You need to feed your baby at 8 months. Power

Until recently, your baby only ate mother’s milk while lying under the breast, or drank formula from a bottle. And now, 8 months after birth, the grown-up baby sits at the table and takes part in a common meal.

Family meals play a big role in making the baby feel like a full-fledged member of the family.

It is important not only to feed him healthy and tasty food, but also to instill proper eating habits and good manners. At 8 months, a child’s diet includes enough food to prepare a variety of dishes.

Of course, provided that you started introducing complementary foods at 4 months - for bottle-fed children - or at 6 months - for breastfed children. Start raising your little gourmet.

At this age, a child’s diet is almost the same as an adult’s. Three meals - breakfast, lunch, dinner - are supplemented by two breastfeedings - early in the morning and late in the evening. Breastfeeding during the day is possible, but still, to develop food interest, it is better to support three meals a day with “adult” food.

So, the baby’s menu at 8 months looks like this.

Early breakfast

Babies love to wake up with the sun and it is best to have their first breakfast in bed with their mother. Despite the introduced complementary feeding, mother's milk or formula should, if possible, remain in the baby's diet, providing him with additional nutrients and microelements.

Breakfast

Porridge is considered an ideal breakfast not only for children, but also for adults. It contains fiber, which is good for digestion, and complex carbohydrates, which provide energy throughout the day. Good habits should be formed from early childhood. Therefore, teach your baby to eat properly starting with breakfast.

Rice, buckwheat, corn, oatmeal, barley, wheat - if you started introducing complementary foods at 4-6 months, then most likely your baby has already become familiar with these types of grains. Now you can prepare him a tasty and healthy breakfast, alternating cereals and coming up with new recipes. There are many options - using baby milk or water, adding fruits or berries already included in complementary foods, adding butter or vegetable oil. Just don’t sweeten the porridge with sugar, it won’t do any good.

8 months is the right time for a child to get acquainted with boiled egg yolk. This is a tasty and healthy product: vitamins A, D, E, group B, iron, phosphorus, lecithin, selenium - this is not a complete list of all the microelements that make up the yolk. It is best to choose the yolk quail egg, as it contains more vitamins and minerals.

You should start introducing yolk into your diet like any other complementary food with a tiny portion, gradually increasing it to half the yolk of a chicken egg or a whole quail. At the same time, do not forget to carefully monitor the body’s reaction so that if you suspect an allergic reaction, you should stop introducing yourself to new products.

A hard-boiled yolk is mixed with breast milk, formula, or added to porridge a couple of times a week. When the baby gets used to the taste of the yolk, you can prepare a steam omelet for him. To do this, thoroughly mix raw yolk, 50 ml of special baby milk (you can use breast milk or formula if the baby is bottle-fed) and 1 tbsp. l. decoys . This omelette is convenient to prepare in small ramekins. steam, in a slow cooker or bake in the oven.

Dinner

For lunch, an 8-month-old toddler can be served pureed soup in vegetable broth with the addition of meat, a piece of white bread or crackers and compote for dessert.

Zucchini, cauliflower, and broccoli are among the first vegetables introduced into a child's complementary foods. If the baby eats them up with all his might, at 8 months you can carefully and gradually add carrots, pumpkin, beets and potatoes. Before eating, potatoes should be soaked in cold water for a couple of hours to reduce the starch content. You can make delicious puree from boiled potatoes with spinach. Spinach is allowed for children from 4 months and includes an extensive list of vitamins and microelements that have a beneficial effect on the entire child’s body.

For some reason, such a useful vegetable as onion is undeservedly forgotten. But boiled onions contain vitamins A, B, C, phosphoric acid, fiber, and potassium. Therefore, it is worth adding a piece of onion to the saucepan when preparing lunch for your baby.

Meat is another healthy product, especially necessary during the period of intensive growth of a child for the proper formation of the musculoskeletal system. Beef, veal, rabbit, turkey or chicken - in the first stages of introducing meat dishes into the diet, it is better to choose less fatty varieties. However, remember that for beef, like chicken meat, you need to be careful - they are allergenic varieties.

At the stage of introducing meat into a child’s food, it is best to use canned puree from well-known manufacturers. When the amount of meat in the child’s daily diet is brought up to the age norm, you can prepare purees, meatballs, and pates yourself. The main thing is, after boiling a piece of meat, grind it thoroughly, passing it through a meat grinder a couple of times or using a blender.

To make puree soup, boil vegetables in water, add separately cooked meat, chop everything thoroughly and add a teaspoon of vegetable oil.

After 8 months, the child can be fed fish dishes instead of meat a couple of times a week.

Children, as a rule, like fish because of its delicate texture and sweetish aftertaste, and mothers love fish for its obvious benefits for the baby’s health. It is important to remove all bones very carefully and, of course, monitor the absence of an allergic reaction. Fish puree goes well with vegetables to taste and is also easy to digest.

Choosing a variety, it is better to stick to white sea or ocean fish - cod, hake, pollock - it is less fatty and contains, among other useful substances, iodine and fluorine.

