The ideal food for an infant is mother's milk, and in its absence, highly adapted nutritional formulas. This nutrition is sufficient for a breastfed child up to six months of age, but for a formula-fed child only up to 4 months. Next, we will tell you in detail what an approximate menu should be for a 4-month-old child who is on.

Nutrition for a 4-month-old bottle-fed baby

At the 4th month of life, the child’s activity increases: he sleeps less, motor skills are rapidly developing (the child is already turning over on his side, picking up toys). This means the time has come when it’s time to accustom your baby to regular foods. The first dish in the diet of a 4-month-old bottle-fed baby is vegetable puree. Complementary foods should be introduced in the first half of the day to observe how the child will behave after tasting a new dish.

It should be said that you need to prepare vegetable puree without salt, spices and oil. To prepare this, you should take vegetables that do not cause allergies (not bright) and do not cause increased gas formation in the intestines (do not use legumes). And when the baby’s body adapts to eating such food, it can be lightly salted and a couple of drops of oil added.

You should not immediately replace the whole feeding with vegetable puree; it is enough to give 1-2 spoons on the first day, and then supplement the baby with the mixture. If the child tolerates the new food well, then the next day you can give 4 spoons. Each new dish must be introduced within 2 weeks.

What to feed a 4-month-old bottle-fed baby?

What should you feed a 4-month-old bottle-fed baby when vegetable puree has already been introduced into the diet?

The second dish is milk porridge, which you can cook yourself or buy a dry mixture in the store, which you just need to add hot water. Now vegetable puree should be shifted to the third meal, and milk porridge should be introduced during the second meal. The principle of introducing milk porridge into the diet is the same as that of vegetable puree.

Thus, by the 5th month of life, a child who is bottle-fed has 2 meals replaced with regular foods. Complementary feeding should be given to the baby from a spoon, not from a bottle. If the child is not healthy at the time of introducing complementary foods, then you should not give him new foods; it is better to wait until the baby gets better. And most importantly, under no circumstances should a child be forced to eat; the food should be praised and the child should be encouraged to try a new tasty dish.

From birth, the diet of babies is not particularly varied - newborns are fed breast milk or an adapted milk formula, or use the second one as supplementary feeding for infants, if there is such a need. The baby's menu at 4 months is not distinguished by an abundance of dishes, and usually babies eat the same things as before. But many parents decide to supplement their child’s diet with new foods at this age. Yes, and grandmothers insist on the introduction of natural juices, starting from another 2 months. But the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends not starting complementary feeding until the child is six months old.

By some signs you can determine whether the baby is ready for complementary feeding or not.

There are several key points that make it clear to the mother that the baby is ready for the introduction of feeding:

1. Lack of gag reflex when spoon feeding. In children under 4 - 6 months of age, there is an increased gag reflex, i.e., an attack of vomiting occurs when a hard object hits the middle of the tongue. Until this reflex fades away, introducing new products is pointless.
2. Nutritional interest. A four-month-old baby is unlikely to have such an interest, but there are rare exceptions. Food interest means that when a child sees his parents eating, he reaches for food, makes chewing movements, or opens his mouth.
3. Underweight. Simply put, the baby is not eating the same amount of breast milk or formula. As a rule, the baby will be restless, often wake up at night, and not gain weight.
4. Tendency to constipation, iron deficiency in the blood (anemia). In order not to torment the baby with medications, gas tubes and suppositories, new food products are introduced that will help overcome these problems.

However, if parents want to supplement the child’s diet with new foods so early, and the baby has stopped eating enough breast milk, they need to consult a pediatrician. The doctor will help you choose a formula that can be used to supplement your baby's feeding. And then full-fledged complementary feeding can be started within the WHO-recommended 6 months.

Regardless of whether the child is bottle-fed or breastfed, if there are no special reasons for early replenishment of the diet with “adult” food, the baby is gaining weight well and is developing according to age, then there is no need to rush into introducing new foods.

Where to begin?

Pediatricians often differ in their opinions on this topic - some say that you should start with cereals, others are sure that you should definitely start with fruits, and still others say that vegetables are ideal for introducing a baby to “adult” food. And absolutely all of these judgments are true, and they can be easily explained. After all, pediatricians recommend a certain type of first complementary feeding for an individual child, based on the problems that the early introduction of new products should solve.

