SMART CHOICES FOR FEEDING A 9 MONTH OLD

Why Is This Important?

• Many parents worry they are not feeding their baby enough food. But serving sizes for infants are

much smaller than for adults.

• It is hard to know how much to feed a baby. It is important to remind parents that their baby may

eat more or less than this depending on their age, gender and feeding patterns.

Nutritional Information

• Serving sizes for infants are very small. A serving of veggies is only 1 Tablespoon.

Transition to finger foods

• By around 9 months, your baby might enjoy many soft, solid foods. This transition to finger foods is an

exciting and fun time for parents and babies! However, there are many important things to keep in mind

during this time:

• Soft foods include infant cereal, soft fruits and cooked vegetables, and strained meats.

• Cut soft foods into small, baby-bite size pieces, no larger than one-half inch, to prevent choking.

• Your baby does not need much solid food. Start with 1 Tablespoon of each type of food, each time

you feed your baby. This will also help you to avoid wasting food.

• Remember your baby still needs formula and/or breast milk through the first year.

• Also, continue to offer infant cereal during this time to ensure your baby gets important minerals and

vitamins necessary to grow healthy.

• Don’t forget to keep offering a variety of foods including fruits and vegetables. Too often during this time

healthy foods are replaced by unhealthy snack items like French fries, chips, and other non-nutritious items.

Introducing New Foods

• Did you know a child might need to try a new food 10-15 times over several months before accepting a

new flavor, food or texture?

• Don’t give up! The more flavors and textures babies try and taste in their first year the more likely they will

be to eat a variety of foods as they grow.

Establishing Meal Time Routines

• Now is a great time to begin enjoying family meals. When possible, include your baby in family mealtime

including customs and manners.

• Remember it is important for babies to see you eat healthy foods and use proper table manners.

• Children who eat regularly scheduled meals and snacks are more prepared to learn and less likely to

overeat at meals.

• Allow mealtime to end when your baby does not want to eat anymore. You may notice that your baby

turns away from the food, or cries to tell you he/she is full. This teaches her to listen to her body and

know when she is full; a skill that will help her maintain a healthy weight later in life.

What about Other Ages of Infants?

• Use this flip chart page as a benchmark for parents to understand average portion sizes for solid foods.

• A 6-month-old baby will eat less than this. Parents should offer even softer foods, with more liquid.

This helps baby swallow more easily as he/she is just beginning to learn how to eat solids.

• An 11/12-month-old baby will probably eat more than this. Parents should offer more solid “fingerfoods”

and less formula and/or breast milk.

• As your baby becomes a toddler, he or she will eat more solids and less formula and/or breast milk.

Healthy Habits Start Early

Good eating habits begin early in your child’s life. As
early as infancy, you can help your child grow lifelong
healthy eating habits. You are your child’s best role
model so while you help her to eat healthy, try to do
the same too!
Healthy Feeding and Eating
For Your Infant
• It is important to breastfeed for at least 6 months.
She will be more likely to have a healthy weight as
she gets older.
• Put breast milk or formula, not cereal, in your baby’s
bottle. Cereal adds extra calories that she doesn’t
need.
• Try to wait until your baby is around 6 months to start
healthy solid foods like pureed vegetables, jarred
baby foods, and infant cereals. Starting solid foods
too early can lead to problems with overweight and
obesity later.
• Around 8 or 9 months try offering your baby small
amounts of healthy finger foods like grilled chicken,
cooked carrots, and cut up strawberries. This will
help your baby learn to eat healthy.
• Breast milk, formula, and water are the best drink
choices for your baby. Soda pop, 100% fruit juice,
and sport drinks add extra calories to her diet and
can harm her new teeth.

For Your Toddler
• Offer your toddler healthy snacks like small cubes of
cheese, sliced banana, or whole grain crackers two
to three times per day. This will help him stay full in
between meals and reduce hunger-related temper
tantrums.
• Try to be patient with picky eaters. He may need to
try a food 10 to 15 times over several months before
he will eat it.
• Try giving your toddler a choice between two healthy
options. He will be more likely to eat healthy food if
he picks it out.
• Milk and water are the healthiest drink choices for
your toddler. Soda pop, 100% fruit juice, and sport
drinks add extra calories to his diet and can harm
his teeth.
For Your Preschooler
• Let your child help you in making healthy meals and
snacks. She will be more likely to try healthy foods if
she helps out.
• Try to keep your kitchen stocked with simple,
healthy snacks like carrots, sliced apples and peanut
butter, or string cheese. This will help you and your
preschooler eat healthy, even on busy days.
• Milk and water are the healthiest drink choices for
your preschooler. Soda pop, 100% fruit juice, and
sport drinks add extra calories to her diet and can
harm her teeth.
For Yourself and Family
• Your child is learning healthy
habits by watching you. Try to
eat healthy too.
• Set playtime, mealtime, and
bedtime routines to make
day-to-day life less stressful.
• Talk with your child’s doctor,
Head Start staff, and other
parents to get healthy
eating tips.