Many mothers believe that juice is as beneficial for the body as fruit. However, this is a misconception. Fruit juices do not contain fiber, but they do contain excessive amounts of sugar, which is not beneficial for children. Therefore, it is still better to replace the juice with an unsaturated compote, which the baby will definitely appreciate as a dessert. Compote can be made from any seasonal fruits and berries to which the child is not allergic; in winter, a delicious drink can be made from dried fruits.

Dinner

Dinner is considered a very important meal that promotes emotional closeness for the entire family. At 8 months, the baby can already be placed in a high chair and given special dishes for children. Shared meals are needed not only for so that the child feels like part of the family, but also learns how to behave at the table. This will make him more likely to want to take a spoon and start eating on his own.

A child's diet at 8 months should include fermented milk products - cottage cheese, kefir, yogurt. Whether to buy ready-made baby food in a store, take it from a dairy kitchen, or cook it yourself - the choice is yours. The main thing is to carefully monitor their freshness, check the date of manufacture and follow storage conditions.

You can give fruit puree to your baby as a dessert or sweeten cottage cheese with it, for example, add a baked apple or banana.

After eating, treat your baby to a baby food cookies or scratch your gums with a cracker.

Late dinner

At the end of an interesting and eventful day, full of new discoveries, it would be nice to refresh yourself with mother’s nutritious milk or delicious formula, and then sleep soundly and sweetly all night.

This is an approximate menu and feeding regimen; it can be varied within the limits of the foods allowed at 8 months. For example, add yolk to vegetables, and meat to cereals. You can give porridge for dinner so that a well-fed baby sleeps more soundly, and offer soup for breakfast. Try, experiment, because a little person from birth has a unique character and, it is quite possible that by the age of 8 months he has formed his individual preferences and tastes.

When introducing a new product, give your baby the opportunity to evaluate its taste; do not immediately add it to a complex dish. And remember that the main ingredient of any dish is mother’s love.

Diet of a child at 8 months: food volume norms

Early breakfast:

Mother's milk or formula in an amount of 200 ml.

Breakfast:

Milk or dairy-free porridge 180 g.
Butter ½ tsp.
Chicken egg yolk ½ pcs.
Fruit puree 30 ml.

Dinner:

Vegetable puree 170 g.
Meat puree (or fish) 50 g.
Vegetable oil ½ tsp.
Fruit juice or compote 50 ml.

Dinner:

Cottage cheese 40 g.
Fruit puree 40 g.
Children's kefir or yogurt 100 ml.
Children's cookies 1-2 pcs.

Late dinner:

Breast milk or infant formula 200 ml.

The menu of an 8-month-old baby on artificial feeding differs from the diet of a baby on natural feeding at 8 months, only in that he was introduced to some dishes a little earlier. List of recommended food products for all children 8 months is the same.

For growth and optimal development, your child needs to eat healthy foods. When he turns 8 months old, the diet is replenished with new products, regardless of whether the baby is breastfed or bottle-fed.

At this age, the baby is already quite active, and he needs a lot of energy, which he receives thanks to a balanced menu. 8 months is the time to accustom your baby to a diet. Therefore, even from an early age, he should have breakfast, lunch and dinner at strictly defined times.

A new product should be introduced little by little, over several days, until it becomes familiar to the baby. At the same time, parents can be advised to keep a diary in which all stages of the development of the child’s diet will be recorded.

vegetable puree: potatoes, cabbage, zucchini, carrots, beets;
soups: meat, fish;
porridge: a variety of cereals cooked in water or milk;
fermented milk products: kefir, yogurt, cottage cheese, fermented baked milk;
fruits: apples, apricots, peaches, bananas;
greens in small quantities (usually they are added to vegetable puree);
meat and fish;
natural juice or compote.

Abroad, in addition to the listed components of the children's menu, 8-year-olds are fed tofu soy cheese and other types of cheese based on cow's or goat's milk. Moreover, in some cases, such products begin to be introduced as early as 6 months. In our country, this practice has not become particularly widespread, perhaps for the better.

Key components of the diet

If the child is still fed breast milk, then at this age you should not completely switch him to artificial feeding just for the sake of expanding the diet. Some babies like to finish their main meal with mother's milk. You can also skip morning and evening breastfeeding.

When preparing food for an 8-month-old baby, you should use a blender or mixer (these modern devices allow you to achieve maximum grinding of ingredients), or, in extreme cases, a special strainer for complementary feeding or a grater.

Porridge

The most common dish in the diet of an 8-month-old child is porridge, which can be prepared in various variations.

For example, an assortment of several types of cereals, with the addition of fresh or.

You can cook porridge with milk, preferably homemade milk with a high percentage of fat content (this needs to be diluted with water). You can grind the cereals yourself, or you can buy ready-made crushed ones, which you can simply pour boiling water or hot milk over.

The development of a child largely depends on the variety of cereals in the diet, as they contain many substances that are beneficial for the child’s body.

