Six to Eight Months Old
As your baby takes more solid food, the demand for milk will decrease. Your baby will suck from you for a shorter time and at around eight months may give up the milk feed entirely at meal times. Your milk supply will decline correspondingly: the reverse of the process that enabled you to produce enough milk in the early days. You will probably find it takes two or three days for your body to catch up with the baby’s decrease in demand and your breasts may feel rather full, but this transition period only lasts for a couple of days or so. You can now begin to enrich the simple fruit and vegetable purées with vegetarian protein
“What you eat both before and during pregnancy has a dramatic effect on your baby’s health not only during the early years but right through into adulthood. Choosing a good vegetarian or vegan diet is not only safe but ensures that vitamins – such as folic acid, vital for early development of the foetus – are provided. A well-balanced vegetarian or vegan diet is a fabulous way of feeding babies and young children too – giving them the healthiest start in life.” Amanda Woodvine MSc, nutritionist
ingredients. Any of the following can be added. Orange lentils made into a thick soup make
a wonderfully nutritious meal for a baby. Serve as it is or with a little crustless wholegrain bread mashed into it, or make the soup extra thick and add to a vegetable purée. Beans such as soya, red kidney, cannellini
or butter beans can be cooked thoroughly and mashed into a purée. Use home-cooked or canned ones but, if using the latter, ensure they are rinsed properly to remove the salted water. Don’t give canned beans to a baby younger than eight months. Beans in tomato sauce make a nutritious
meal from eight months onwards. Choose a variety without preservatives or colourings; although they will probably still contain a little sugar and salt, these remain a nutritious food. Mash or purée them. Can be mixed with crumbled wholegrain bread and a little boiled water to moisten. Tofu can be drained and mashed
thoroughly, then mixed with vegetable or fruit purées. Tahini or peanut butter can be mixed a little at a time into fruit or vegetable purées. 1
⁄2 a
teaspoonful should be enough to start off with. Choose or make a smooth peanut butter without salt or additives. (Peanut butter
should never be given directly on its own as it can cause choking.) Yeast extract can be added 1
⁄4 teaspoon
at a time to vegetable purée. Use a low- sodium extract. Brewer’s yeast (a debittered one) can be sprinkled sparingly – say 1
⁄4 teaspoonful – over
a baby’s vegetable purée or breakfast muesli mix. It can also be added to mashed banana- and-soya yoghurt mix. Finely milled nuts and seeds (milled in a
food processor or clean electric coffee grinder or bought ready ground) can be stirred into fruit or vegetable purées, starting with 1
⁄2
teaspoonful. If you’re grinding your own, use a variety of nuts: almonds, Brazil nuts, peanuts, walnuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds. Wheatgerm can be sprinkled over fruit or
vegetable purées and added to cereal mixes and yoghurt for splendid nourishment. Yoghurt – an active, plain soya yoghurt
without preservatives – can be added to fruit purées or given with a sprinkling of wheatgerm or powdered nuts. It can be mashed with banana, wheatgerm, a little
Viva! and Vegetarian & Vegan Foundation 27
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56