4 Major goals during this stage

• Help your infant to build a healthy relationship with food. This can be achieved if you understand hunger and satiety cues and let your infant feed themselves. This concept is called baby led weaning. Baby led weaning plays a massive role in cognitive development.
• Ensure a good consumption of protein- and iron-rich foods.
• Ensure a good variety and offer more texture.
• Continue to breast or formula feed BUT DO NOT GIVE TOO MUCH

We understand that this can be a stressful time for you and your baby, but not to fear we bring the fun back with scientific-based evidence to put your mind at ease!

The importance of food AND formula- or breastmilk in a 6-month-old infant

Formula- or breastmilk should be included until at least the age of one and ideally until the age of 2 years (in smaller amounts) to meet the nutritional needs of your fast-growing infant. HOWEVER, the protein content of formula- and breastmilk is not enough during this period of rapid growth spurt and therefore, it is COMPULSORY to include protein-rich foods in their diet.

Your infants' iron stores are completely depleted by the age of 6 months, and their needs are more than that of a grown man. The amount in formula- or breastmilk is NOT ENOUGH to replace these needed amount of iron. Therefore, it is important to include iron-rich foods to your infants' diet.

Furthermore, it is important to include food from different flavours and textures at this stage as they are more acceptable to change during this phase. Good variety of flavours and textures will help prevent fussy/lazy eaters later in life.