If the child is on an artificial type of feeding, and has problems with excess weight, then introducing complementary foods at 4 months will even be useful. It is better to start with vegetables, as they are lower in calories and do not affect weight gain.

If the artificial child does not have problems with weight, you can start feeding either vegetables or cereals, at the discretion of the parents. When a child is severely underweight, the baby often wakes up at night from hunger, then you should start with cereals.

The same principles of introducing new foods apply to babies who are breastfed. If up to 4 months the baby received formula as supplementary feeding, upon reaching this age you can replace it with porridge. The main thing to remember is that you still can’t stop breastfeeding your baby.

You should start complementary feeding with fruits only if you are prone to constipation. Prunes are especially helpful and can be included in a child’s menu at this age. In other cases, introducing fruits first can play a cruel joke on parents - sometimes the child does not want to eat bland vegetables after them.

What foods can you give?

Homemade zucchini puree for baby's first feeding

Not all vegetables, fruits and cereals can be used in a baby’s diet. The list of such vegetables is small:

• zucchini;
• cauliflower;
• broccoli.

These vegetables are less allergenic and easier for the stomach to digest than others. As for cereals, dairy-free cereals that do not contain gluten are used for the first complementary feeding:

• buckwheat;
• rice;
• corn

A 4-month-old baby's diet can be varied with fruits - applesauce is usually the first to try, then prunes, pears or peach can be introduced.

Replenishing the diet: what to give and how much?

If you do not know the basic rules for introducing new foods into the diet of a four-month-old baby, you can provoke allergies, colic, or bowel disorders. First of all, you should remember that at 4 months a baby cannot eat meat, fish, exotic and citrus fruits, red vegetables, sweets and chocolate. True, this does not mean that other products can be given to the baby in unlimited quantities.

• If replenishing your diet begins with purees, no matter fruit or vegetable, the main thing to remember is that they must consist of one component.
• It is better to choose porridges that are dairy-free and do not contain any additives.
• Multi-component purees and cereals are introduced into the baby’s diet after 6 months.
• The first feeding should be in semi-liquid form and offered to the baby from a spoon.

The timing of the introduction of a new product is also of particular importance. It is best to try something new at lunchtime before the main meal, i.e. before breastfeeding or formula feeding. Moreover, on the first day it is correct to offer the baby no more than 1 teaspoon. With each subsequent day, the portion increases by 2 times until the amount of food that the baby eats reaches 100 - 120 grams and replaces one full feeding. Only after one product has been completely introduced can the next one begin to be introduced, and this scheme is suitable for each product. This way, a 4-month-old baby’s menu will become more varied every week.

What is better: buy or cook?

Baby apple puree FrutoNYANYA for complementary feeding of a child from 4 months

You can prepare puree or porridge yourself, or you can buy it in a specialized department. If parents decide to prepare food for their child, it is better to use vegetables and fruits that they grow themselves. Store-bought ones, especially those bought in the cold season, are probably “stuffed” with chemicals. The same applies to store-bought frozen vegetables and vegetable mixtures.

Baby food should not be fatty, not spicy, not salty and not sweet. Frying and baking food for children is also prohibited. When preparing purees for a four-month-old baby, you cannot use vegetable oil, much less butter. This can be done in a couple of months, when the baby’s body gets used to “different” food.

All vegetable and fruit purees are prepared according to the same recipe:

• 100 g of raw vegetable;
• 2 tbsp. l. water, breast milk or formula.

The vegetable or fruit is cooked until tender; it’s not even scary to overcook it (this will make it easier to chop). You can also steam it, whichever is more convenient for parents. After this, add liquid to the vegetable or fruit and grind with a blender (or mash with a fork) until smooth and porridge-like.

You cannot add salt, pepper or sugar to dishes for four-month-old babies. A child's taste buds are not yet the same as those of adults. By neglecting this rule, parents themselves instill in their children the wrong eating habits.

Diet

The nutrition of infants and artificial babies is, as a rule, very different. WHO recommends feeding a baby exclusively with breast milk for up to 4 months and only at the baby's request. Although 20 years ago women in maternity hospitals were taught that feeding must be carried out according to a schedule, a break of 3 hours was observed between feedings. And artificial animals eat approximately at intervals of 3.5 - 4 hours.

