Feeding Your Baby • 5-6 Months
Vegetables, Fruits and Juices At Five Months
Juices
- Start with infant fruit juice mixed with water. Mix one ounce of apple juice with one ounce of water. Then gradually cut back on the water until you are giving 2 to 4 ounces a day of pure juice. After apple juice, try other baby juices, but wait until baby is older to give mixed juices. Wait until baby is 8 – 10 months old to try orange juice.
Vegetables
- Start with plain, strained vegetables. Try carrots, spinach, squash, peas and green beans. Try one new food at a time and feed that food for a few days to know if baby can tolerate it. Be sure to use a spoon. Wait until baby is older to give mixed vegetables.
Fruits
- Add strained fruits. Give baby strained fruits such as peaches, pears, bananas or applesauce. Add one new fruit at a time and watch for any reactions. Do not give fruit “desserts".
Helpful Hints
- Let baby decide how much food or formula is enough! Some days baby will eat more because baby has little “growth spurts".
- Start helping baby sip from the cup at 6 months.
- Don’t put baby to bed with a bottle. Hold baby while feeding and then put baby to bed.
- Listen for a “pop” when you open new jars of baby food. If it doesn’t “pop”, it has been opened before. Throw it out.
- Always use a dish. Don’t feed baby right out of the baby food jar. Baby’s saliva will make the food in the jar go bad. Throw out the food left in the dish at the end of a meal. Use refrigerated baby food within 3 days.
- Baby does not need salt, grease, fat or sugar added to foods.
- Stop giving any food that baby has a reaction to. Watch for any reactions like stomach aches, diarrhea or skin rashes. If baby has a reaction to a food, stop giving it. Give it again when baby is older.
Baby’s tastes are different than yours. Baby doesn’t need seasoning. The only seasoning baby needs is love!
How Much To Feed?
This is a suggested daily guide. Your baby may not eat this much or may eat more.
5 months
Breastfeed (6 – 8+ feedings) or give formula in 4 - 6 feedings of 6 - 8 ounces each. Infant cereal: 2 - 4 tablespoons twice a day. Vegetable: 2 – 4 tablespoons twice a day, strained. Fruit Juice: 2 - 4 ounces in a cup daily.
6 months
Breastfeed (4 – 6+ feedings) or give formula in 3 - 5 feedings of 6 - 8 ounces each. Start to offer formula in a cup. Infant cereal: 2 - 4 tablespoons twice a day. Vegetable: 2 – 4 tablespoons daily, strained. Fruit: 2 - 4 tablespoons daily, strained. Infant fruit juice: 2 - 4 ounces in a cup daily.