that your baby is ready to transition, you need to be careful about your choice of food. Simply put, you need to choose a relatively large food size compared to what the baby feeds on. After doing them, chop the food into the sizes you are sure are safe for your baby. You should be careful not to make them too small to not give off the same front as chunks in pureed food items.
2. Serve this food separately on suction plates
It is best to prepare different varieties of food. However, in doing this, you should serve these food items on different plates to ease your baby to make a choice. This is important in the case where your baby is sensitive to certain food items. Finally, you should make sure to serve your baby’s food on a suction plate to prevent them from spilling food.
3. Introduce feeding utensils made for babies
As a means of cementing the transition, you should be sure to get baby-sized spoons, forks, and cups and encourage your baby to feed using these utensils. This helps the baby develop the necessary motor skills, and it further stimulates the baby’s interest in table foods.
4. Choose your food in a gradual progression
Even upon introducing your baby to a grown-up style of feeding and food, you have to be careful it is not too sudden. Your choice of food items must grow gradually in coarseness. By implication, you can alter the texture of the food by altering the cooking intensity. Irrespective of how don’t feed your baby food that’s too hard or too coarse.
5. Make sure the food’s taste is encouraging
Upon attempting to transition to table food, try to choose food items that can encourage your baby to eat. This means that the food’s taste must be appealing to the taste buds of the body.
You should also take note to watch out for certain reactions in your baby when transitioning. Some factors like allergies and sensitivities have to be taken into account. For example, certain babies are genetically engineered to repel some types of food items. Therefore, feeding these food items in large amounts (or continuously) can trigger severe health complications.
You need to be patient enough to understand that not all babies can adapt to using utensils at the same time. Irrespective of whatever signs of growth, patience and keen observation are required to help your baby navigate through to this phase and beyond.
Note this: transitioning to table feeding is an important growth metric in babies. Just like all other stages indicating growth, achieving it may not always be easy. Always remember that.
Have You Read These Yet?
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Conclusion
As humans grow, we need just the right type of food to fuel our bodies. Eating food items below our nutritional requirements is as dangerous as following a diet above it. But, of course, no one wants repercussions of misplace feeding. That is why you should help your baby transition and transition right.