The Well-Visit Planner for Families

The Well-Visit Planner is an Internet-based tool (www.wellvisitplanner.org) developed to improve well-child care for children 4 months to 6 years of age. Information in this tool is based on recommendations established by the American Academy of Pediatrics Bright Futures: Guidelines for Health Supervision of Infants, Children, and Adolescents, 3rd Edition. The tool helps parents and caregivers to customize the well-child visit to their family's needs by helping them identify and prioritize their health risks and concerns before the well-child appointment. This means that parents and health care professionals are better able to communicate and address the family's needs during the well-child visit.

The Well-Visit Planner and Head Start

The Child and Adolescent Health Measurement Initiative (CAHMI) has worked with the Office of Head Start National Center on Health to expand the Well-Visit Planner through age 6 years and has prepared materials to help Head Start and Early Head Start programs use this tool with the families they serve. Knowing that school readiness begins with health, Head Start and Early Head Start programs are committed to supporting the health and well-being of every child enrolled in a program. The Well-Visit Planner has been tested in several programs, and staff have found it helpful for encouraging parents to complete well-child visits and become familiar with what is expected at each visit. The tool also reinforces the role of parents as the experts for their child's needs—including those related to health.

 

Using the Well-Visit Planner in Head Start and Early Head Start Programs

In partnership with the National Center on Health, CAHMI has prepared a number of tools and resources to help programs assess their readiness to begin using the Well-Visit Planner as a standard part of their work with parents and children. There is also an implementation toolkit that helps programs with step-by-step implementation of the Well-Visit Planner within the program, including materials to help promote the use of the tool among parents. Materials are also there to help reach out to local health care professionals to help prepare them for the use of the Well-Visit Planner by their patient families.

These materials will be housed on the Early Childhood Learning & Knowledge Center but are currently available at http://www.cahmi.org/projects/wvp/, the implementation-portal.

 

How does the Well-Visit Planner help families?

Completing the tool, which takes about 15 to 20 minutes, will help empower parents and caregivers to identify priorities for a child's upcoming well-child visit; it will also prepare them for what to expect at that visit. The content of the Well-Visit Planner is different based on the age of the child. It is developed to be used before each well-child visit through 6 years of age. The Well-Visit Planner also includes educational materials about topics such as a child's growth and development, language development, and safety. The educational materials address the topics of most importance for each age.

After parents use the Well-Visit Planner, they can save or print a summary or Visit Guide of the needs and priorities for the visit. They will take this summary with them to help prioritize their time with the child's pediatrician or primary health care professional. Parents can print a copy to leave with the physician or send a copy prior to the visit if the child's physician has a secure email address. The summary can also be discussed with the parents, and the family service worker and integrated into the family partnership agreement.

Brain Architecture

Early experiences affect the development of brain architecture, which provides the foundation for all future learning, behavior, and health. Just as a weak foundation compromises the quality and strength of a house, adverse experiences early in life can impair brain architecture, with negative effects lasting into adulthood.

Brains are built over time, from the bottom up. The basic architecture of the brain is constructed through an ongoing process that begins before birth and continues into adulthood. Simpler neural connections and skills form first, followed by more complex circuits and skills. In the first few years of life, more than 1 million new neural connections form every second.* After this period of rapid proliferation, connections are reduced through a process called pruning, which allows brain circuits to become more efficient.

Brain architecture is comprised of billions of connections between individual neurons across different areas of the brain. These connections enable lightning-fast communication among neurons that specialize in different kinds of brain functions. The early years are the most active period for establishing neural connections, but new connections can form throughout life and unused connections continue to be pruned. Because this dynamic process never stops, it is impossible to determine what percentage of brain development occurs by a certain age. More importantly, the connections that form early provide either a strong or weak foundation for the connections that form later.

The interactions of genes and experience shape the developing brain. Although genes provide the blueprint for the formation of brain circuits, these circuits are reinforced by repeated use. A major ingredient in this developmental process is the serve and return interaction between children and their parents and other caregivers in the family or community. In the absence of responsive caregiving—or if responses are unreliable or inappropriate—the brain’s architecture does not form as expected, which can lead to disparities in learning and behavior. Ultimately, genes and experiences work together to construct brain architecture.

