Baby's First Year

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Programs are available throughout Nebraska to help meet the needs of families and children

After your baby learns to eat cereal fruits and vegetables are probably the next things to try. Try each food for three or four days before adding a new food. This gives you a chance to see if the new food causes an allergy or tummy upset. Give single foods, like pears, before trying mixed foods, like peaches and pears together, for the same reason.

Don't feed your baby right from the jar of food. The food left inside can spoil quickly, from baby's saliva on the spoon. Even with solid foods, baby still needs breast milk or formula. Baby should drink either breast milk or iron-fortified formula -- not cow's milk --until he is a year old. Cow's milk can cause allergies if it is given too early.

Babies get thirsty, too. Offer water to your baby, especially in hot weather or when he has a fever. A sip of water from a spoon sometimes cures hiccups. Try giving him tiny sips of cold water from a small, plastic cup. Go slowly.