Fruits/Vegetables, MMA, Grains
Maryann Durrant (USBE):
Next we’ll move on the fruit or vegetable component. This component includes all fruits and vegetables. You’re able to offer commercially prepared baby foods and/or foods that you cook and prepare at the center. You’re able to offer a variety of textures to help the infant move from pureed, to mashed, to cubed finger foods, so that by the time they’re one, they’re eating regular table foods. You’re also able to offer a mix of fruits and vegetables, for example, if you purchase a baby food container of apples and squash, you would definitely be able to serve and claim that.
There are foods that you are unable to claim. You can’t claim any commercially prepared combination foods that include components besides fruits and vegetables. For example, a garden vegetable and beef dinner baby food meal would not work because you’re unable to determine how much vegetable about how much meat is in it. Another example that we see commonly is commercially prepared foods that contain cereals, like apple berry with mixed cereal. You are able to add infant cereal to baby food on your own or offer center cooked casseroles that contain multiple components, but you are not able to claim commercially prepared foods with more than one component. You are also unable to give fruit or vegetable juice to infants. Once infants start solid foods, they are able to drink small amounts of water. They can have up to 8 ounces of plain water in a day. Helping them get used to the taste of water, rather than sugary juice, will be a great healthy habit for them.
Next we’ll move on to the meat or meat alternate component. As strange as it might seem, dry infant cereal is one of the options for a meat alternate. The reason why is because it’s iron fortified and meats and meat alternates are good sources of iron, which is important for a growing infant. In order to credit the dry infant cereal as a meat or meat alternate, it must be mixed with breast milk or formula. We just mentioned that you can add cereal in with the baby food, however you wouldn’t be able to count the cereal that you added into the baby food as a meat alternate. You would need to mix up cereal separately with breast milk or formula in order for it to be claimed as a meat alternate. Also included in the meat or meat alternate category is meat, fish, and poultry, eggs, cooked dried peas (also called lentils), or beans, cheese, cottage cheese and yogurt. With cheese, you are unable to offer cheese foods or cheese spreads, these are not healthy options and don’t provide the protein that is needed. Yogurt that you serve needs to have less than 23 grams of total sugars per 6 ounces. All of these foods can be given in whatever texture the infant is developmentally ready for.
The last component in the infant meal pattern is grains. The grains that you give can be whole grain, whole grain rich, or enriched grains. You’ll notice that dry infant cereal is listed as a grain option as well as a meat/meat alternate option. It would again need to be mixed with breast milk or formula to count as the grain component. You can also offer bread, crackers, and ready to eat cereals. The cereal that you offer must contain less than 6 grams of sugar per dry ounce. A side note with bread, if it’s too soft, the baby might mash it all up into a ball in their mouth and it can be a choking hazard. Toasting the bread can help prevent a choking hazard.
Different components are required for different age groups. There are two age groups for infants on the food program. For infants from 0 to 5 months, the only required component is breast milk and/or formula. You are able to offer solid foods to infants in this age group if they are developmentally ready, but it would be counted as an “extra”. Keep in mind that the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants not receive solid foods before 4 months of age. Once the infant turns 6 months, they’re in the second age category, which goes from 6 months to their 1st birthday. Breast milk or formula is still required at every meal and snack. When they’re ready for solid foods, you can offer vegetables or fruits, meat or meat alternates and grain components. Although not required, we would recommend getting documentation from the parents when the infant is developmentally ready for solid foods. Make sure that you’re working closely with the parents when introducing solid foods to the infants in your care.
With infant feeding, it’s important that you don’t serve any honey or honey containing foods. There is a risk of an infant contracting botulism from eating honey. You’ll of course want to be extra careful to avoid choking hazards. Foods such as grapes, hot dogs, nuts/seeds, raw vegetables, hard candy, among others pose a choking hazard risk. With any foods, even ones that are not considered a choking hazard, make sure that you’re attentive the entire time that the baby is eating.
Use the drop down below to translate the above course content into the language of your preference. You may want to refresh your browser after translating.
Warning: Google Translate is an automatic translation service utilized by USBE Child Nutrition Programs to provide training content that is accessible to our users. USBE is not responsible for the accuracy of the Google translations. This course was created in English and all audio was recorded in English. Utilize the closed captioning for translation of the English audio.