Feeding your 6-8 month old vegan baby

[Guest guest]

http://www.viva.org.uk/Viva!Guides/baby2-4.html

 

Rose Elliot's Mother and Baby Guide

Part Two - Feeding your vegetarian or vegan baby

Six to Eight Months Old

 

 

As your baby takes more solid food, the demand for milk will decrease. The

baby will suck from you for a shorter time and, at around eight months, may

eventually give up the milk feed entirely at the meal time. Your milk supply

will decline correspondingly, the reverse of the process that enabled you to

produce enough milk in the early days. You will probably find it takes two or

three days for your body to catch up with the baby's decreased demand and

your breasts may feel rather full, but this transition period only lasts for

a couple of days or so.

 

You can now begin to enrich the simple fruit and vegetable purees with

vegetarian protein ingredients. Any of the following can be added:

 

Protein enrichment foods for weaning:

 

Orange lentils

Made into a thick soup (see end of booklet for recipe), these make a

wonderfully nutritious meal for a baby. Serve as it is or with a little

crustless whole-grain bread mashed into it or make soup extra thick and add

to a vegetable puree.

 

Mashed beans

Use home-cooked beans (soybeans, red kidney, cannellini, lima beans, etc.),

or canned ones, well-rinsed, to remove salted water. Don't use canned ones

before baby is eight months old. Mash thoroughly or purée.

 

Beans in tomato sauce

These make a quick and nutritious meal from eight months onward. Choose a

variety without preservatives or colourings. (They will probably include a

little salt and sugar but despite this, they're still a healthy and

nutritious food.) Mash or purée. Can be mixed with crumbled whole-grain bread

and a little boiled water to moisten.

 

Tofu

Drain tofu, mash thoroughly, then mix with vegetable or fruit purées.

 

Tahini, peanut butter

Mix a little - perhaps 1/2 teaspoonful at first - into vegetable or fruit

purées. Choose (or make) a smooth peanut butter without salt or additives,

such as emulsifiers and stabilizers.

 

Yeast extract

Use a low-sodium one from the health food store. Add a little - 1/4 teaspoon

at first - to vegetable purée.

 

Brewers' yeast

Use a debittered one, and sprinkle sparingly - say 1/4 teaspoonful - over

baby's vegetable purées or breakfast muesli mix. Can also be added to a

mashed-banana-and-yogurt mix.

 

Finely milled nuts and seeds

Powder the nuts in a blender, food processor or clean electric coffee grinder

or use ground almonds. If you're grinding your own, use a variety of nuts:

almonds, Brazil nuts, peanuts, walnuts, pumpkin and sunflower seeds, for a

full range of nutrients. Stir into fruit or vegetable purees, starting with

1/2 teaspoonful.

 

Wheat germ

Sprinkle over fruit or vegetable purees; add to cereal mixes and yogurt for

splendid nourishment.

 

Cottage cheese

Give this from eight months, choosing one that's preservative-free, low-salt

and not too lumpy. Mash into fruit or vegetable purees; or mix with finely

shredded watercress or finely grated carrot and a little wheat germ, brewers'

yeast, or yeast extract for a healthy baby salad mix!

 

Yogurt

Choose an active plain yogurt without preservatives. Add to fruit purées or

give as it is with a little date purée (See Recipes at end of Guide) stirred

in and a sprinkling of wheat germ and/or powdered nuts. Mashed with banana

and wheat germ, and perhaps a little tahini, and some powdered nuts, this

makes a quick baby meal.

 

Once the baby is taking these solids happily, you can give an enriched

vegetable purée as a main course, followed by a fruit puree or yogurt- or

cereal-based mixture as a " pudding. " You can also begin introducing solids

before the other main feeds of the day, so that eventually the feeds that

correspond to breakfast, lunch and supper are composed entirely of solids.

You will also find that as the baby gets used to the texture of solid food,

there is no need to be so particular about puréeing the food. In fact it is

good for the baby to get used to a bit of texture in food at this stage. I

soon found I only needed to mash food for my babies, although I have heard of

other babies who were more fussy.

 

You will gradually be able to drop first one milk feed and then another, so

that by the time the baby is around nine months the bedtime feed may well be

the only one left. Do not be in a hurry to wean the baby from the bliss of

this; it is important for the closeness to you and the emotional satisfaction

the sucking gives. Many babies have spontaneously given up the bedtime feed

by the time they are one year old, but many have not.

 

There are those who believe you shouldn't encourage feeding during the night

after, say, six months, when the baby probably doesn't need it for

nourishment. Your baby may just be acquiring an enjoyable habit that may

eventually drive you to distraction. Other childcare experts disagree with

this and my own view is that if a child cries for food and the loving comfort

of his or her mother's closeness, then it is better to meet that need, even

though it can be demanding. But it does pass and, I believe, contributes very

much to the child's emotional security, both at the time and in later life.

 

Some people believe that when you start to give solid food, that is the time

to wean a baby from the breast to the bottle. I don't see any point in this

unless you want to stop breast-feeding. If the baby is happy and all is going

well, it seems better to continue breast-feeding for the few remaining

months. However, once the baby has given up all the daytime feeds, you might

like to give a bottle for the final feed so that you can be free to go out in

the evenings.

 

At this stage, particularly if the baby is teething, you can introduce some

finger foods. The baby may find it comforting to chew on something hard: a

piece of apple, raw carrot, bread, or rusk, but never leave a baby alone with

this type of food because of the danger of choking. If anything does get

stuck in the baby's throat, be ready to hook it out quickly with your finger

or turn the baby upside down and smack gently in the small of the back.

 

Suggested Feeding Pattern from Six to Eight Months Old

On Waking: Breast- or bottle-feed

 

Breakfast: Baby rice or muesli cereal or enriched fruit purée Breast- or

bottle-feed

 

Midmorning: Diluted real-fruit juice from spoon or cup (or give this

midafternoon)

 

Lunch: 1 to 2 tablespoons enriched vegetable purée, or lentil purée, followed

by some fruit purée for dessert (optional)

 

Midafternoon: Diluted real-fruit juice from spoon or cup (unless this was

given in the morning)

 

Finger foods: slices of apple, carrot sticks, whole wheat rusk

 

Dinner: Same as breakfast, Breast- or bottle-feed

 

Before bed: Breast- or bottle-feed

 

 

For the love of life,

 

Jo-Ann

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Vegan-Talk

[Guest guest]

If a mother is breastfeeding, why would she want to introduce dairy

in order to replace (partially or totally) human milk? I find it even

more strange if the plan is to grow the baby with a vegan diet, that

is, drop dairy later. Can you clarify further this point?

Daniela