Snack Smart

Forget three square meals a day. From the age of nine months your baby needs to fill his tummy regularly to stay happy and healthy

- Louise Pyne

WE all know that snacking is probably the reason why our jeans are always just a little bit too tight, so when we resolve to be healthy, snacks are often the first things to go. It’s easy to assume the same rules about what makes a healthy diet goes for our babies, but we would be wrong!

Once your baby is making the exciting transition from milk to solids, and starts to rely on food to fill his tummy, snacks become an integral part of the feeding puzzle. Your child grows and develops at an incredible rate. He’ll go from crawling to walking, from babbling to talking and, by the time he’s three, he’ll weigh over four times his birth weight. And snacks will help you deliver the broad spectrum of nutrients he needs to maintain well-being and sustain energy levels through this demanding period.

“Around the age of nine months, your baby will start to benefit from a morning and afternoon snack,” says nutritionist Sarah West. “By this time, he’ll be having around one pint of milk a day, and his solid food should be split into three small meals and two snacks to ensure a steady stream of nutrients.” Start simple, introducing any new foods one by one: “Plain yogurt or fruit is an ideal snack food at nine months,” advises Sarah, “but move on to more adventurous foods like carrot and cucumber sticks or crunchy oat bars, along with the introduction of cow’s milk, by 12 months.” Use the snacking as an opportunity to introduce him to lots of new tastes, as this will widen the range of what he’s happy to eat and fill any nutritional gaps in his diet, and help his body deal with many different types of food.