Hi All,

My baby is going to be 6 mths old in a week' s time. Have started giving him Dhal water yesterday. Can somebody tell me what all I can feed him. I dont want to give him any formula. Can i give him rice, fruits, vegetables, ragi, etc? what should be the consistency of the food? How much of water should I give him? I live in Chennai, India. So its generally hot and humid here.Is there any food that I should avoid? Most importantly how often should I breastfeed? HE is already on a nursing strike for the past 2 months :-(..somehow managed to breastfeed exclusively till now pavithra replied. Regarding breastfeeds - once the baby gets alternate food it reduces the number of feeds from the mother and to add to this the nutritional needs of the baby varies largely after the 3rd or 4th month and mothers milk alone is not sufficient to fulfill this growing need for nourishment thats why we start solids :-)there are huge debates on how long should a child be breast fed! lets not get in to it coz the experts are still not sure to give us a firm opinion, but for sure i can tell you - Its ok if your baby reduces his/her frequency of feeds from you pavithra replied. Hi,
You can feed other solids to your baby like fruits and vegetables, raagi etc. When it comes to fruits start with banana, papaya and chikoo ( sapota).We start with these because these fruits are easy to mash. Always feed any food only in the mashed form. You can also try cooked apples ( some children like it). You can go with raagi at bed time. You need to clean the raagi seeds well - wash and dry them then grind it into a fine powder and then sieve it well to obtain the finest powder. You can prepare a pasty poridge out of this raagi and feed your baby with it. The consistency of any mashed or pasty food depends on your baby' s digesting abilities and preferences. Try it out :-) to begin with let everything be in limited small quantities and in a little diluted paste. same mashing process applies for vegetables also you can start with carrots and potatoes. In any of the food stuff do not add salt or sugar ut you can break the rule and go ahead with salt and sugar in very small quantities just to stimulate the taste buds of your baby, how ever the taste buds start to activate only by 8th month or so.
You can give water to your baby after every solid feed or in between a solid feed and a milk feed. Some babies take water well and some dont - keep trying but do feed water well - it helps the baby pass the stools well and more importantly wen you start the first solids please start with two tablespoon of mashed rice with milk, then move to the other things slowly, be attentive to your child' s needs - do not over feed or under feed the baby.
All this was told to me by my baby' s pediatrician - the information is reliable and has worked well with me. :-)