Complementary foods usually begin when the baby is six months old, but sometimes doctors recommend introducing new foods earlier. If the baby is fed an artificial mixture, or the amount of breast milk is not enough, then the first complementary foods begin at 5 months.

How do you know when it's time for your baby to introduce complementary foods?

5 month old baby diet

The diet of a 5-month-old child should be such that the baby is used to receiving food at the same time. baby feeding chart 5 months breastfeeding:

• After waking up, breast milk.
• Second meal. Vegetable puree or 50 grams of gluten-free dairy-free cereal. We breastfeed.
• Lunch: breast milk
• Dinner: puree (from vegetables or fruits), breast milk
• 22.30 Chest

The diet of children on an adapted mixture:

• After waking milk formula (200 ml)
• 11.30 Porridge prepared on the basis of milk formula
• 15.30 One-component vegetable puree, mixture
• 19.00 Fruit or vegetable puree, mixed
• 22.30 Milk formula

How much solid food should a 5 month old baby eat?

Many young mothers are wondering how much complementary foods a baby should eat at 5 months?

Infants 5 months of age who are formula fed receive a smaller portion than infants. This is due to the fact that the mixture is higher in calories than human milk. A baby should eat no more than 900 ml per day. Babies should eat 50 ml of porridge, 50 grams of mashed vegetables and fruits. Children 5 months old, eating a mixture, receive 30 grams of vegetables, fruits and 30 ml of porridge.

Recipes that can be given to five-month-old babies

The menu of a child at five months is based on mother's milk or a mixture. If complementary foods begin with vegetables, the baby will eat porridge with pleasure. If the acquaintance begins with porridge, he can refuse vegetables, because porridge is much tastier. Many people prefer to prepare mashed potatoes themselves from organic vegetables. The menu of a 5-month-old baby will be rich in essential trace elements. Cooking dishes from vegetables will not take much time, but will bring tremendous benefits to the health of the little man.

Kashi

If you are categorically against ready-made baby cereals, try making your own porridge for your baby. To do this, washed cereals (for example, rice, buckwheat) are ground in a blender or coffee grinder to a powder consistency. Pour a heaping tablespoon of the mixture into boiling water (100 ml) and cook, stirring constantly, for about 10 minutes over low heat.

vegetable puree recipes

Broccoli puree

Sort broccoli, remove leaves and stems, wash thoroughly. Boil until tender in water without adding salt, wipe through a sieve. Offer baby puree at room temperature.

Zucchini puree

Thoroughly peel the young zucchini, wash, remove the seeds. Cut the pulp into small cubes, boil until tender. Cool, beat with a blender until smooth. Giving 5 month old baby puree at room temperature.

fruit purees

banana puree

Cut a ripe banana into pieces, grind into puree. Drop some mixture or milk.

Applesauce

Grind the pulp of a green apple, pour water. Boil the apples until tender, then cool to room temperature, chop with a blender. Add formula or mother's milk.

Which is better - jars or cook it yourself?

Cooking mashed potatoes yourself or buying jars is an individual choice. Benefits of canned food:

• Saving time;
• The quality of food is controlled by special services;
• A wide range of different manufacturers is available for sale.

Pros of home cooking:

• It is known which products have been used;
• You can control the amount of cooked food;
• Using vegetables and fruits grown on your site, you can be sure of their environmental friendliness.

Dr. Komarovsky about complementary foods

Known to many, Dr. Komarovsky advises starting the first complementary foods with fermented milk products. First, the child is offered kefir, a week later cottage cheese is added. A month later, porridges are introduced into the baby's diet, which should be prepared on the milk mixture.

Previously, it was believed that a child on an artificial or mixed feeding the first complementary foods in the form of fruit, vegetable purees and cereals can be eaten at 5-5.5 months. But according to the latest recommendations of the World Health Organization, this age has been shifted to 6 months. Why is this so: because in the intestines of a child at the 5th month of life, enzymes have not yet fully matured, the immune system has not formed.

A 5 month old baby can only eat breast milk or highly adapted formula (plus pure boiled water according to need), and, it does not matter on breastfeeding baby or completely artificial. The introduction of complementary foods up to 6 months of age, even in small doses, is fraught with:

• stomach ache;
• gastrointestinal dysfunction;
• stool disorder;
• regurgitation, vomiting up to a serious disruption of the entire digestive system;
• delayed effects in the form of allergies.

Remember: juices in boxes, mashed potatoes in jars and all kinds of cereals marked "you can from 5 months" - this is primarily a business.