Meat and fish

Meat is an excellent source of protein, although at this stage of development, children get most of it from their mother's milk. The main advantage of the product for infants is its high iron content. After all, it is between 6 and 9 months that babies most often experience a lack of this mineral.

Meat as a separate product should be given to an eight-month-old baby in the form of puree, but it can be mixed with vegetable puree or added to porridge cooked in water.

Fish is a very useful product for the growth and development of the body, rich in amino acids, omega3, microelements and important. Pediatricians recommend introducing it into a child’s diet at 8 months.

You need to choose fish carefully, giving preference to low-fat varieties such as cod, pike perch or hake.

Cooking will also require you to be careful. After cooking, fish broth should be strained several times to avoid bones getting into the food. And it’s still better to buy high-quality fish fillets than a gutted carcass.

Soups and broths

Starting from 8 months, baby soup can be cooked in meat broth, but the meat used for this should not be fatty. You can give fish broth once a week.

Potatoes, some onions, carrots and herbs are also added to this broth. You should also add just a little salt, although pediatricians do not have a consensus on this matter.

At the end of cooking, the soup is seasoned with oil (vegetable or butter).

You need to grind everything thoroughly in a blender, since the child still has few teeth. If you don’t have such a useful technique for a young mother at hand, an ordinary fork will do, but there will be lumps left.

Sour milk

It is necessary to continue giving your child fermented milk products in the form of kefir, cottage cheese and yogurt. They are alternated in the menu according to the principle: one day - one product.

It is better if the milk is homemade. It is no coincidence that homemade yogurt makers have become so popular among parents. When purchasing from a store, you should carefully check not only the production date and shelf life, but also the composition.

Should be 30 ml per day. Continue this way for several days, and then in 8-9 days increase the portion to 150-200 ml.

To diversify your milk table, use baby yogurt; you can add some fruit to it, but sweetening it with honey is prohibited. The presence of beekeeping products in the menu of a child under one year old is fraught with severe allergies.

Egg feeding

Chicken or quail eggs in the menu of a 6-9 month old child promote brain development, but introducing these products into the diet on your own is not recommended. Since eggs are a strong allergen, it is better to consult a pediatrician.

At first, the baby should receive pureed egg yolk, mashed with a fork.

Legumes

Beans, peas and lentils are high in protein, so they look very attractive for children's diets. Indeed, with a gradual transition to artificial feeding, it is extremely important for the child’s development that the protein component in his diet does not decrease.

But be careful. All legumes cause bloating, so do not overfeed your baby with products from this group.

Ready-made baby puree of any kind, purchased in a store, can be stored in the refrigerator for no more than 24 hours. Although some labels indicate a longer period, it is better not to take risks.

You can also feed an 8-month-old baby a bagel or cracker, but you need to be careful that he doesn’t swallow a large piece and choke.

Some foods may trigger an allergic reaction. These include: chicken meat, cow's milk, many fruits and berries and some vegetables. For example, there are cases of a child being allergic to carrots.

Power mode and sample menu

A child of 8 months should have a clear diet. He needs to be fed at about the same time every day.

There may be light snacks between main meals. The children's diet provides for this. If your baby constantly asks for food, slightly increase the portions of the main dishes. Intermediate snacks can consist of cookies, some fruit or crackers.

The first meal from 6.00 to 7.00 is breast milk or bottle feeding.
From about 10.00 to 11.00 the child eats porridge. Boil it in water or milk, you can offer a little chicken yolk.
Lunch from 14.00 to 15.00 in the form of soup with meat broth or separately: meat puree, vegetable puree and broth.
Evening feeding from 18.00 to 19.00 traditionally consists of dairy products (kefir, yogurt) and fruit puree.
Before going to bed, from 22.00 to 22.30, the toddler receives breast milk or formula.

The described regime is very formal, since each child is unique. Everyone's sleep patterns are different, so meal times may shift.

If your baby is sick or teething, he will likely refuse solid foods and ask for breast milk more often than usual. This is quite natural - this is how the baby strives to calm down and feel safe. When the baby's condition improves, the previous feeding regimen should be restored.

Diet according to the Ruth Yaron system

Ruth Yaron, a popular author among American parents, promotes her own baby nutrition system. The key principle: speed and ease of preparation, as well as the absence of animal products in the diet. If you want to adopt this system, consult your pediatrician. Since in Russian realities, not all of the listed products are suitable for your child. But it's interesting to read.

Here's what Ruth Yaron recommends giving to eight-month-old babies:

In this article:

Every age is beautiful in its own way. Kids become special, it’s interesting to watch them, analyze their actions, habits and reactions to what is happening around them. At this age, the baby cannot yet have any shortcomings if the parents correctly perceive everything that he does.

The development of an 8-month-old child occurs very quickly if parents study with him, play educational games and simply pay attention. This is exactly the time when the baby, like a sponge, begins to absorb everything that is presented to him. He just doesn’t know how to talk yet, but he’s already beginning to understand a lot.