An approximate diagram of the diet, wakefulness and sleep of a baby at 4 months:

It turns out that an artificial baby eats 5 times a day, and a baby who is breastfed can be attached to the breast up to 10 times. One feeding should last the child for 3-4 hours. But do not forget that the breast for the baby is not only food, but also a way of communicating with the mother and calming down, the main assistant in falling asleep. Therefore, breastfed babies do not always maintain the required interval between feedings.

Sample menu

What to feed a child at 4 months is not a difficult question, because the baby’s menu does not change much. At this age, he is just beginning to become acquainted with adult food. There are many tables on the Internet that detail a child’s nutrition plan. But their essence is the same - the introduction of a new product occurs during lunch. The remaining meals remain unchanged.

The only thing that can still change is how long the next feeding will be after a full portion of complementary foods. After all, a full portion of “adult” food helps saturate the body for a longer period of time than 3 - 3.5 hours.

Some sources report that the baby’s diet needs to be replenished with vegetable and fruit juices, but this is nothing more than relics of the past. Previously, about 20 years ago, pediatricians believed that the vitamins that a baby receives from mother’s milk are not enough for normal growth and development.

Over time, research has shown that a baby can be exclusively breastfed for more than 6 months without experiencing nutritional deficiencies. Juices have a detrimental effect on the baby’s stomach, so they are introduced into the diet no earlier than 6 months, and the WHO does not recommend until 1 year.

Summary

When introducing the first complementary foods, it is important not to overdo it - if the child is not ready for new food, then you should not torture him. You can try to offer him a new product after a week, but it is not a fact that he will not refuse the unusual food again. And if an allergic reaction occurs after a new product, you need to stop feeding for 7-10 days and only then try again, with a different product. Not all four-month-old babies are happy to accept their parents’ initiative to introduce new dishes into their diet, and parents should always remember this.

basis baby menu at 4 months There is still breast milk or artificial formula for newborns, but it is at this stage that pediatricians recommend starting to add variety to the baby’s diet. This becomes possible due to the fact that the baby’s body is already a little stronger and the introduction of new food will not only not harm him, but will also stimulate development, if, of course, the food is properly prepared and selected according to age.

It is no secret that through nutrition an infant receives all the necessary micro- and macroelements, as well as vitamins. At this age, the child cannot yet simply make up for what is missing by taking a couple of chewable tablets, and therefore the mother will have to be careful about the toddler’s nutrition. As a rule, an egg yolk, vegetable soup or puree and fruit desserts are introduced into a child’s menu at 4 months.

Egg yolk on a baby's menu at 4 months

Egg yolk is a real storehouse of easily digestible protein, lipids, fats, biostimulants and mineral salts. Their use in combination with vitamins B and D is an effective prevention of rickets, but it must be given in small quantities and in the correct form. To begin with, 1/8 of the boiled yolk is enough for the baby, but it must be given thoroughly mashed and dissolved in a small amount of breast milk. Increasing the dose of this product in the baby’s diet should be careful - pediatricians recommend increasing the consumption of yolk to 1/2 only in the diet of a child at 6 months.

Vegetable soup or puree on the baby's menu at 4 months

Vegetable soup or puree on a child's menu at 4 months can rightfully be called the first real adult food, although children's vegetable dishes, of course, differ from those that belong to the diet of adults.

The first vegetable soups and purees should consist of one component, but after a few days, if the child reacts well to this food, the mother may well add new ingredients to the dish. As a rule, pediatricians recommend starting vegetable complementary foods with carrots, potatoes and pumpkin dishes, but some babies also prefer to eat zucchini and onions - so gradually your baby’s vegetable soup will become almost like the real thing, except maybe not fried. The use of this method of cooking is not encouraged even in, despite the fact that the baby will already give the impression of being ready to move to the common table.

Preparing vegetable soup or puree for a 4-month-old baby is quite simple: for this you will need a small enamel saucepan, a couple of vegetables and clean water. During the cooking process, be careful with flavoring additives - you only need a drop of oil, and you can avoid salt altogether, since the child’s taste buds are not yet properly tuned to perceive it. After the vegetables are cooked, you need to knead everything thoroughly - the baby is still ready to accept only homogeneous and liquid food.