How much should a 5 month old eat

A five-month-old child for one feeding (it does not matter, formula or breast milk) should eat 180-210 ml, per day - a volume equal to 1/6 of his own weight. The number of bottle-fed feedings is approximately 6, so the baby will drink a liter of formula or a little more per day. On breastfeeding, the norm is the same, but the principle of feeding is "on demand", so the child can eat 8 times a day.

Can a 5 month old baby be given yolk or fruit juice

The yolk, fish oil, vegetable puree, porridge, even in small quantities, should not be given to a child under 6 months. Of course, others will advise you to "introduce normal food quickly", but all these tips are due to the experience of our grandmothers and mothers, 30-40 years ago. Even 30 years ago, there was no talk of highly adapted milk formulas, it was believed that a child from birth, as well as at 5 months old, can eat boiled cow's milk or donor milk.

And children were indeed fed with this, but most of the vitamins in such milk were destroyed during the necessary heat treatment. The kids lacked vitamins, iron, mineral salts, which was expressed in hypovitaminosis, low hemoglobin (anemia), rickets, low weight, developmental delays. Therefore, for that time, early complementary foods in the form of juices, fish oil, yolk and soups were justified. Including such complementary foods were introduced early to breastfed children, since in the USSR few nursing mothers could provide themselves with a full and varied diet, and breast milk often did not satisfy the needs of a rapidly growing organism.

AT modern world if the child is on guard and the mother eats fully and varied (vegetables, fruits, eats fish, meat), or if the baby eats a formula, and parents can afford to buy a highly adapted formula that is as close as possible in composition to breast milk, then nothing up to 6 months the baby does not need to be fed.

Juice up to 6 months of age, even freshly squeezed, even one teaspoon a day can cause gastrointestinal upset, allergies, dysbacteriosis, kidney and pancreas problems (based on research by the American Academy of Pediatrics, information about which was published in the journal MAMA info ", October 2001 (№5).

Five months is a new stage in the development of the child. The behavior of the baby is modified, changes occur in the internal organs.

Saliva began to be actively produced quite recently, but the baby still does not know how to swallow it. The stomach of a five-month-old does not look like an adult, but it stretches well, and by the year it will hold 200-250 g of food. Digestive enzymes are already maturing. Gradually develops and swallowing reflex.

Do these changes mean physical development five-month-old baby transition to a new menu? There is no single answer. There are at least two opinions on this matter: official pediatrics (or the so-called old school) and the opinion of Dr. E. O. Komarovsky. Let's try to figure it out.

Official pediatrics believes that at the age of five months, more nutritious food should be introduced into the child's diet, including additional doses of vitamins and trace elements. Proponents of this theory loudly declare:

The components of mother's milk cannot meet the growing needs of the child. Therefore, complementary foods should be started strictly at 5 months, as early as possible, but not later than 6.

Traditional menu options

The diet of a baby at the age of five months has its own characteristics. The total amount of food is approximately 900 ml per day. Of them:

• breast milk or mixture - 700 ml;
• juices and fruit purees - about 40 ml;
• vegetable puree - from 10 g to 100 g on artificial nutrition and from 15 g to 150 g when breastfeeding;
• cereal cereals - from 10 to 50 ml;
• butter (added to mashed potatoes and cereals) - from 1 to 4 g per day; just don't forget: we are talking about a real, rustic product, and not about that surrogate that fills supermarket shelves.

Complementary foods are introduced into the diet gradually, starting with a couple of drops for juices and teaspoons for cereals and mashed potatoes.

Do not mix cereals. The mass must be homogeneous and liquid. You don't need to sweeten anything. Some experts recommend adding breast milk or an adapted formula that cannot be pre-boiled.

Artificial complementary foods are advised to introduce complementary foods with even more caution, as they are prone to allergies to new components of the diet.

A child at 5 months is forbidden to give new foods too often. First, follow the reaction of the child's body for 3-7 days. If your baby doesn't like the new food, put off introducing it for a week or two.

With artificial feeding, complementary foods are recommended to be introduced earlier than with breastfeeding. But the roots of this recommendation go back to the distant past, when there were no fortified adapted mixtures with which the child today receives the necessary elements for development and growth.

Doctor Komarovsky: opinion

A competent doctor, whose opinion is listened to by many, recommends not starting complementary foods before 6 months. Until the child reaches this age, the family should feed the mother healthy, tasty and varied. If the baby is bottle-fed, parents try to buy him the highest quality adapted mixture.

The main functions of the liver are to neutralize and remove undigested food residues from the body. If this body does not cope with the tasks assigned to it, allergies and other negative reactions appear. Children's liver is very weak and is finally formed only by the age of 12. It is important to remember this when compiling a child's menu at 5 months.

If there is no single point of view regarding the age of complementary foods, then experts are unanimous regarding the products with which it is desirable to start. This is porridge dairy products and vegetable purees.

For the first acquaintance of a child with new food, Komarovsky recommends fermented milk products, because in composition they are closest to the usual milk diet. In addition, kefir reduces the load on the liver and improves digestion, fights harmful microbes.

After 4-5 days, cottage cheese can be added little by little to kefir. After about 10 days, one feeding will be completely replaced by complementary foods. The rest of the food is still milk or formula.

So they feed for about a month, after which the replacement of the last feeding with cereals begins. They are not cooked cow's milk, and on mixtures for children from 6 months.

Recipes for babies

The most suitable foods for feeding a child at the age of 5 months are:

• oatmeal;
• broccoli;
• vegetable marrow;
• Apple;
• pear;
• plum.

Mix based porridge

For baby food porridge is boiled from buckwheat or oatmeal in water. When the dish has cooled, add the mixture, but only half of the proportion recommended on the box.

You can buy special flour or ready-to-eat baby cereals for the appropriate age, or you can grind cereals in a home coffee grinder. At the same time, Komarovsky advises including sugar.

Rice porrige

1. Rinse rice, dry, grind to a state of flour. Instead of rice, you can use buckwheat or oatmeal.
2. Boil 100 ml of water.
3. Add an incomplete tablespoon of rice flour, stirring.
4. Boil for 10 minutes over low heat.
5. Cool slightly, stir in formula or breast milk, about 1/4 cup.
6. Offer the child only in a warm form.

fruit puree

Apple

1. Cut the apple into slices, cutting out the core.
2. Put the slices in a saucepan, fill with water so that it covers the apples.
3. Boil.
4. Blend fruit with a blender.
5. Cool down. You can also add formula or mother's milk.

Banana

1. Wash a banana with small brown dots on the skin (a sign of ripeness).
2. Clean and run through a blender or food processor.
3. Enter the milk component.

pear

1. Cut the pears in half and remove the core.
2. Place in steamer for 10 minutes.
3. Pass through a blender.
4. Let cool slightly, then pour in formula or breast milk.

Peaches and plums, broccoli and baby squash can be cooked in the same way.

These homemade recipes are suitable for babies as young as 5 months old, but they can stay in your baby's diet for quite some time, whether he's breastfed, bottle-fed or mixed-fed.

Mom and Dad have to choose the right tactics feeding your five-month-old baby and decide which complementary feeding theory to believe and follow.

18 July 2018

Lazy Mom Heading: no comments

The daily routine of a child at 5 months

Children at the age of five months are distinguished by increasing activity, they study the environment with interest, are more mobile and intelligent than a month ago. Basically, the daily routine of a child at 5 months is not much different from, but due to the fact that babies are cutting milk teeth, sometimes there are failures in the established daily schedule, and the task of parents is to restore the normal rhythm of the baby's life.

The daily routine of a child at 5 months

Despite the fact that the daily routine of a five-month-old child hardly changes, the baby himself grows and at the same time various functions of his body improve. His motor activity significantly increases - he can lie on his tummy for a long time, makes attempts to sit down, pulling his head and arms, rests with his straight legs on the floor, if supported. Gradually, skills are formed that will help him learn to crawl.

Five-month-old children can hold toys with one hand, turn their heads towards sounds of interest, pronounce individual syllables, learn about the world by grabbing and pushing different objects. Emotionally, they are enlivened when they see a loved one, and distinguish his face.

In this regard, wakefulness in infants gradually increases to one and a half hours a day - now communication is very important for them, which occurs not only during bathing, exercise and massage, but also during games together with parents, undoubtedly affecting their development.

By this age, a certain scheme is already being used, according to which mom and dad feed, put to bed and walk with the child. If, as such, it is not, then it's time to make a schedule by the hour, a table with an approximate indication of the time and necessary things to care for the baby can become a guide for a well-designed schedule that is useful for the whole family.

It remains to consider in detail what a baby needs most at five months in order to create the most comfortable conditions for him.