A huge amount of energy is spent on developing physical skills; some children try to take their first steps on their own. But not everything is so fast, all in due time. It's time for parents to be patient.

Physiological aspects of development

Each baby develops individually. It all depends on the daily routine of an 8-month-old baby, his diet, sleep and wakefulness. Many babies already have a few teeth and are ready to try new foods. At this age, sleep is approximately 14 hours a day, the interval between feeding increases to 4 hours.

Pediatricians say that the ideal weight is 8-8.5 kilograms, but no one dares to say the exact figure. Weight is so individual that you don’t need to pay much attention to it. In certain months, a child may gain more than normal, and after some time, lose weight. Therefore, unless your pediatrician prescribes special recommendations, you should not worry about the baby’s weight.

This also applies to development, everything has its time, the child will sooner or later begin to walk, he does not need to be forced, he will strive to do it himself.

Psychological aspect

This is the very moment of truth when parents need to learn how to behave correctly. Controlling emotions and reactions means a lot. A child at 8 months can begin to eat poorly, show his character, so to speak, test his parents’ nerves. He already knows how to get his way. During this period, parents need to control their emotions, this will help preserve the baby’s psyche. You need to be able to prohibit so as not to traumatize the child by offering him something in return. Switching attention from one subject to another will allow you to bypass screams and hysterics.

All prohibitions must be motivated and justified. Every action you take needs to be explained. At the same time, you should forget about aggression and nerves; parents should always have a balance. If mom’s psyche can’t stand it, let dad come to the rescue. If a child purposefully reaches for the same object, it is easier to remove it from sight than to constantly scold the baby. He develops, wants to explore the world, but receives a constant “NO”.

A child at this age needs the presence of close people, reacts very warily to new faces, while clinging to his mother. He begins to distinguish between day and night. Ideally, the toys will be similar to objects from reality.

Skills and abilities

At the end of the eighth month of life, the baby can be able to:

Rise independently to sit down (it is important to control this moment and not let you sit for too long);
Pull yourself up on your hands, stand up, try to take a few steps on your own on the crib;
Hold objects firmly in your hands, shift them, throw them. A child at this age very rarely drops something; now he is interested in throwing something.
Can pronounce syllables and the first words appear.

Diet of an 8 month old baby

Well, now the period has come when you can give your baby a lot of new things. Vitamins of various categories should be present in the diet. Now the question of what to feed an 8 month old baby will not be a headache. A frequently asked question among parents and pediatricians is whether an 8-month-old child can be given boiled fish. At this age, it is not only possible, but necessary to give a product that is a source of proteins, fats, mineral salts and several groups of vitamins.

Fish is easily digestible and can be quickly digested. But you should not abuse this product. Fish may cause an allergic reaction. When feeding the baby for the first time, you need to observe it, analyzing the reaction to different varieties. And also, a small subtlety, the child’s body accepts ocean fish and white fish well: pollock, hake, cod, salmon, river pike perch and carp. The fish can be boiled with vegetables and ground until mushy.

Meat is less likely to become an allergen; it is recommended to give it daily. The diet of an 8-month-old baby should contain various groups of vitamins, the main thing is that everything offered to the baby during the meal is normal.
If a child has an allergy to dairy products, then the diet must be prepared with a pediatrician. The doctor will be able to tell you what exactly can be used to replace fermented milk and dairy products so that the child receives the necessary vitamins and minerals. Menu for an 8-month-old baby on breastfeeding:

Looking at the table, many will say “OGO.” But if you take a closer look at the portions column, everything will fall into place. At each feeding, the child consumes approximately the same amount of food, the only difference is in the diet.

If the baby tries to sit independently, then all meals should be taken while sitting.

Mom's breast milk gradually fades into the background. Now she does not need to endlessly offer her breast to the baby. Only a third of the entire diet is breast milk. Vegetable purees should be seasonal whenever possible. The diet must be expanded gradually, but correctly, and then your children will grow up healthy.

Useful video about baby development at 8 months

Baby 8 months

Our congratulations! The baby is 8 months old! An eight-month-old baby is already a very nimble and active little one who won’t give mom and dad a moment’s rest. He crawls from the room to his mother’s kitchen, calls on his father to communicate and happily babbles, telling his family some of his stories.

The funny baby actively crawls, turns from side to side and has a tenacious grip: he freely takes toys in his hands and moves them from place to place. He can spend quite a long time opening and closing the lid on the box, folding and arranging cups one into another, and even “reads” books, looking at bright drawings.

Often, at 8 months, the child’s character changes noticeably: he begins to be stubborn, capricious and react with loud crying to the ban. This is the time when mom and dad have to control themselves and their attitude towards the child, calm down their emotions and practice educational methods.

The baby’s games become even more varied and interesting; he happily claps his hands and stomps his feet, shakes his head, and waves his hand to his acquaintances at his mother’s request as a farewell.