Fruit desserts on the baby's menu at 4 months

Fruit desserts are your little one’s first treat. In order to please him with a tasty and healthy dish, you can simply scrape a little apple or banana with a spoon, or you can treat your baby to any ready-made canned fruit puree prepared especially for infants. However, do not forget that a baby can take no more than 3 spoons of such a treat at a time, and even then this dose will have to be increased gradually, from 1/2 teaspoon.

Sample menu for a 4 month old baby

The correct daily menu for a 4 month old baby consists of the following feedings.

• 6.00 - breast milk or a formula that replaces it.
• 10.00 - milk or mixture and fruit juice - pear or apple.
• 14.00 - formula or breast milk and pureed vegetables.
• 18.00 - milk or mixture and fruit puree.
• 22.00 - mother's milk or formula plus egg yolk.
• Before bedtime, conquer your baby with his usual food - give him breastfeeding or a bottle with formula.

Of course, the above menu is just a variation, but try to maintain its main features: six feedings with an interval of three to four hours and the usual milk before and after a night's sleep.

The four-month-old baby has already adapted to the world around him. All body systems develop. The gastrointestinal tract has adapted to the absorption and assimilation of food, colic has disappeared, constipation and bloating are no longer tormented, and flatulence no longer occurs.

The development and nutrition of a child at 4 months enters a new stage: the baby becomes active, inquisitive, shows emotions, and develops its own eating habits. Changes in appearance are noticeable: eye color changes, in most children the eyes darken. The delicate, soft hairs with which the child was born begin to fall out and are replaced by hair of different quality. Often the hair color also changes - from light to darker.

Physiological development

Weight gain remains high. The child does not move very much yet, so he can gain up to 750 g. Growth indicators increase by an average of 2 - 3 cm.

For healthy children, the average values ​​are as follows:

• Weight – from 6 to 7 kg. These figures can vary within 1 kg.
• Height – 60 – 63 cm (plus or minus 3 cm).

Weight and height depend on the individual characteristics of the child. There are children - heroes and children of more fragile physique. Good physical development of a baby allows him to master many useful and necessary skills:

• Roll over from tummy to side, to back and back.
• Holds his head confidently. Can sit down if pulled by the handles.
• Confident support on the forearms when raised on the handles. He actively turns his head, looking at the world around him.
• Leaning on one handle, the other can already be pulled forward, trying to reach a toy lying nearby.
• Some babies begin the crawling stage.
• When lying on his back, he can confidently raise his shoulders and head.
• Muscle hypertonicity disappears (completely in the arms and partially in the legs).
• If you lift the child by the armpits, the baby will stand confidently with his feet. The legs are half bent, the baby will spring with its legs, trying to push off from the smooth surface.
• The palms are completely relaxed, not clenched into a fist. The child can slap the toy with his palm or put them together.
• Purposefully grabs toys and holds them in his hands for up to 1 minute. Can shake a rattle to hear its sound. He carefully examines the toys, turns them, and enjoys the new ones.
• During feeding, he holds the mother's breast with his hands or holds a bottle with milk formula.

Psycho-emotional development

Active development in psycho-emotional terms is associated with the expansion of visual as well as auditory perception. The baby can already follow the movement of a person or toy. There is a clear reaction to loud sounds. The baby turns its head towards the source of irritation. Memory develops.

Daily regime

A 4-month-old child needs to have a proper daily routine. The duration of night sleep increases. Now the baby can sleep peacefully for 9 - 10 hours. Daytime sleep is divided into 2 - 3 parts of one and a half - two hours. The number of feedings is reduced to 5 times a day, which allows the baby to increase activity during the day. The time of daytime activity between sleep reaches an hour.

Walks in the fresh air become longer. In warm weather, you can walk 2-3 times for up to 3 hours. In winter – 2 times up to 2 hours. When frosts are above 10 degrees, instead of walking outside, you can take the stroller with the child to the balcony or loggia. Lubricate your face with a special cream that protects against frostbite.

Gymnastic exercises and light massage can be performed 2 times a day. Children are usually bathed before the last feeding so that the babies sleep soundly. Children with pronounced hyperactivity should be bathed during the daytime, since water procedures do not calm them down, but, on the contrary, stimulate activity.

Each parent makes up their own daily routine, but it is advisable to comply with the basic requirements for sleep duration and activity.

