Question

At 10 months old, my baby still doesn’t seem to like solid foods and keeps on breastfeeding. What should I do?

Answer

Hello, introducing complementary foods is not only about transitioning your baby from liquid to solid foods but also about meeting the needs of their rapid growth and development. Your baby is now 10 months old, and from this point on, you can consider the following feeding schedule: Feed breast milk at 6 AM; at 10 AM, offer a bowl of thick porridge (about 100-120 milliliters), 2-3 tablespoons of vegetable puree or chopped vegetables, and half an egg custard; at 2 PM, feed breast milk (or milk); at 6 PM, feed a bowl of thick porridge or soft noodles (noodles), half an egg custard, and you can also add tofu bits, minced meat, liver puree, etc., to the porridge except for the vegetable puree; at 10 PM, feed breast milk or milk. If your baby eats well, you can consider reducing one feeding of milk or start thinking about weaning. As your baby’s teeth are coming in one by one, you can give some soft finger foods to train their chewing and grasping skills. When your baby makes strange expressions towards new foods, Mommy must be patient; it takes about 10 or more exposures for a baby to accept new foods. Try to expose your baby to a variety of flavors so that they are more willing to accept new foods. By the time they are 11-12 months old, your baby can eat almost like a typical child, including soft rice, soft vegetables (referring to vegetables cooked until very soft), fruits, small sausages, minced meat, noodles, rice dumplings, small dumplings, small cakes, vegetable thin pancakes, oatmeal porridge, etc. These can all be offered for feeding. However, variety in vegetables is important; gradually replace breast milk or milk with complementary foods to make them the main part of their diet.