Baby's height and weight at 8 months

During the eighth month, the intensity of weight gain will decrease slightly. Experts explain the slowdown in growth and weight gain by saying that from now on, the main task of the body after achieving muscle mass becomes the formation of physical skills.

So, in 8 months the baby will gain about 500 g. At the same time, growth rates remain the same - plus 2 cm on average. That is, at the end of the month, the child’s height and weight will reach 70-72 cm and 8500-9000 g, respectively. If boys are characterized by higher indicators, girls can be smaller, reaching 69-70 cm in height and weighing 7900-8500 g.

8 month old baby's daily routine

Compliance with the regime for an 8-month-old baby is still important: the baby is fed at a certain time, the baby sleeps a couple of times during the day, the main one - night sleep - remains the longest and most sound.

The child’s diet remains the same: the baby eats 5 times a day, approximately every four hours. After feeding, there comes a time of wakefulness and activity: the little one plays, communicates with his parents, and crawls around the room. In the first half of the day, while you are awake, you should set aside time for gymnastics and massage. You should exercise with your child for 7-10 minutes, preferably combining exercise with taking air baths.

Usually, at eight months, children are already weaned off night feedings - the baby sleeps all 9-11 hours at night. But during the day, the toddler usually switches to a 2-time sleep schedule, falling asleep twice a day and staying asleep for 2-2.5 hours. It is very important not to wake up the child ahead of time and always put him to rest, no matter what: a baby who has not slept becomes capricious and whiny, is in a state of overexcitation or, conversely, lethargic. Throughout the day, again, you need to walk with the little one - no less 2 times for 2-2.5 hours. It’s good if the baby sleeps during a walk, fresh air is the best way to promote normal sleep.

In the evening, for children 8 months old, traditional bathing is provided before bed. At this age, babies truly enjoy bathing - they splash water, clap their hands on the surface of the water, and enthusiastically play with rubber or plastic toys. You should know that now the child is sensitive to sounds, so it is important not to scare him in the bathroom: you should not open the drain of water, which not only makes noise, but also quickly disappears in the drain, which can be scary for the child.

How much does an 8 month old baby eat?

In general, an 8-month-old baby eats about 1 liter of food per day (drinking water is not taken into account). Taking into account that the diet for eight-month-old babies is provided five times a day, you can calculate: at one time the child consumes approximately 200 g of food.

Provided that the mother is still producing milk, mother’s milk remains the main product for the baby. Traditionally, the baby is breastfed in the morning and evening (after waking up and before bedtime). In the case when the baby is transferred to artificial nutrition, a nutritional regimen is more often used, which provides for one-time feeding with formula and the rest of the time with complementary foods.

At the same time, a child’s diet already contains quite a lot of products - fruit and vegetable purees, cereals, juices, egg yolks and even meat. If your baby hasn’t been familiar with cottage cheese since last month, it’s time to let him try this product, and eventually kefir.

At eight months, a child can already be offered multi-ingredient porridges or even add fruits or berries to porridges. But you should be careful with berries and fruits: some of them are allergens and can provoke allergic reactions (we are talking about citrus fruits, red berries - strawberries, raspberries, etc.).

Gradually at this age you can increase the amount of meat given as complementary foods. You shouldn’t be “overzealous” except with chicken or poultry meat - such varieties are also allergens. Meat can be given to your baby either in the form of meat puree or by mixing it with vegetable puree. Considering that the baby’s diet contains both meat and egg yolk, under no circumstances should you give these two products to your child on the same day, much less at the same feeding.

To those products that are already present in the child’s diet, at 8 months you can add meat broths or puree soups cooked in meat broth. In addition, crackers, cookies, and dry foods are allowed for children at this age. By the way, hard bagels also act as a chewing rod during teething, with the help of which the baby scratches his gums.

What should a baby be able to do at 8 months?

An eight-month-old baby can already do so much that it’s hard to believe that a little more than six months have passed since this healthy and strong little one was born.

At 8 months, babies are already crawling actively and quite quickly, and some even make attempts to stand on their legs. True, the baby is unlikely to be able to get up from a sitting position on his own, but with the support of his mother, the baby does rise to his feet. By the end of the month, the child is able to stand up on his own, holding onto the wall of the playpen.

The toddler can already stand on his own, even holding a toy in one hand. While standing, the baby can move from one leg to another. He also rearranges his legs when the mother, holding his armpits, encourages the baby to walk.

The child holds toys freely and is able to transfer an object from one hand to another. If you hand out a toy to a baby when he is holding one in each hand, he will throw away one of them in order to take the one offered. By the way, the process of throwing out toys for a child becomes some kind of contemplative process: while throwing them, he carefully watches their flight path and where they fell. Then he can pick up the toy again and throw it again.

The child’s communication with adults is entering a new stage: the baby is already pointing with his pen to his parents which toy he wants at one time or another, and using gestures he explains that he wants, for example, to get to the closet and touch the books in it. In addition, on the way to the goal, the child already knows how to put aside the object that bothers him - this is how he learns to solve problems.

