What should feed my 9 month old

As children get older their tastes change. Parents choose the types of foods offered, children will decide how much they eat.

Don't force feedings! Offer food at 3 meals and 3 snacks think of "mini meals". Children need to eat small, frequent meals. Try to offer meals and snacks at the same time each day. Let your child feed himself with his hands. Toddlers typically start to use a fork and spoon between 15 and 18 months. Offer a cup at every meal. Encourage all fluids from a cup by 12 months of age. Offer soft, well-cooked vegetables or fruit.

This will encourage self-feeding. Feed your baby in a high-chair. Ask your pediatrician for guidelines on how much juice to serve your baby, if any. Breads and grains—the base of the food pyramid—should also be included in a 9-month-old feeding schedule. Babies readily eat cereal, cooked noodles, soft breads, and rice. It's just as easy to give them enough dairy, since babies this age still drink breast milk or formula daily. Don't forget to serve extra protein in the form of chicken, fish, beans, or eggs.

Make sure everything you serve to a young baby is soft—about the consistency of a ripe banana. As their first birthday approaches, you can start offering foods with more texture, such as sandwiches.

Avoid choking hazards like grapes, nuts, raisins, chunks of meat, hard candy, and marshmallows. Also, while prepackaged finger foods are easy to find, you should use them sparingly to avoid the extra sugar and preservatives. Make mealtime easy by using jarred or homemade baby food in innovative ways.

For example, instead of spooning pureed peas into their mouth, you might stir them into mashed potatoes or tiny cooked pasta. Jarred peaches can be swirled into unsweetened yogurt, pears become a pancake topping—you get the idea. You can also make any food baby-friendly by using a food processor or a steamer.

For instance, if you're making pasta with beans and broccoli for dinner, you can simply toss your baby's portion into the food processor.

The same process works with lasagna or cooked chicken and mashed potatoes. As you add new foods to your baby's diet, continue watching for allergies , as you did with jarred food and baby cereal. Introduce one new food at a time so you can quickly spot an adverse reaction. Your baby will make funny faces as they experiment with new tastes and textures, and they'll inevitably reject some meals along the way. Be patient—if couscous doesn't go over well one night, it might next week.

It also helps to adopt the motto "let it slide. Keep it that way by letting your child set the pace. You can continue breastfeeding for as long as you both want. As time goes on and your baby eats more solids, they may naturally want less breast milk or first infant formula. If you're breastfeeding, your baby will adapt their feeds according to how much food they're having. Formula-fed babies may need around ml of milk a day, but just use this as a guide.

Remember your baby's tummy is tiny and fills up quickly, so offer milk feeds after solids and don't force them to finish the bottle. During meal times, offer your baby sips of water from an open cup or a free-flow cup. Sweet drinks like squash, fizzy drinks, milkshakes and fruit juice can have lots of sugar, so avoid these to help prevent tooth decay — even baby and toddler drinks can be sugary. Get personalised emails for trusted NHS advice, videos and tips on your pregnancy week by week, birth and parenthood.

Back to What to feed your baby. Home Weaning What to feed your baby 7 - 9 months. Weaning Getting ready Ready or not? What to feed your baby Recipes and meal ideas Safe weaning. Share this page Facebook Pinterest Twitter Whatsapp. What to feed your baby.

Baby's age. Sign up for emails Get tips and advice on your baby's development, parenting and more sent to your inbox. Subscribe to Start4Life pregnancy, baby and toddler emails. Food groups Make sure you include a wide variety of the following food groups in your baby's meals. Baby should be getting protein, carbohydrates and fats in every meal.

How many wet diapers for a 9-month-old is healthy? About four or five very wet ones per day is considered ideal. What finger foods can I feed my 9-month-old? Nine-month-olds are working on their pincer grasp, so finger foods are a go. Offer their favorite soft-cooked veggies cut into small pieces, bits of banana or avocado, or tiny cooked pasta pieces. Can a 9-month-old eat eggs? Many parents of nine-month-olds ask about eggs.

The advice used to be to avoid giving babies eggs before their first birthday, but that recommendation has changed. Egg is a common allergen, and the old advice said egg yolk was okay around nine months but to wait to introduce the egg white which is more likely to cause an allergic reaction. But newer food allergy research suggests that it in fact might benefit baby to introduce common food allergens early and often. So the short answer is yes, you can give baby egg at 9 months, although you should always talk to your pediatrician before introducing potential allergens.

And as with introducing any new food, watch your baby for signs of an allergic reaction in the following days. Nine-month-old babies typically sleep about 14 to 15 hours per day.

Eleven hours of those are at night. About three hours are divided between two daytime naps. About 70 percent of 9-month-olds sleep eight to 12 hours at night without waking.

If you think your child needs a little extra nudging to start sleeping longer stretches, you might consider sleep-training. Sleep training a 9-month-old baby is totally doable. Sleep regression is common among 9-month-old babies. Because your child is learning new skills, such as crawling, pulling up to stand and cruising, they might decide they want to practice them… in the middle of the night.