Give complementary foods from 12 up to 24 months

Note: The white background food image represents a meal; yellow background represents a snack.

What:

• Continue breastfeeding on demand (on cue) both day and night.
• Continue to offer animal-source foods: meat, chicken, fish, liver and eggs; milk and non-sugary, non-flavoured milk products every day. See Counselling Card 21 for other examples of diverse and nutritious foods for babies.
• Offer at least one to two additional small meals or ‘snacks’ each day, such as an egg, ripe mango and papaya, avocado, banana, other fruits and vegetables, bread with nut paste, or orange-fleshed sweet potato.
• Avoid sweet biscuits, sugary drinks, and snacks high in fat, salt and sugar.
• Use iodized salt sparingly in family foods.

How:

• Give three-quarters to one cup (250 ml cup/bowl) of family foods. (Show the suggested amount in a cup brought by the mother.)
• Give your baby a minimum of three meals a day and offer one to two snacks.
• Thoroughly reheat any food that has been kept for more than 2-to-4 hours.

Responsive care and feeding practices

• Interact and talk with your child while washing hands and eating.
• Encourage your child to hold food and to use a spoon to feed him/herself.
• Don't use food as a reward or punishment.
• Engage the child in ‘play’ to make the eating session a happy, learning experience.
• Encourage ‘conversation’ by copying your child’s sounds or gestures.
• Offer new foods several times; children may not like new foods in the first few tries.
• Respond to your child’s reaction to new tastes or textures by communicating joy and encouragement.
• Eat with the family as much as possible to promote social and emotional development.
• Do not insist if the child does not want to eat. If the child refuses to eat, offer food again later.
• Follow your child’s lead and hunger or fullness cues.
• See Counselling Cards 27, 28 and 29 on responsive care and early learning and Counselling Cards 13, 14 and 15 on handwashing, hygiene and clean water.