5 Months Old Baby Feeding
Contents:
- How Many Times to Feed a 5 Month Old Baby
- 5 Month Old Baby Feeding Schedule
- How Much Should I Feed My 5 Month Old if He Sleeps 12 Hours at Night?
How Many Times to Feed a 5 Month Old Baby
At the age of 5 months, a child should still be fully breastfed. However, as the baby grows, you should follow the nutrition of your five-month child to provide him enough of food. If the child is active, healthy and nothing disturbs him, you should not worry as well.
However, it happens that just milk is not enough for your baby or the baby may refuse breast feeding for any reason. Then you can start complementary feeding. Start with a juice. You can gradually switch to fruit mush. This complementary feeding will give your child minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates necessary for growth and development and fiber, which stimulates the gastrointestinal tract.
5 Month Old Baby Feeding Schedule
You cannot shift to fruit mush just after a juice, but give your child some pulpy juices. They stimulate digestion perfectly as well. On the fifth month of life, the quantity of juice, which your child drinks per day can be increased to 50 ml.
You can first give an apple rasped with a spoon. That is, you take an apple, clean its peel and rasp some pulp with a spoon and give this pulp to your baby. Thus, you can gradually introduce a taste of banana, pear, apricot to your child. As soon as a contact reaction to these products is positive (there were no allergic reactions, disorder, etc.), you can try to mix these fruits.
You can buy ready-made pap in jars. But in late summer and autumn, when the fruit is fully ripened and full of vitamins, it is better to cook paps on your own. In winter and spring, it is better to give the puree from the jars.
The fruit puree is introduced gradually as juices, starting with the minimum feed- a half of a teaspoon per day. Don't be surprised if baby spits out – it is a normal reaction to new tastes. Over time, increase the amount of a pap to four teaspoons per day. Give your baby juice or puree at the end of feeding.
For babies up to one year-of-age, it is not recommended to use grape juice, because it causes frequent allergic reactions and stomach problems in babies. Introduce other allergenic foods such as strawberries, raspberries, citrus with caution as well. If your baby has at least an initial manifestation of diathesis, stop the introduction of complementary foods and consult your pediatrician.
Due to the fact that the baby grows and is engaged not only in mother`s breast feeding, the intervals between feedings become bigger. The weight of the baby, compared with the birth weight, doubles, and his height increases on 13 cm. The baby wakes up less frequently at night for feedings. For a day, a child can eat up to 900 g of food (considering breast milk/infant formulae and complementary feeding). But still… It is desirable that a five-month baby has nothing except mother's milk in his nutrition. It is the best food for your baby.