When playing with a toy, the baby imitates the actions of adults: he rolls it and knocks on it, knows how to remove the lid, and push the ball with his foot. And at the request of family and friends, he claps his hands, raises his arm or leg, and waves “pa-pa.”

At 8 months, the child’s attitude towards strangers changes: he already clearly distinguishes loved ones from strangers. If a stranger comes into the room where the baby is alone, the child may even go into hysterics, experiencing real panic. In addition to crying in fear, a child may react to a stranger by completely ignoring him, turning away or crawling away from the stranger. In addition to fear of strangers, other fears are common among eight-month-old babies: the baby may be frightened by a vacuum cleaner, washing machine, or some other loud noise. To allay groundless fear, you should “introduce” the child to household appliances, show how they work and explain that there is nothing wrong with them.

An 8-month-old toddler babbles quite clearly, combining sounds into syllables, trying to imitate extraneous sounds and imitate the speech of his parents. Moreover, in the child’s babble there are almost all the sounds of the language, which he combines in every possible way. When communicating with an interlocutor, the child gives his speech a tone of triumph or joy, anger or impatience.

8 months is the age when a child already recognizes himself not only in the mirror, but also in a photograph. And, recognizing, he rejoices and smiles.

Having a very musical ear, the 8-month-old baby is very sensitive to his mother’s voice - there is no better music for him than a song from her lips. With no less pleasure, a child listens to recorded music, and often some children even sway to the beat of the melody or tap their feet.

Educational activities and games for an 8-month-old baby

An 8-month-old baby absorbs new information like a sponge, and at the same time continues to improve physically. Since the baby is already quite mature and developed, educational activities and games become more complex and varied.

It is important to pay attention to introducing your child to new words every day. While on a walk with your baby, you should keep track of what attracted his attention. Running dog? Flying plane? Boy on a bike? You should name the “object” out loud, pointing at it with your hand and urging the baby to look in that direction, remembering the name. “Look, there’s a dog over there. Do you see? This is a dog." By the way, often at this age a child already “identifies” animals: when asked, “Where is aw-aw?”, he is able to point at the dog with his pen.

From a young age it is useful to develop a child's coordination and balance. For this purpose, while dancing with the baby in your arms, you can rock him up and down, arrange “slides” for him on your knees, and rock him on your knees, having previously sat the baby down.

It’s good to play “cart” with your child: take him by the legs, lift him slightly so that he rests on the arms: let the baby try, rearranging them, to walk on his hands. When “pushing” the child to move in your arms, you can lightly rock him, while you need to observe the little one’s reaction - if he doesn’t like the game or is tired, the activity should be stopped.

Since the child is already freely crawling around the room, you can invite him to play “hide and seek”. It’s enough to just hide behind a chair somewhere and let the baby look for it.

To develop fine motor skills, you can use ordinary cereal for games. So, pour oatmeal or rice cereal into a pie dish, then invite the baby to put his hand into the cereal. The child gets great pleasure by stirring the cereal with his hand or passing it through his fingers. Only during the game it is necessary to stay close to the baby all the time - in the absence of adults, he may try to swallow the rice and choke.

Considering that the baby is now actively mastering speech skills, you can invite him to talk on the phone. Both a toy device and a real one, previously disconnected from the network, are suitable for conversation. The baby has seen mom or dad talking on the phone more than once, so repeating their actions will not be difficult for him - he will happily chat into the phone.

To get to know your own body better, you can play “hat” with your baby: give him his dad’s hat or cap and let him try to put it on his head. Using the same principle, you can play with plastic bowls: when the baby puts it on his head, let him look at himself in the mirror - his own reflection will cause sincere joy in the little one.

Baby at 8 months: note to parents

Many parents, trying to make their life easier, put their child in a walker by the age of 8 months. Experts categorically do not recommend doing this - at this age, the baby’s muscular and skeletal systems are not yet strong enough, and the resulting excess load can negatively affect their formation.

At this age, it remains extremely important to create all the necessary conditions for the child’s safety: he still tries to crawl into every corner and taste every unfamiliar object he comes across along the way.

In addition, the baby can calmly crawl to its mother’s kitchen - this room, like a “magnet,” attracts almost all babies and becomes their favorite place to play. And perhaps the most dangerous. It is very important that only unbreakable and non-crumbly items and products remain in all opening lower drawers and on the lower shelves. Knives and cutlery should be hidden as high and far as possible, eliminating the possibility of a child reaching them.

Always, in all cases, you need to make sure that the child does not reach the tablecloth on the kitchen table. After all, he may well want to grab it and pull it towards himself at the moment when there is hot soup or tea on the table. For the same reason, you should keep an eye on the child when he is sitting at the table in his mother’s arms - the baby can easily knock over both himself and his mother at the same time, even a salad by pulling a plate, or a compote by knocking over a mug.

All children develop teeth at different times, and it is quite possible that by the 8th month the child will already be the happy “owner” of the first four teeth. If this is the case, it is advisable to slowly start giving the baby not puree, but finely chopped food. And also - pieces of soft cookies, fruits, potatoes, carrots, on which the child will practice biting and chewing.

8 months is also a suitable age for potty training a baby. But only in the case when the child sits on the potty willingly and calmly - if the baby categorically refuses to use the potty, you cannot force him, which means it’s not time yet. If the baby reacts normally to being placed on the potty, you should not keep him on it for more than 10 minutes, even if the child does not “go to the toilet.” And one more thing: when the baby is sitting on the potty, you should not give him toys or distract him.

Every day the baby grows more and more intensively and to maintain his vital functions he needs food that contains vitamins and useful microelements. This is why the question of feeding a child at 8 months is so relevant for a loving mother and caring father. In the article we will look at what you can feed a baby at 8 months, and also look at the menu for a baby at 8 months who is breastfed and bottle-fed.

Many mothers who breastfeed their baby find it difficult to teach him to eat from a spoon. This is quite natural, since babies have a highly developed sucking reflex. Many parents first of all introduce their son or daughter to the kitchen appliances he will use to eat, and then show by example how this should be done.

What can you give a baby at 8 months?

New foods are added to the child’s diet at 8 months. A child's menu at 8 months becomes much richer. Now mom definitely won’t have to think about what to feed her baby at 8 months. Let's start with food products that can be included in the menu.

Porridge. A child's diet at 8 months still includes porridge. Of these: buckwheat, corn, rice. These porridges are gluten-free. Gluten-containing foods: oatmeal, barley, wheat, semolina should be introduced only after a year. However, you can try offering oatmeal to formula-fed babies. You need to start introducing this porridge with one spoon.

It should also be noted that milk porridges made with cow's milk are undesirable for up to a year. Whole milk is an allergen and is poorly absorbed in the child's body. If you want to diversify the diet of an 8-month-old child with a new porridge, then you can add some fruit and grind the fruit porridge to a smooth consistency in a blender.

Fish. Fish puree may appear on a child’s menu at 8 months. Pediatricians are in no hurry to recommend and introduce fish into a child’s diet at 8 months. This is due to the fact that fish is an allergen and must be introduced gradually. For one feeding, a child up to one year old can be offered 30-60g of fish. You can give fish no more than 2 times a week and monitor the baby’s reaction. You need to choose low-fat varieties of fish: hake, pollock, salmon, cod. It is worth choosing boneless fish fillets.

Vegetable purees. Vegetable purees have now become even more accessible and their variety is increasing every month. A baby's menu at 8 months can include: zucchini, cabbage (broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower), potatoes, carrots, pumpkin, onions.

Soups. You can include soups in your baby's diet at 8 months. Children's soups are prepared differently than adults - there is no frying, no salt or added in very small quantities.

The advantages of the soup are that you can combine 2-3 vegetables, which can already be given to a child at 8 months, and make different puree soups based on water with the addition of cereals or meat.

A simple recipe for creamy soup for an 8 month old baby

Delicate puree soup with the addition of potatoes, carrots and cauliflower. To prepare you will need: 100 g cauliflower, 1 pc. potatoes, 0.3 liters of water, small carrots, 1/3 tsp. butter.

Before cooking, you need to wash the vegetables, cut the potatoes and cauliflower into small pieces, and grate the carrots.

Cooking steps:

Step 1. Pour water into the pan and bring to a boil.
Step 2. Pour the carrots into the pan and cook over low heat for 10 minutes.
Step 3. Add the potatoes to the pan and cook for another 7 - 10 minutes until half cooked, and then add the cauliflower, as it cooks very quickly.
Step 4. Prepare the vegetables.

After cooking, use a fork to chop the vegetables. You can also use a blender, but it is advisable to chop the vegetables so that the soup contains small pieces for your child to chew. Thus, the child will gradually move from the sucking reflex to the chewing one.

Fruit purees. A child’s menu at 8 months is replenished with new fruits; in addition to apples, bananas and pears, the child can be offered plums, apricots, and peaches. You can also make various fruit mousses from cottage cheese and fruits. Fruits can be added to porridges and make delicious fruit porridges for your baby. Also, after you introduce new fruits, pay attention to your baby's reaction.

Meat. Meat is the second most important source of protein, the first being breast milk. For infants and bottle-fed children, the main feature of the product is considered to be a large amount of iron. Iron deficiency is often observed between 6 and 9 months, so meat must be introduced into the child’s diet at 8 months. Meat puree can be added to pureed soups for a child, as well as in porridges, or given as an independent product. A child's menu at 8 months should include lean meats: veal, chicken, rabbit, turkey.

After 8 months, pediatricians allow the introduction of calf liver. This product is of particular value for children with low weight, as well as those suffering from low hemoglobin.

Dairy products. Fermented milk products must be introduced into the child’s diet every day at 8 months. An eight-month-old child is allowed:

kefir;
cottage cheese;
baby yogurt.