Cognitive, emotional, and social capacities are inextricably intertwined throughout the life course. The brain is a highly integrated organ and its multiple functions operate in coordination with one another. Emotional well-being and social competence provide a strong foundation for emerging cognitive abilities, and together they are the bricks and mortar of brain architecture. The emotional and physical health, social skills, and cognitive-linguistic capacities that emerge in the early years are all important for success in school, the workplace, and in the larger community.

Toxic stress weakens the architecture of the developing brain, which can lead to lifelong problems in learning, behavior, and physical and mental health. Experiencing stress is an important part of healthy development. Activation of the stress response produces a wide range of physiological reactions that prepare the body to deal with threat. However, when these responses remain activated at high levels for significant periods of time, without supportive relationships to help calm them, toxic stress results. This can impair the development of neural connections, especially in the areas of the brain dedicated to higher-order skills.


*The number “more than 1 million new neural connections per second” updates an earlier estimate of 700-1,000 new connections (which still appears in some of the Center’s printed publications, but as of April 2017 has been updated online and in all PDFs). All of these numbers are estimates, calculated in a variety of different ways, but we are making this change in our materials after a careful review of additional data that were called to our attention. The Center is deeply committed to a rigorous process of continuous refinement of what we know and an ongoing pledge to update that knowledge as additional data become available.

Early Brain Development and Health

The early years of a child’s life are very important for later health and development. One of the main reasons is how fast the brain grows starting before birth and continuing into early childhood. Although the brain continues to develop and change into adulthood, the first 8 years can build a foundation for future learning, health and life success.

How well a brain develops depends on many factors in addition to genes, such as:

  • Proper nutrition starting in pregnancy

  • Exposure to toxins or infections

  • The child’s experiences with other people and the world

Nurturing and responsive care for the child’s body and mind is the key to supporting healthy brain development. Positive or negative experiences can add up to shape a child’s development and can have lifelong effects. To nurture their child’s body and mind, parents and caregivers need support and the right resources. The right care for children, starting before birth and continuing through childhood, ensures that the child’s brain grows well and reaches its full potential. CDC is working to protect children so that their brains have a healthy start.

The importance of early childhood experiences for brain development

Children are born ready to learn, and have many skills to learn over many years. They depend on parents, family members, and other caregivers as their first teachers to develop the right skills to become independent and lead healthy and successful lives. How the brain grows is strongly affected by the child’s experiences with other people and the world. Nurturing care for the mind is critical for brain growth. Children grow and learn best in a safe environment where they are protected from neglect and from extreme or chronic stress with plenty of opportunities to play and explore.

Parents and other caregivers can support healthy brain growth by speaking to, playing with, and caring for their child. Children learn best when parents take turns when talking and playing, and build on their child’s skills and interests. Nurturing a child by understanding their needs and responding sensitively helps to protect children’s brains from stress. Speaking with children and exposing them to books, stories, and songs helps strengthen children’s language and communication, which puts them on a path towards learning and succeeding in school.

Exposure to stress and trauma can have long-term negative consequences for the child’s brain, whereas talking, reading, and playing can stimulate brain growth. Ensuring that parents, caregivers, and early childhood care providers have the resources and skills to provide safe, stable, nurturing, and stimulating care is an important public health goal.

When children are at risk, tracking children’s development and making sure they reach developmental milestones can help ensure that any problems are detected early and children can receive the intervention they may need.

Learn more about supporting early childhood experiences:

A healthy start for the brain

To learn and grow appropriately, a baby’s brain has to be healthy and protected from diseases and other risks. Promoting the development of a healthy brain can start even before pregnancy. For example, a healthy diet and the right nutrients like sufficient folic acid will promote a healthy pregnancy and a healthy nervous system in the growing baby. Vaccinations can protect pregnant women from infections that can harm the brain of the unborn baby.

During pregnancy, the brain can be affected by many types of risks, such as by infectious diseases like Cytomegalovirus  or Zika virus, by exposure to toxins, including from smoking or alcohol, or when pregnant mothers experience stress, trauma, or mental health conditions like depression. Regular health care during pregnancy can help prevent complications, including premature birth, which can affect the baby’s brain. Newborn screening can detect conditions that are potentially dangerous to the child’s brain, like phenylketonuria (PKU).

Healthy brain growth in infancy continues to depend on the right care and nutrition. Because children’s brains are still growing, they are especially vulnerable to traumatic head injuries, infections, or toxins, such as lead. Childhood vaccines, such as the measles vaccine, can protect children from dangerous complications like swelling of the brain. Ensuring that parents and caregivers have access to healthy foods and places to live and play that are healthy and safe for their child can help them provide more nurturing care.

Learn more about the recommended care:

What does CDC do to support early brain health?

CDC is committed to supporting early brain health through evidence-based programs and partnerships within communities. Below are just a few examples of CDC programs that support early brain health: