Q: The food pattern of my 10 month old son is as follows: Early morning he takes breast milk for about 5 to 10 minutes. For breakfast, 1 to 1.5 idlis followed by milk for about 5 minutes. For lunch, rice/wheat/raggi with boiled vegetables/dal/pulses. In the evening he has any fruit or biscuit followed by milk for 2 minutes. For dinner again rice/wheat/raggi with boiled vegetables. At night he drinks milk for 5 minutes before going to sleep. Please note that he is fed only breast milk and no bottle feed is given. His weight is 8.5 kg. My doubts are: Whether this food pattern is correct? Whether the amount of milk intake i.e. the duration for which he drinks, is adequate? Should I give him bottle milk? Is his weight normal?

A:Firstly the weight of your child is absolutely normal. By how you put in the meal pattern, it can be said that your child has a good appetite (touch wood). He is weaning very well, however, I feel you must introduce some cow milk by 11-12 months age. Initially you could dilute the milk in 1:5 proportion. Please note that the milk should be boiled well. It should be diluted with boiled water. In terms of the food pattern, you could try to push him a little more on the breast milk because we can't feed your baby with a very large meal at a particular time, we will prefer that he should take his meals at small frequent intervals: early morning-breakfast-midmorning-lunch-pre evening-evening-dinner-post dinner/pre sleep. Restrict the quantity of food as he is going to be eating quiet frequently. DO NOT FORCE if your child refuses to take more at a time. You can consider giving him weaning foods which you can either make at home or purchase branded weaning foods. Give him dal ka pani, veg soup/ stew/ stock, tender coconut water, etc. In all these cases, do not try to feed a large quantity at a time, introduce foods one by one and in small quantities.