Your baby and her food...

NAIROBI: As a new mum, you have no idea where and how to start and are constantly faced with a mountain of advice.

The current health guidelines direct that a baby should feed on breast milk alone for the first six months. Weaning then follows and while it is recommended to use various foods so that your child grows up healthy, strategies are also needed to ensure they love their food.

Great starters are cereals like rice or rice flour, millet and maize, since these have a low-allergy rate. Starches like bananas, potatoes, pumpkin and butternut are also great and should be served mashed to ease their passage through baby's delicate system and make absorption easier. Give the baby between two to three tablespoons during each feed and gradually increase depending on your baby's appetite.

Be sure to introduce each food separately, giving space in between of about three days so that you are able to pin point any adverse reactions to certain foods. Beans, green-grams, lentils, amaranth and soy are great protein sources for babies and so are animal sources like beef and poultry.

Include dark leafy vegetables like spinach and kale to boost iron levels as iron in breast milk is not usually sufficient for babies above six months of age.

Spice up mealtime with healthy fruits like avocado, pawpaw, banana and oranges. As your baby grows and begins to engage in play, you need to supplement depleted energy reserves from time to time hence the need to incorporate snacks in between meals. Some great snack ideas are fruits, yoghurt, milk, bread and freshly squeezed fruit juice.

High-allergy foods like nuts, egg whites and some wheat products are best avoided until your baby is at least one year old.