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Medical Video: How to feed a toddler: 12-18 month
At this age, your baby needs between 750 - 900 calories per day, and around 400 - 500 calories must come from breast milk or formula (about 24 oz. [720 ml] per day). But don't be surprised if your appetite seems to decline than before. This is because the growth rate is slowing down, and he also has so many new and interesting activities to distract him.
In about eight months, you might want to introduce "junior" food. These foods are a little more rough compared to baby food and packaged in larger jars, usually 6 to 8 ounces (180-240 ml). These foods require more chewing than normal baby food. You can also multiply your baby's menu and provide soft foods such as yogurt, oatmeal, softened bananas, potatoes, or porridge and even thick porridge vegetables. Eggs (including scrambled) are very good sources of protein, as well as other foods such as cottage cheese, greek yogurtand avocado. As always, give one meal at a time, then wait three to five days before giving another new food to make sure your child doesn't experience an allergic reaction.
In about eight to nine months, the baby's ability to use his hands is increasingly skilled. Give him his own spoon and let him play with the spoon at mealtime. After he knows how to hold it, dip it in the food and let him try to eat it himself. But don't expect much at first, because a lot of food will fall on the floor and in the chair. Place a plastic cloth under his chair to help make it easier to clean falling food.
Be patient and don't take a spoon from it. He not only needs practice but also your trust in his abilities. For a while you might want to alternately help him feed from the spoon you hold. After he can consistently use his own spoon to his mouth (which might be possible until after his first year), you may need to fill his spoon to reduce the mess, but still let the little one feed his own food.
In the early weeks of independent eating, this process may run more smoothly when he is really hungry and more interested in eating than playing. Even though your baby is now eating three times a day, like other family members, you may not need to force yourself to orderly eat at someone else's dinner hour. Many families feed the baby first and then let him eat healthy food by hand while others eat their food. Foods that can be eaten by hand for babies include small pieces of steamed vegetables, or soft fruits such as bananas, cooked with grain pastas, small pieces of whole wheat bread, chicken, scrambled eggs, or whole-grain cereals. Try to offer a variety of foods with choices of taste, shape, color, and texture, but always monitor your child for possible choking when swallowing food that is too large. Also, because of the reflexes that still tend to swallow without chewing, never offer your child peanut butter, large pieces of raw vegetables, whole beans, whole grapes, popcorn, raw peas, celery, chewing gum, hard candy, or other round hard foods , and always observe when the child eats. Choking can occur when eating sausages, grapes, or chunks of cheese or meat sticks, so these foods should always be sliced lengthwise and then cut into small pieces before being given to children at this age.
