Feeding the 7 month old - Adding protein to the diet (1030)

Between 7 and 9 months you can add strained or pureed meats, poultry, and fish to your baby's daily diet if your doctor recommends them. You can either buy the foods or prepare them at home.

Prepare or buy only plain, single-ingredient foods such as strained chicken, strained beef, and strained fish. These are more nutritious and economical than the mixed dinner-style baby foods. There is as much protein in one jar of strained chicken as there is in more than four jars of strained chicken and noodles.

Wait until baby is about a year old to give whole eggs or egg whites. Egg whites can cause allergic reactions in young infants. When you do give eggs, make sure they are fully cooked to prevent food poisoning.

In addition to iron-fortified baby cereal, you can add bread, toast, dry unsweetened cereals like Kix or Cheerios, crackers, bagels, cooked rice or noodles, or soft flour tortillas. To avoid choking on crumbs, be sure baby eats biscuits, crackers or small pieces of toast only while sitting up.

Baby can now have about ½ cup of a vitamin C-rich baby fruit juice from a cup. Read the labels to be sure you're buying 100% fruit juice, rather than sweetened fruit drinks, which are mostly sugar and water. Wait until your baby is about a year old to try orange juice or tomato juice, because they can cause allergic reactions. Your baby still needs to drink mostly breast milk or formula.

Some mothers decide to wean their babies from the breast (or bottle) about now. Others wait until later. Some babies lose interest in nursing as they become more active. We recommend that you continue breast feeding at least until baby is one year old, if you can. When you do wean your baby, replace the feeding in which he is least interested with liquids from a cup or bottle. After a week or two, replace another feeding. Do this gradually until baby is weaned. During the weaning period, be sure to give baby extra hugs and kisses.

For more information on this subject, Please visit the College of Agricultural Sciences Publications Web site.

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