An approximate daily routine for a baby could be like this:

• 00 - 6.30. First feeding.
• 30 - 8.00. Hygienic mandatory procedures: gymnastics, massage, air bath. Period of daytime wakefulness.
• 00 - 10.00. Dream.
• 00 - 10.30. Lunch.
• 30 - 12.00. Gymnastics, massage, educational games, active communication.
• 00 - 14.00. A dream that can be combined with a walk in the fresh air.
• 00 - 14.30. Dinner.
• 30 - 16.00. Active period: games, physical exercises, developmental activities.
• 00 - 18.00. Sleeping while walking.
• 00 - 18.30. Feeding.
• 30 - 20.00. Active wakefulness. Bathing.
• 00 - 22.00. Evening sleep.
• 00 - 22.30. Fifth feeding.
• 30 - 6.00. Night sleep.

This table helps to create a baby’s daily routine, taking into account his individual characteristics. Night sleep may be longer. If the baby did not wake up at 6 am on his own, you should not wake him up on purpose, let him sleep. It’s just that all procedures will shift a little in time.

It must be remembered that the intervals between meals should not be less than 4 hours. Daytime sleep should total 6 hours.

Feeding mode

A 4-month-old baby is no longer fed 6 times a day, but 5 times. For breastfed children, breast milk continues to be the staple food. Most pediatricians believe that breastfed babies should not be given solids at 4 months. The baby receives all the necessary substances and vitamins from mother's milk. The diet of a child at 4 months does not change for an infant.

If the baby is bottle-fed or mixed-fed, the diet changes slightly. The baby no longer lacks vitamins and minerals. Therefore, after consultation with a pediatrician, the first complementary foods can be gradually introduced. For it, it is better to choose vegetable rather than fruit purees. Vegetable purees contain a lot of fiber, which is very beneficial for the development of the body.

To diversify the nutrition of a bottle-fed baby, you can add.

Good quality of ready-made vegetable and fruit purees is noted from companies producing baby food “Agusha”, “Gerber”, “Lukoshko”. The entire range of these companies is constantly tested for compliance with accepted standards.

Complementary feeding rules

• Any new product is tested for allergic reactions. Juice or soup is initially given in the form of a few drops, and the little person’s condition is monitored. If there are no signs of allergy, the product is added to the baby's diet from 4 months.
• It is not allowed to introduce 2 or more types of complementary foods at the same time, so as not to cause disruption of the gastrointestinal tract.

Mother's breast milk for feeding a child at 4 months still forms the basis of the diet, but since the baby is actively growing, the body's need for nutrients increases, and to satisfy it it is necessary to gradually introduce new products. The menu of a normally developing child at 4 months should include freshly prepared juices from fruits and vegetables, boiled vegetable puree, cottage cheese, fresh fruit puree, and egg yolk.

Feeding a baby at 4 months: vegetable puree

It is recommended to gradually replace the third meal with vegetable puree when feeding a 4-month-old baby five to six times a day with breast milk. Vegetables will provide your baby with additional vitamins, microelements and fiber. With normal development, his digestive organs are already able to hold and digest more complex foods, but for the first time the baby should be given one teaspoon of vegetable puree and carefully monitor the child’s body’s reaction to the new product. By increasing the portion, completely replace one breastfeeding with vegetable puree within a week.

Vegetable puree for feeding a 4-month-old baby is prepared as follows: wash the vegetables with warm water, peel, pour over boiling water, then boil over low heat in a small amount of water under a lid or steam. After the vegetables have cooled, grind them in a blender or rub through a fine strainer. Dilute the resulting puree to the desired consistency with vegetable broth or diluted boiled milk, add sunflower, corn, olive or softened butter, starting with 1 g, gradually increase to a teaspoon. To prepare vegetable puree, a variety of vegetables are used, such as potatoes, carrots, cabbage, pumpkin, zucchini, tomatoes, and beets. If possible, you can add sweet bell peppers, cauliflower, broccoli, and spinach. Potatoes in baby vegetable puree should be no more than half of the total volume. If your baby is overweight, it is better to use cabbage, zucchini, and pumpkin for making purees; they contain less carbohydrates.

