Nutrition plays an extremely important role in your little one’s sleep development. If you want your little one to be more relaxed and able to sleep longer, it’s important to make sure he’s comfortable, healthy and well-fed. The moment of starting solid food is an important milestone for your little one. But how can you do this, what is important here and what are the possibilities?

When do you start offering solids?

At a certain point, your child becomes interested in food other than the milk he has always received until now. Your little one’s brain is biologically programmed to want and be able to learn. An important characteristic of the child’s brain for learning is that it has a natural tendency to imitate. Rewarding is part of the learning process. And that reward does not always have to come from you as a parent, sometimes it comes naturally, because: food is tasty, his appetite is satisfied and eating together offers a feeling of protection, belonging and it creates a nice relaxed atmosphere.

In the first months, your little one asks for the breast or bottle. He indicates that he wants to drink and is satisfied with that. But there comes a time when your little one needs more nutrients, calories and iron. The iron reserves that your baby has received from the pregnancy will then slowly run out.

But not all babies are ready for the introduction of solid foods after 6 months. It is therefore important to let your little one get used to this step by step, without asking too much from him. After all, you don’t want your little one to create a negative association with food. At around 6 months, your little one is at least physically able to process solid food. The immune system is sufficiently mature, the digestive system is reasonably in order, the mouth muscles are sufficiently trained, the hand-eye coordination is ready and finally, your little one’s gross motor skills are ready for the next step.

Sometimes for health reasons it is advised to start with solid food earlier than six months. It is important that you always contact us and receive information from the pediatrician.

When you start offering solid foods you will see that some little ones eat their first crust of bread as if they have been doing it for years, while most little ones really need some time to get used to the new structures and even understand that solid foods are actually eatable. Usually the little ones do not eat that much in their seventh and eighth months. And that’s not a bad thing at all, as long as your little one gets enough calories, proteins and necessary minerals, he enjoys discovering new foods and is not overloaded.

The order in which you can best offer the solid food step by step is as follows; start building up with lunch, then dinner and finally breakfast. This is because lunch and dinner, which should contain sufficient iron and proteins, optimize sleep first. In addition, it is important that you ensure that your little one is not hungry when he is exploring solid food. The following strategy can help with this: first milk, then solid food or first half a milk food, then solid food and then the other half of the milk food. At 8 to 9 months, you can offer snacks before each milk feeding; solid foods are slowly replacing milk foods. If you see that your little one still needs to get used to it, build up the snacks gradually and reduce the milk feeds in small steps.

Your little one needs time to get used to the new foods. Start with tablespoons and gradually build up to 2-4 tablespoons at 2-3 meals a day. If your little one starts eating solid food, it will compensate with the milk formulas. For example, a baby who previously drank 1200 milliliters of milk per 24 hours, now receives 425 grams of solid food and 750 grams of milk.

Also try to offer one food per week so that you don’t overload your little one. If he refuses the food, try a smaller portion. If he refuses it for two or three days, let it rest for a week.

How do you start solids?

But how do you introduce solid food to your little one? There are many different ways to start solid food, such as:

• The baby-led Weaning of Rapley method. Here you let your child eat directly with his fingers, or finger foods. Around 8 months, your little one learns to chew, so these methods help them better with actually eating the food. Previously, they may have been exploring food types more. People around you sometimes worry and fear that your baby will choke. That is not surprising, because usually they have never seen a baby who learns to eat independently. But times are changing and new insights make it clear that babies can really feed themselves. Until now, your little one may never have choked, at most if your let-down reflex was too strong or with a strong overproduction, but that is more the exception than the rule. Now that solid food is on the table, you might be worried if it’s going to be okay, won’t he choke? A baby younger than one year has a strong gag reflex: it sits in the front of its mouth at first and gradually moves backwards as a child practices eating more. The gag reflex protects your little one from choking. If his food is too much in the back and his coordination is not yet optimal, the gag reflex will immediately take over. Eating always carries a risk, so keep an eye on your child, make sure he sits upright in a chair or on your lap.
• You can also spoon feed your little one. As a parent, you have complete control and the food is usually offered pureed. You will see that if you offer the same snack about ten times, your little one will accept this type of food well. So give him time to get used to the new flavors. Jars often contain different flavors and moreover, the range of flavors in jars is somewhat more limited. If you want to stimulate the taste development in your little one, give him homemade snacks.
• Combo feeding; as the name indicates, you make a combination of spoon food and even food with finger foods.

What should your little one not eat the first year

• raw meat
• raw seafood
• raw eggs
• liver or pate
• cheese spread or regular cheese
• honey
• regular milk
• chocolate milk and dairy drinks with a sweet taste
• from 8 months yogurt
• sweet desserts or drinks
• added salt
• nitrate-rich vegetables

Sources

Feldman, R.,S. (2016). Ontwikkelingspsychologie. Amsterdam, Netherlands: Pearson Benelux.

Hogg,T. & Blau,M. (2005). The Baby Whisperer: Solves All Your Problems. London, England:  

Vermilion.

Kleintjes, S. & Veldhuizen van, G. (2018). Het nieuwe borstvoeding boek. Zeist, Netherlands: 

Christofoor. 

Purdue, E. (2013). Baby Sleep Consultant Training. Retrieved from: https://babysleepconsultanttraining.com/training/

Spock, B. (1998). Baby- en kinderverzorging & opvoeding; nog altijd de beste gids voor 

ouders en grootouders. Utrecht, Netherlands: Kosmos.

Willekes, S. (2020). Hoe je baby van 0-12 maanden doorslaapt. Amsterdam, Netherlands: 

Het Spectrum.