Feeding Guide Cheat Sheet: 4 to 8 Months

Keep this quick overview of how much, what, and when to feed your baby between ages 4 and 8 months.

Feeding Guide for 4 to 8 Months

Feeding Tips for 4 to 8 Months

When starting your baby on solid foods, remember these tips:

• Give your baby one new food at a time—not mixtures (such as cereal and fruit or meat dinners). Provide the new food for five to seven days before adding another new food. This way you can tell what foods your baby may be allergic to or cannot tolerate. Egg whites are more likely than egg yolks to cause an allergic reaction. Most physicians recommend that you wait until after one year to introduce whole eggs.

• Begin with small amounts of new solid foods—a teaspoon at first and slowly increase to a tablespoon.

• Begin with dry infant rice cereal first, mixed as directed, followed by vegetables, fruits, and then meats.

• Healthy infants usually require little or no extra water, except in very hot weather. When solid food is first fed to your baby, extra water is often needed.

• Do not limit your baby’s food choices to the ones you like. Offering a wide variety of foods early will pave the way for good eating habits later.

• Fat and cholesterol should not be restricted in the diets of very young children, unless advised to by your child’s physician. Children need calories, fat, and cholesterol for the development of their brains and nervous systems, and for general growth.

• Infants and young children should not eat hot dogs, nuts, seeds, round candies, popcorn, hard, raw fruits and vegetables, grapes, or peanut butter. These foods are not safe and may cause your child to choke. Most physicians suggest these foods be saved until after your child is 3 or 4 years of age. Always watch a young child while he or she is eating. Insist that the child sit down to eat or drink.

• Fruit juice (100 percent juice, without added sugar) can be given when your baby is able to drink from a cup (around 6 months or older).