What should be the sleep of a baby at five months

Determining the quality and duration of sleep of a five-month-old baby are such daily activities as feeding, hygiene procedures, walking and the level of mobility during wakefulness. Since the physiology, and, consequently, the sleep of each child is individual, we can only talk about an approximate regimen, which includes the main periods of rest for the baby during the day:

1. On average, children need about 15 hours of sleep, of which 10 hours are at night. But this is only if they do not pour in the daytime.
2. In the afternoon, the time of the first rest should fall on the period following the morning procedures, feeding and active activities and educational games.
3. The second time the baby is laid in the afternoon. You can do this by combining sleep with a walk in the fresh air.
4. Toward evening at 17-18 o'clock, one more bedding is recommended, the main thing is to observe the intervals between rests of 1.5-2 hours.

Feeding can still take place at night, as the baby is still small, but in most cases, children fall asleep quickly after this and do not wake up until the morning awakening. Of course, if they start, then at night there may be problems with rest, but there are many ways to alleviate the condition of the child. This also applies to other reasons that prevent children from resting peacefully.

These include:

1. Painful state of the baby. A cold or injury can be very stressful for a baby, which will immediately affect his well-being. Attentive parents can pay attention to the fact that the baby behaves restlessly, cries or is naughty - a small child in this way shows that he is ill. So, you have to find out what the matter is, and going to the doctor is the best idea.
2. If during the day the baby eats well, but moves little, this can become a prerequisite for excitement, lethargy and insomnia. High-quality nutrition must be combined with outdoor games during wakefulness, such a balance is necessary to avoid problems.
3. If the cause is pain due to cutting teeth, then parents need to use special cooling gels, ointments, natural rubber teethers, or just ice to reduce the sensation of pain.
4. Often, disruption of normal sleep is associated with the start of complementary foods. Not only may the baby not like this or that unfamiliar dish, due to excessive dosages or non-compliance with other rules of this process, he may experience discomfort and discomfort.
5. The situation in one's own family is an important factor influencing the child. If she is nervous, then the baby feels restless and uncomfortable.
6. Certainly not to be missed and purely physical conditions designed for babies. He needs a comfortable mattress, clean clothes and bedding, fresh humidified air, a clean and ventilated room.

Make sure that the child has all the conditions for a comfortable sleep, and you will not suffer from nighttime insomnia.

Features of feeding

Due to the fact that babies at 5 months are extremely restless, meals for breastfed babies can be often interrupted and short. This situation can lead to the fact that the child may not receive valuable nutrients for his body. At 2-3 months, experts recommend feeding in such a way that the baby falls asleep with his mother's breast, but at 5 months it is time to wean him from this habit.

It is also believed that eating natural food, the baby does not yet need complementary foods, and this can wait up to six months. Although the children are already beginning to show a keen interest in the dishes that mom eats. If a woman adapts and eats at the same time as the child, then in the process she can give him a lick of one or another piece to which he reaches out, but this should be limited to his acquaintance with a new product.

Some problems may be related to the fact that the baby's teeth erupt, and in some cases, sucking causes the baby unpleasant, painful sensations. In such cases, parents need to take care to purchase a cooling gel for the child.

The daily routine of a child at 5 months, associated with feeding, practically does not change, contrary to the opinion that with the advent of teeth, breastfeeding should be abandoned altogether. Firstly, the baby, in the correct position during feeding, is simply not able to bite, because his tongue lies on his lower teeth, and secondly, an accidental bite can occur when his nose is stuffed up, and mom needs to monitor this aspect constantly.

A baby can drink 1 liter or more of mother's milk per day, eating five times a day, but it is allowed to feed one more time at night if the child is hungry.

Complementary foods are allowed when there are medical indications for this:

• lag in physical and mental development;
• a small amount of milk produced, because of which the baby remains hungry;
• hypovitaminosis, deficiency of important minerals and trace elements;
• serious deviations from the norm in body weight.

But it is much easier for parents to understand whether their baby is ready for the introduction of new products, according to some signs:

• the baby opens his mouth at the sight of food brought to him, which is eaten by adults, and shows a readiness to eat it;
• the child sits independently;
• does not push a spoon out of his mouth with his tongue, which means his ability to swallow coarser food.

For formula-fed babies, complementary foods are already a familiar process, but if up to 5 months it consists more of mashed potatoes and juices based on vegetables and fruits, then now is the time to add mashed potatoes from dietary meats to their diet - rabbit, turkey. You can also expand the range of cereals, sample new fruits and vegetables, dairy products, soups, consisting of two components.

