All human beings need to consume food, or eat to survive. This includes the little people of the human race, babies. What a baby eats at birth varies greatly from what a baby eats as it becomes a toddler around a year later.

As the primary care giver to your baby you are responsible for both providing proper nutrition for your baby as it grows, and for teaching the baby good eating habits to use later in life. Eating habits are a learned behavior that begin with your baby’s very first foods and continue to affect your child in many ways from social standing to personal health through-out life.http://www.faqs.org/nutrition/Diab-Em/Eating-Habits.html

Today more than three hundred million people world-wide suffer from obesity.http://www.iuns.org/features/obesity/obesity.htm Teaching and maintaining good eating habits early in life is proven to reduce to occurrence of obesity as your baby grows. http://freshbaby.com/healthy_eating/index.cfm

This simple step by step guide on how to feed a baby will cover how, what and how much to feed your baby at each stage of its growth from the first drink of milk to the solid foods of toddler-hood.

In the first four months of life a baby should be fed breast milk or formula exclusively. This is because the infant’s digestive track is still too immature to process solid foods.

Breast Feeding:

Experts agree that breast feeding is the best method of feeding a newborn baby. The very first food a newborn baby receives when breast feeding is Colostrum. Colostrum is a form of pre-milk that precedes regular breast milk. It is a high concentrated nutritious milk which also acts as a laxative to help your baby pass its first stool. Your regular breast milk will begin to be produced in the next three to four days as a result of hormones released in reaction to birth and nursing. http://www.llli.org/FAQ/colostrum.html You can read more about how breast milk supply is established in how to increasing breast milk.

The process of breast feeding is a natural one for babies, however some moms require a bit of instruction. Some areas of this how to guide on how to feed will left out as they require enough information to be their very own how to. How to Breast Feed is one of those areas. You can read the full how to guide for any section that is indicated in this manner by clicking the linked phrase in the sentence.

Formula Feeding:

Another acceptable method of feeding a baby in the first four months of life is to formula feed. There are many reasons parents may choose to formula feed including personal choice, personal reasons such as employment or even pain caused by breast feeding, medical issues in the baby and/or mother making breastfeeding no longer an option, a desire to supplement breast milk with formula, combine both methods or wean before the baby is ready to transition to cow’s milk and/or adoption when the mother does not have breast milk.http://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au/bhcv2/bhcarticles.nsf/pages/Bottle_feeding_with_formula

Here is the complete how to guide for how to formula feed.

How much and how often to feed:

Babies should be fed on demand. This is called demand feeding or cue feeding. The baby is fed when it demonstrates cues of hunger for as long as it wishes to eat. http://www.llli.org/ba/May99.html

Cues that a baby needs to be fed:

• -The baby moves its head side to side as if looking for something.
• -The baby sucks on its hands, arms, or other objects.
• -The baby opens its mouth repeatedly and may also stick out its tongue or make puckering motions with its lips.

http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/news/fullstory_94103.html

If your baby is showing healthy weight gain for its age and wetting at least one diaper every three hours or three diapers every twenty four hours, it is being fed often enough and sufficiently. http://www.babycenter.com/404_how-do-i-know-if-my-baby-is-getting-enough-formula_9137.bc

The next step in feeding a baby is to introduce solid foods. A baby can begin to eat solid foods any time after four months though some may not be ready for the transition until a slightly later age.

Your baby is ready for solid foods when he/she has:

1. Good head and neck control and sits well when supported.
2. Lost the instinct to automatically spit out any solid food that enters its mouth.
3. Doubled its birth weight or exceeded fifteen pounds and is at least four months in age.
4. Makes chewing motions and shows interest in your food.
5. Seems hungry even after a full bottle or breast feeding.
6. Is teething.

Begin with infant rice cereal. You can mix it thinly with a bottle of breast or formula milk. Once your baby is used to the cereal in its bottle you can begin spoon feeding the baby. Cereal should be fed until about six to eight months of age.

If bottle feeding is new to you, here is the guide on how to bottle feed.

When your baby is around six to eight months old you can step up to strained or mashed fruits and vegetables. Remember to introduce only one new food at a time, spacing foods around one week apart. This allows you to watch for allergies and your baby to adjust to the new foods. You can mix foods you know your baby is not allergic to later.

Protein and mashed meat should be introduced next when the baby is around eight to twelve months old. Finger foods are also generally begun at this time.

Your baby may be ready for finger foods when he/she:

1. Picks up objects between his/her thumb and forefinger.
2. Moves jaw in chewing motion when eating.
3. Transfers objects from one hand to the other.
4. Puts everything in his/her mouth.
5. Has plenty of teeth.
6. Attempts to use utensils.

http://www.babycenter.com/0_introducing-solid-foods_113.bc?page=1 http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/healthy-baby/PR00029 http://www.babycenter.com/0_age-by-age-guide-to-feeding-your-baby_1400680.bc

Your baby should still be fed on demand during this time. Breast or formula milk will still be the primary food source.

Here is the full guide on how to start your baby on solids.

Once your baby has had its first birthday it will begin to need more nourishment than your breast milk or formula milk can provide as the primary means of sustenance. From twelve to twenty-four months is time of transitions for all babies. http://kidshealth.org/parent/food/general/toddler_food.html

The process by which a baby is slowly transferred from a primary diet of breast or formula milk is called weaning.

Here is a guide on how to wean.

Many foods become acceptable to be eaten after the first year including cow’s milk, honey, peanut butter and other high risk allergy foods. http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1564759/dangerous_foods_for_babies_in_the_first.html?cat=25 This means if you so choose you can transition your baby to cow’s milk from breast or formula as well as wean him/her.

Here is a guide for how to transition a baby to cow’s milk.

Once your baby is weaned you will need to pay more attention to nutrition. Though not every child is the same the average toddler needs 1,000-1,400 calories a day. These calories should follow adequate portioning from the food pyramid.

Here is a rough idea of what a toddler should be eating each day once weaning is complete. These amounts will change once the child is three years of age.

• -Three ounces of grains from whole grain sources. (1 ounce=1 slice of bread for example)
• -One cup of vegetables.
• -One cup of fruits.
• -Two cups of diary products.
• -Two ounces of protein.

http://kidshealth.org/parent/food/general/toddler_food.html#

Toddlers should eat when you eat, having at least three meals and two snacks a day. While you should offer these meals, never force the child to eat or clean his/her plate. A toddler’s appetite will vary day to day. Similar to demand feeding your child will eat when they are hungry. While setting meal and snack times forms routine, they should not be forced feedings simply feeding opportunities. http://my.clevelandclinic.org/healthy_living/childrens_health/hic_Feeding_Your_Toddler_-_Ages_1_to_3_Years.aspx