Anticipatory Guidance For 4 Month Old Baby printable pdf download

Anticipatory Guidance For 4 Month Old Baby

Village Pediatrics, LLC

Anticipatory Guidance for

4 Month Old

Diet:

At this time, some babies may start cereal, fruits and vegetables. (Breast milk and

formula meet all of your baby’s nutritional requirements until 6 months however many

babies are hungry enough to require some solid food to “fill them up”. If your baby is not

interested in eating now, don’t worry, solids can be introduced at a later time.) Start off

with 2 Tbsp of cereal (Rice, barley or oatmeal.) (If your baby tends towards infrequent

stools or constipation avoid rice cereal) Mix it with some formula or breast milk to make

a thin paste. Feed this to your baby with a baby spoon. Gradually make the cereal thicker.

Although the baby may spit it out at first, he/she will soon get the idea. It usually takes

about a week. Feed the cereal two times a day (morning and evening). After a week of

eating cereal and if eating interests your child, you make introduce fruits and vegetables.

Use Stage I jars or foods with similar consistency (thin). The fruits to start out with are:

applesauce, pears, bananas, (prunes). The veggies: sweet potato and squash. Add new

foods one at a time and alternate fruits and vegetables as you introduce them. Allow 3

days between each food item. After you have introduced all of the above you may then

introduce apricots, peaches, green veggies and carrots last (because of the nitrites).

Continue with Stage I foods until your 6 month visit at which time we will introduce

Stage II foods.

BM’s: With the introduction of food BM’s may vary from previous consistencies, color

and smell. As long as he/she is going regularly and is comfortable there is no problem.

Development: Your baby should smile, laugh occasionally, coo, vocalize, lift head and

shoulders while on stomach, be aware of his/her hands, start reaching and grabbing for

objects and holding a rattle. Over the next few months, your baby may start rolling over,

sitting with support or leaning forward on his/her hands and begin laughing and

squealing. Play social games such as pat-a-cake, peek-a-boo, so-big. Consult Ages and

stages 4-8 months for more ideas.

Anticipatory Guidance For 4 Month Old Baby