To avoid mistakes when expanding the menu, the mother should still consult a pediatrician, who, based on the physiology of the child, will soon figure out what the baby especially needs and what foods to give him early.

Educational activities with a child

This is an aspect that requires parents to have close communication with their child, joint games and activities that help accelerate the formation of many skills and good habits.
To do this, the child needs different, interesting toys for him, bright, equipped with sound and light effects, optimal for this age - interactive toys in the form of animals, nesting dolls, soft squeakers, children's musical instruments, rattles, finger puppets. You can read more about suitable toys for this age at.

Activities and games may include:

• adult recitation of nursery rhymes, poems, reading books, at the same time, with the examination of colorful images;
• an excursion to different parts of the apartment, where the child will get acquainted with unusual objects, touch them, learn the name of unfamiliar things;
• for the development of sensory skills, you can train your baby to grab rattles with different handle shapes, shift them from hand to hand;
• for games, the baby can be given not only toys, but also all kinds of shreds of wool, velvet, velveteen or chintz, and when he takes hold of the fabric with his fingers, slowly pull it towards him, stimulating retention.

It is extremely important to pay attention to all existing deviations in the development of the child and to know the characteristic signs of such violations:

• the baby is not interested in toys and bright objects, he is lethargic, apathetic, he lacks normal positive emotions at the sight of mom and dad;
• the child does not know how to independently;
• at 5 months, a healthy baby is already trying to pronounce consonants and combine them into syllables - if he continues to walk and stretch vowels, this may mean a lag.

Lack of emotion is a serious symptom that indicates the likelihood of illness nervous system and the brain, but also at this age, adults need to monitor the work of the muscular system, since infants often have such a pathology as hypertonicity, and in simple words- increased muscle tension. In this case, therapeutic exercises and massage will be required, since this phenomenon can adversely affect the formation of gait, posture, motor function, coordination, and even the development of speech.

Gymnastics and walks

In addition to daily hygiene procedures, already familiar to the baby from the previous months, and which are a prerequisite for their health, gymnastics is becoming increasingly valuable for five-month-old children.

This is an important part of the baby's life, helping him understand how to manage his arms, legs, body. Now this is a whole range of various exercises, but training can be done at any time when the child is awake.

Basic exercises:

• flexion and extension of the limbs at the elbows and knees;
• stimulation of crawling with concomitant massage of the feet, legs and arms;
• dancing to music in a standing position with the support of an adult;
• sitting down and lifting;
• exercise with fitball.

Not bad if parents teach the baby to swim - for this there are special children's trainers who work with children in the pool.

Walking still takes up a significant portion of a baby's daytime schedule, but much of the time spent outdoors depends on the season and weather, so parents should ensure that children are dressed appropriately. Some pediatricians recommend walking with the baby when he is awake - this way he can receive information about the outside world, and the mother has free time for her business.

If from the moment of birth the baby is in free swimming, and his actions are not limited by anything, you can imagine what chaos is happening in such a family. Parents should urgently think about making serious amendments, because a well-planned day regimen for a child at 5 months old allows you to properly educate and develop a baby, makes him active and teaches the basics of discipline - this important concept that significantly affects all aspects of adult life.

Many pediatricians agree that feeding a baby at 5 months should be based on breast milk mothers or artificial mixtures. But if a very active baby does not eat up, then parents have a completely logical question, what can you feed a child at 5 months, so as not to harm his health.

We introduce complementary foods at 5 months

In the days of our mothers and grandmothers, it was believed that complementary foods for a 5-month-old baby should start with juices and fruits. This is not entirely true, because raw fruits and juices are very difficult for the child's body. In addition, they can cause allergies in a baby whose liver is not ripe for taking such products. complementary foods in early age it is better to start with monocomponent vegetable purees, kefir or cereals.

Many parents find it difficult to decide which product to start complementary foods with. If the baby has a problem with weight, then it is better to first introduce cereals into complementary foods, they are rich in useful elements and contribute to good satiety of the baby. But also cereals can "strengthen" the child, so if you have problems with stools, start complementary foods with another product. Kefir is the closest in composition and taste to milk for babies, so many pediatricians recommend starting complementary foods with this product. Vegetable purees are very well absorbed by the body, rich in vitamins and microelements. If you decide to start complementary foods with vegetables, then pumpkin, zucchini and cauliflower are best suited for the first foods.

Sample menu for a 5 month old baby

The menu of a child at 5 months should not be varied, on the contrary, the slower you start introducing new foods, the less likely you are to develop allergies.