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Meal Plans for 7-month-old baby (with meal charts)
Most likely, at this point, your baby has been on early solid foods for a month. We hope it’s been a fruitful and rewarding experience seeing your baby experiment with solid foods. You are probably wondering now, how is month 7 going to be like?
At 7 months, most babies are ready to try solid foods more than before. You can now include early solid foods 3 times in their meals along with breast-feeding or using formula.
Do keep in mind, that not all babies are the same. And if your baby refuses to eat more than 3 solid meals and prefers milk over food, that’s completely normal. Ease in to how your baby feels about food and slowly add new options for them to try.
What food can you feed your baby at 7-months?
Solid Foods: Research has shown, feeding babies with healthy and nutrient rich food from the beginning, promotes stable development of a baby’s body. At this point, you should try and incorporate mashed vegetables in the form of purees, boiled fruits and organic cereals.
When in doubt, always go back to the question, ‘would grandma feed this to me?’ If the answer is no, then clearly eliminate it. Traditional Indian meals for babies are high in nutrients and good for digestion. Including locally grown and seasonal fruits and vegetables is an excellent way to fill up your baby with vital vitamins and minerals.
When it comes to quantity, it can be a tricky one as every baby’s appetite varies. However, you can eye-ball the quantity based on your baby’s fist size or 3-4 tablespoon of food depending on your baby’s needs. Please keep in mind, the weight of your baby during the process. It will help you decide, if you want to reduce the quantity or increase it with time.
Milk: Mother’s milk is very important and must be continued. Incase you are unable to breast-feed, use formula suggested by your doctor. If you are a working mom and cannot be present to breast-feed you baby at all times, we suggest pumping out milk and use it as and when needed.
By all means, refrain from feeding your baby with any animal or plant based milks. They are not suitable for babies below the age of one.
You can feed your baby around 500-600ml of milk divided into 5-6 feeds depending on your baby’s needs.
The rules of feeding remain the same as month 6. Thus, it’s important to keep going back to the pointers below:
1) Always introduce your baby first to single ingredients.
These should include:
a) Cereals
b) Fruits
c) Vegetables
d) Lentils
2) Introduce a combination of foods after your baby is used to single ingredient foods.
These could be in the form of:
a) vegetables and cereals
b) cereals and lentils
3) Always use the 3-day rule: When introducing a new food, always wait for 3 days to start something new. This will allow you to check for allergies and other digestive issues.
4) Re-try foods after 4-6 weeks: Don’t give up if your baby does not like a certain food and has refused to consume it. Retry after 4-6 weeks to see how your baby reacts.
5) Avoid diluting the food too much: Baby’s eat very little to begin with. Thus, the focus should be on filling them up with adequate nutrients. Too much of liquid in the food will fill up the baby and leave them deficient in essential minerals and vitamins.
6) No Salt and sugar rule: Babies do not require salt and sugar in their diet. Stay away from these until the baby is 1 year old.
To make things easy for you, we have listed out a BONUS meal plan chart for your 7-month old baby. This will help you further ease into this process of learning about the best food suitable for early foods as well as assist you with meal planning.
BONUS: Meal Plan Chart for 7-month-old baby:
Monday: While you continue with breast milk/formula- you can now start including soft solids 3 times a day. At this time, you can also include some of the delicious and healthy baby foods from Num Num Baby food. We recommend, Num Num Baby Food’s Rice Moong Dal Khichadi and Natural Oats Porridge along with carrot and banana puree. Along with this, you can include pumpkin puree as an afternoon meal.
You can use our meal plan to create a routine for your baby. Tweak it to your baby’s food preferences and taste.
Tuesday: Having a routine helps the baby settle down faster and with ease. Introducing a variety of soft foods will allow them to get the benefits of all recommended soft foods. We recommend you use Num Num Baby Food’s Ragi Beetroot Porrdige and Banana Rice Cereal as afternoon and night meals. You can include a sweet-potato puree in their morning meal plan.
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Wednesday: Including a mix of soft foods that has fruits, vegetables and cereals are highly recommended. These meet the nutritional requirements needed for a growing baby. You can include Num Num Baby’s Natural Oats Porridge along with apple puree as a morning meal. You can include boiled dal that is preferably easy to digest (example, moong dal) as a soup in the afternoon and a sweet-potato puree for a night meal.
It’s important to continue with breast milk or formula during this time.
Thursday: Observe what they are enjoying the most and continue with different healthy options in the form of soft foods. You can include a chikoo puree as a morning meal on Thursday. Followed by, Num Num Baby’s delicious Ragi Banana Porridge and Rice Moong Dal Khichadi along with apple puree for afternoon and night meals respectively.
Whenever you think your baby needs milk continue with breast- milk or formula only.
Friday: On Friday, you can include Num Num Baby’s Ragi Banana Porridge in the morning. Followed by introducing a new flavour in the form of Makhana porridge for the night. In between, feed your baby with a familiar flavour in the form of a sweet-potato puree.
It’s key to keep a balance between introducing new flavours and continuing with old ones to understand what your baby loves the most. It will also keep your baby excited to taste and introduce new food options on a regular basis. Not to forget, get the value of all nutrients from a varied option of new foods.
Saturday: You can feed your baby with a fruit puree such as chikoo along with Num Num Baby’s Oat Porridge in the morning. Followed by, Num Num Baby’s Banana Rice Cereal in the afternoon. A delicious and creamy blend of potato puree can be introduced as the baby’s new flavour for their night meal.
Sunday: On Sunday, you can reach out to a Vitamin rich vegetable like carrot puree along with Num Num Baby’s Rice Moong Dal Khichadi for a morning meal. Followed by an extremely healthy and delicious portion of pumpkin puree. For night, you can feed your baby with Num Num Baby’s Ragi Banana Oats Porridge
These meal plans have been put together to get your started with experimenting with new flavours for your baby. You can feel free to mix it around and see what suits your baby the best. Also, please remember that you can continue with breast-feeding your baby as per the routine you have been maintaining. However, bringing in a fixed routine, helps baby’s settle down faster into healthy eating habits.
This chart includes the most suitable Num Num Baby Foods for a 7-month old baby.
A summary of the full 7-month meal plan is inserted below. Save this page for inspiration.
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