Yogurt for a child can be prepared at home using a yogurt maker. To make yogurt, mom will need natural starters, and when buying ready-made baby yogurt in a store, you should pay attention to the composition, expiration date and production date.

To diversify a child's diet at 8 months, pediatricians advise adding fresh fruit to yogurt. It is not advisable to add sugar and honey. Honey is contraindicated for children under one year of age, as it often causes allergies.

Juices and compotes. You can make homemade compote for your child, but not from dried fruits. It is better to cook dried fruit compotes for children after 1-1.5 years. The following juices can be given: juice from currants, carrots, apples, pears.

Bakery products. Bread and baby biscuits are good teething aids. Therefore, bread and cookies can be gradually introduced into the child’s menu at 8 months.

Baby's diet at 8 months

The diet of a child at 8 months is practically no different from what it was a month ago, however, the child’s diet already contains more products that can be included in the daily menu.

The daily food intake is 1/8 of the child's weight. That is, if a child weighs 8 kg, then the daily food intake is 1 kg. Since there are 5 daily feedings, the child eats approximately 200 ml of milk or 200 grams of complementary foods per meal. Everything is individual and comes from the preferences and desires of the child.

It should be noted that breast milk and formula should also be included in the baby's diet at 8 months. You cannot completely switch your child to adult food. It is recommended to give the baby breast milk or formula during morning and evening feedings.

You should also take into account the fact that if the baby is only breastfed, then it is recommended to gradually let him try complementary foods.

It is worth noting that if a child stops defecating, this is the first signal that he is not getting enough of his mother’s milk. For him, this food turns into water, which comes out as urine, which means that there is nothing else left in the baby’s body, so he can stop going to the toilet “in a big way.” You cannot ignore this moment, otherwise the baby will become exhausted!

The daily routine of an 8 month old baby is very important, but every parent can create the most convenient feeding schedule for their children.

If your baby feels unwell after taking a new product, immediately stop giving him this product and tell your doctor!

6.00 - A light breakfast, consisting of breastfeeding or a bottle with an adapted mixture. Even if the child’s nutrition at 8 months has already allowed the baby to become acquainted with most of the products he needs, you should not wean him off the breast. A baby needs mother's milk, especially at this time, when there are so many new foods in the baby's diet at 8 months. Breastfeeding for up to a year, according to pediatricians, is beneficial for both the baby and his mother.
10.00 - A nutritious breakfast consisting of porridge. At this age, the baby has already become familiar with rice, buckwheat and corn porridge. Now you can diversify the porridge by adding some meat. According to pediatricians, meat should be included in the baby’s diet every day, in the form of puree.
14.00 — A hearty lunch consists of vegetable soup or puree. Meat can be safely added to both the first and second courses. Children's juice or a small slice of apple or banana will certainly please the child as a final meal.
18.00 — Evening dinner of light dishes. Healthy cottage cheese or yogurt, to which you can add fruit puree.
22.00 - Breastfeeding or formula feeding is mandatory for feeding a child before bedtime.

Approximate menu for a child at 8 months

Once the diet for 8 months has been determined, you can safely create a menu for a child at 8 months, which is suitable for breastfed and bottle-fed children. Since the diet of a child at 8 months includes a wide choice of products, the mother can independently choose products that will suit the child according to his individual preferences, but we offer only an approximate menu of what can be fed to a child at 8 months:

Option #1

6:00 - breast milk or 200 g. milk formula
14:00 - 180 gr. vegetable puree + tsp. vegetable oil, 30-50 gr. meat puree, 40 gr. fruit puree, a small piece of bread, fruit juice;
18:00 - 40 gr. cottage cheese, 40 gr. sweet puree, 1-2 pieces of baby cookies, mother's milk, mixture or 120 gr. kefir;
22:00 - 200 gr. formula or breast milk.

Option No. 2

6:00 - breast milk or 200 g. mixtures
10:00 - 180 gr. porridge + 1/3 spoon of butter, 40 gr. fruit puree;
14:00 - 180 gr. puree soup, 30 gr. fish puree, 20-30ml fruit juice
18:00 - 40 g yogurt, 40 gr. fruit puree, 20-30 ml of fruit juice, mother's milk, mixture or 120 g. kefir;
22:00 - 200 gr. formula or breast milk.

Summing up

In the article, you learned what to include in a child’s diet at 8 months, what you can feed based on the approximate menu of a child at 8 months. It should also be noted that if your baby doesn’t want something yet or hasn’t tried it, then you shouldn’t force him, relying only on the recommendations given in the article. It should be remembered that your child is individual and has his own food preferences, like every adult.

If, after introducing a new product, your child experiences an allergic reaction, a rash on the face, or pain and bloating in the abdomen, then it is advisable to hold off on using this or that product and consult with your doctor.

Keep a diary and write down the new foods you give your baby. This will make it easier to understand the reason for your baby’s poor health. Every month, new products are introduced and the child’s diet expands, so the mother needs to be vigilant and especially attentive.