We have talked several times about the benefits that the child, since he starts eating solid foods at six months, does so with his own hands.
Purees are not a good way to establish a baby's first relationship with food. It is believed that because they are easy to eat they are the best, but it is not so. The flavors of the food are mixed, and by giving them crushed, the baby does not stimulate chewing when he is already ready to do so after the first teeth come out. In addition, then it is often difficult to stop eating puree to pass solids.
Therefore, one of the recommendations of this form of feeding known as Baby Lead Weaning, is that the child passes directly from the tit to the macaroni, without stopping in the mash. That is, from breast milk to solids, but since they still do not know how to handle cutlery, they use their best tools: their hands, which are also much more stimulating when they come into contact with the temperature and texture of food . We give you a list of eight foods that your baby can start eating with his hands.
Vegetables
You can offer your baby cooked and cut vegetables so that they take them with their hands. The same ones that you use to puree, offer them in this way. For example, the potato, carrot, squash, zucchini, broccoli and cauliflower, which will also seem the most fun for its particular texture. You can also give tomato (skin peeling), green beans, sweet potato and onion.
After six months they can eat all the vegetables, although the Spanish Food Safety Agency recommends, as a precaution, Do not give spinach or chard as a single dish to babies before the first year of life. for its nitrate content. If these vegetables are included before the year, it should be ensured that the content of spinach and / or chard is not more than 20% of the total content of the food ration. Between 1 and 3 years it is recommended not to give more than one serving of these vegetables a day and avoid their consumption in children with gastrointestinal infections.
In Babies and more Baby-led Weaning and choking hazard: children who eat chunks are no longer in dangerBread
Since they start with complementary feeding, at six months babies can start eating gluten-free foods. It is recommended to introduce it in small quantities (for example, one or two cereal cups or one cookie a day) and gradually increase its consumption. At first you have to be vigilant to see how it feels and if it produces any kind of reaction.
After six months you can start offering a piece of bread to suck and suck. Even if you don't have teeth, coming into contact with the saliva will gradually undo it.
Vegetables
Legumes can also begin to be offered at six months and constitute a very important part of the diet for their nutritional contribution. Lentils, chickpeas, beans, peas ... The little ones will have fun trying to catch them with their fingers contributing to fine motor skills.
Vegetables combined with vegetables give us plenty of possibilities to include in daily recipes, both as an accompaniment or as a main course.
Pasta
Nothing is more fun for a baby than having a pasta dish without cutlery in front.
There is pasta in many different ways so you can try it. The best thing to do is start with the macaroni or spirals, which are bigger to catch with their little hands, and cook them until they are soft, not al dente. Do the test. He will have a great time.
Boiled egg
After 6 months, you can start offering hard boiled egg or boiled egg. Neither raw nor undercooked to prevent the risk of salmonellosis.
The most allergic is the white, so offer the yolk first in small quantities and a few days later the whole egg.
In Babies and more of all but this: prohibited foods in the diet of babies under one year oldFruit
The fruit is very stimulating for the baby because of its colorful and sweet taste. Prepare attractive dishes with pieces of fruit of various colors cut in different ways.
To start, it is ideal to do it with a banana that is very easy to eat. Also with cooked apple (raw is too hard) and pear cut into s or grated pieces, and the fruit of the slice, such as tangerine or orange, you can hold it and let the baby suck the pulp.
Fish
The baby can also eat by hand fish chips, always checking before it has no spine.
Fish is a food whose introduction was recommended to be delayed up to 9-12 months because it can cause allergy and because it contains some toxic substances harmful to small babies, but the new recommendations allow to introduce it from six months when complementary feeding begins.
It starts with white fish, which has less fat, or blue, alternating it with other meats.
Meats
Like fish, the meat should not be crushed into the mash because it mixes all the flavors.
After six months you can start introducing white meats (chicken, turkey, rabbit) because they are easier to digest and later, lamb, veal and pork. Here you have more information.
In Babies and more, too accustomed to crushing? Make me steal your foodAt first you should remove the skin to avoid drowning and cut the meat into small pieces.
As you see, there is life beyond the purees. There is a whole world of solid foods that the baby can start eating with his own hands from six months, always complementing milk, ideally breast milk, which remains its main food.
Dare to offer your baby food in this way. It is much more practical for everyone, since you do not have to prepare a meal different from that of the rest of the family, and you will be establishing a more solid relationship of the baby with their first foods, which will have an impact on a better diet.