Feeding a baby at 4 months: cottage cheese

At the age of 4 months, the child must be given fresh cottage cheese daily, which should preferably be prepared at home or taken from a dairy kitchen. To prepare children's cottage cheese, take special children's kefir, pour it into a container, an enamel mug or a small saucepan will do, place the container with kefir in a saucepan with hot water and keep it over low heat until a dense clot is formed from the kefir. It should be placed in cheesecloth or a thick sieve and strained. From 200 g of kefir you get 2 teaspoons of cottage cheese, the daily portion needed by a child of 4 months.

Consult your pediatrician; he may recommend preparing special calcined cottage cheese for your child. Typically, such cottage cheese is needed for children with a calcium deficiency, for example, if the fontanelle does not close well or the first teeth erupt early.

The technology for preparing calcined cottage cheese is the same as for regular cottage cheese, only instead of baby kefir, 300 g of boiled milk is taken and 3 ml of 20% calcium chloride is added to it (the drug is purchased at the pharmacy).

For the first feeding of a child at 4 months, less than half a teaspoon of cottage cheese is ground with breast or boiled cow's milk and given to the baby before meals in the morning and evening. If the child’s body reacts normally, there are no intestinal problems or allergic manifestations, next time give 3/4 of a spoon a day and then a teaspoon twice a day before meals.

Feeding a baby at 4 months: egg yolk

Egg yolks are rich in essential amino acids, contain folic acid, iodine, iron, lecithin, vitamins B2, B12, A, D. All these substances are necessary for the baby to grow and develop. But it should be borne in mind that eggs are an allergenic product. During the cooking process, the main part of the allergens in the egg is destroyed, so the duration of boiling eggs should be at least 20 minutes.

Starting from 4.5-5 months when breastfeeding and from 4-4.5 when feeding formulas, the child is introduced to the menu with the yolk of boiled eggs. The first time, it is enough to grind a small piece, the size of a match head, with milk to check how the body reacts to the new food. If everything is normal and no allergic reaction is observed, then the volume is gradually increased to a quarter of the yolk per day; it is better to give the yolk in one of the morning feedings.

If possible, preference should be given to quail eggs; they are more healthy in composition and less likely to cause an allergic reaction. You need to boil quail eggs, like chicken eggs, for at least 20 minutes.

4 months: breastfeeding regimen, sleep

At 4 months, the baby's daytime breastfeeding interval can be 3-4 hours, night sleep can last 6.5-8 hours. But for many children, when breastfeeding, sleep at night may be short and interrupted for night feeding. There is nothing alarming about this, it means that the mother’s milk is not nutritious enough and the baby just needs to be fed. Usually, with the introduction of a sufficient amount of complementary foods by six months, the need for night feedings disappears, and the child sleeps peacefully until the morning.

Feeding a 4 month old baby with artificial formula

When mother's milk is not enough or there is no opportunity to breastfeed the baby, the baby is transferred to artificial feeding. If this happens from the first days of a child’s life, then the introduction of various complementary foods should begin a little earlier, because despite all the thoughtfulness and balance, the mixtures cannot fully replace mother’s milk, and the introduction of complementary foods will enrich the baby’s diet. And the child’s stomach, having adapted to artificial feeding, can more easily tolerate new foods in the diet.

Sample menu for a 4-month-old bottle-fed baby:

• 6:00-8:00 Infant formula 180-200 g;
• 10:00-11:30 Vegetable puree, half an egg yolk, 50 g fruit puree;
• 14:30-16:00 Infant formula 170-180 g, teaspoon cottage cheese, 5 teaspoons (25 ml) fruit juice;
• 19:00-20:00 Baby formula 170-180 g, 25 ml fruit puree;
• 23:00-00:00 Boiled milk, diluted with water 1:1, 1 teaspoon of cottage cheese.

Artificial formula takes longer to digest, so you can wait longer between meals than when breastfeeding. Sleep is very important for the normal growth of the baby and at 4 months he still falls asleep after almost every feeding. But the waking time has already been increased; in total, at this age, the child sleeps from 14 to 17 hours, depending on the character and temperament.

Each baby, based on the needs of his body, lets his parents know which daily routine is more suitable for him. The parents' task is to try to feed the child and put him to bed every day at the same time, chosen by him. This is necessary for the formation of a healthy digestive and nervous system.

Important! Children should not be given complementary foods if they have allergic reactions, intestinal problems, when preparing the child for vaccinations, immediately after them, and when the baby is not healthy.

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