Introducing Food & Beverages
Starting to self-feed
As your baby starts to grow familiar with mealtime and her developmental skills improve, she may be able to start feeding herself. This will be a fun—and sometimes messy—adventure! You may notice that she can now:
- Hold a cup on her own
- Hold small foods between her thumb and index finger
- Mash food with her jaws or teeth
- Play with a spoon and bring it to her mouth but can’t feed herself yet
What does all this development mean to your baby’s diet? She’s probably ready or close to being ready for GERBER® 3RD FOODS® purees that provide thicker textures and tender pieces for babies learning to chew.
What Should your Baby’s Diet Look Like?
Your baby’s main source of nutrition will still be from breastmilk or formula, but she may begin decreasing the amount she drinks as she eats more solid foods.
In addition to GERBER® 2ND FOODS® and 3RD FOODS purees, she may be ready to try finger-food snacks. Between meals, eating continues to be important, because your baby has a smaller tummy than adults. This means she may be eating about four to six times each day.
Balanced nutrition
It’s important to make every bite count so the foods she eats are healthy replacements for any decrease in breastmilk or formula.
At this time, parents are often tempted to introduce not-so-healthy foods. By 9-11 months, almost half of children are eating some sort of sweet during the day. It’s important to offer nutritious foods—the more she eats now, the more likely she’ll be to choose them down the road. That’s why 3RD FOODS dinners are made with blends of vegetables, grains, and meats/poultry to provide nutritious food experiences for your baby.
Click here to find menus for your Crawler.