By about ten months, your baby should be able to sit up without support, stand with assistance, and may begin to walk holding on to furniture or your hand. Your baby is able to mash food with their gums and is learning to chew more efficiently as more teeth come through.
What do I do?
- While your baby may be down to two or three feeds of breast milk or formula from a bottle each day, it is still an important part of their diet and should remain so until at least 12 months, when you can substitute cow's milk for a drink.
- By ten months you should be giving solids before breast milk or formula, to ensure you provide the recommended amount each day. Three meals a day should be offered with three to four breast or formula feeds (or about 600ml per day).
- It is not recommended to feed your baby direct from the storage container. The saliva from your baby's mouth can break down the food, making it runny - and you risk contamination. It's best to put the required quantity into a serving dish.
- You can introduce cereals containing gluten, such as fortified baby pasta, cous cous, bread and rusks, to your baby's diet.
- It is now appropriate to offer a small amount of egg to your baby (unless you have a history of allergies - check with your dietician or Child and Family Health Nurse for advice).
Click here for food allergy and intolerance information.
What texture should the food be?
- The food for babies at about ten months will have a more chunky texture to encourage them to chew, and assist in the development of speech.
- You should be encouraging your baby to feed him/herself by offering a range of finger foods including pieces of cooked vegetables such as carrot or broccoli, pieces of soft fruit such as melon, peach and pear, and toast fingers.
- All Golden Circle products in this category have the appropriate texture for babies of this age.
Click here to view the Feeding Timeline.
What should my baby drink?
Breast milk or formula is recommended as a milk drink until your baby is one year of age. Cooled boiled water should also be provided to maintain hydration.
From around six months you can introduce your baby to a drinking cup. They will need some assistance and will probably take some time to manage drinking from the cup. Use the cup to introduce water or diluted fruit juices to your baby's diet. However, never put fruit juices in your baby's bottle as it is high in natural sugars and may cause dental caries.
It is important that infants do not consume undiluted fruit juices as it is high in natural sugars. Golden Circle Junior drinks offer the perfect blend of fruit juice and purified, filtered water (with just 4% natural sugars and only about 67% purified, filtered water), so it is safe and ready to drink. This makes Golden Circle Junior not only good for your child, but convenient for you.
Your child should consume a maximum of 120ml of diluted fruit juice per day before 12 months of age, and 240ml a day after 12 months.
What to avoid
- To minimize allergies, don't use shellfish or cow's milk until after 12 months. If there is a family history of allergy to peanuts, peanut products should not be introduced until after three years.
- Do not give your child honey until they are a year old, as it may contain harmful bacteria that may cause food poisoning.
- No need to add salt or strongly flavoured spices and keep sugars to a minimum.
- Avoid hard foods that are likely to cause choking. These include nuts, small bones or gristle in fish, meat or poultry, celery, raw apple, carrot (grated or cooked is fine), sausage or Frankfurt skins, whole peas, corn, beans, seeds or grapes.
Hints and tips
- To avoid choking, encourage your child to sit down while eating, never force them to eat, and never leave them alone with food.
The Golden Circle range for this age
You'll find the 3rd Foods range in larger containers to cater for your child's increasing need for larger meals. Products suitable specifically for babies from ten months have green labels.
Little Extra's
You'll find a range of tasty, gluten free cereals, custards and gels in the yellow packaging suitable for babies from 4 months plus. These make a great addition to your baby's varied diet.
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