Those early bites during weaning and beyond are so important for your baby’s long term health and development. The gut does far more than just digest food. It plays a vital role in immunity, mood, and even brain development.

So I have created this blog to help your baby’s gut health get off to the best start. It gives you 5 ways you can support your baby’s gut from day one of weaning.

1. Start with variety

Introducing a wide variety of flavours and textures early helps build a diverse gut microbiome. This is the community of microbes that lives in the digestive system and needs lots of variety to feed off and thrive. 

By offering a range of colourful fruit and veggies such as broccoli, butternut squash, and beetroot, which are packed with prebiotic fibres you are feeding them healthy gut bacteria. If you are wondering where to start then check out my comprehensive blog on how to start weaning and the first 100 foods. 

2. Don’t fear fermented foods

Once your baby is tolerating single vegetables and simple meals, try adding small amounts of plain natural yogurt or kefir (check for age-appropriateness). These foods contain live cultures which may help promote beneficial bacteria in the gut.

3. Fibre is your friend

Fibre is your friend to your baby’s gut health. By the time you move onto finger foods and more complex meals, aim to include some fibre-rich foods like oats, peas, chickpeas, lentils, soft cooked beans, and whole grains. These support digestion and feed the good gut bugs. Although be mindful of not including alot of high fibre foods to begin with as their guts will struggle. Start off slowly introducing some fibre rich foods and include a mix of white and wholegrain type foods, so they are not getting really full bellies.

Here are some recipe ideas to get you started. 

• Sundried tomato and chickpea dip
• Baby cottage pie – with red lentils
• Carrot and lentil soup 
• Hulk green pasta

4. Watch the sugar

Babies don’t need sugar. In fact, those under 2 years don’t need any sugary foods either!. Avoid giving them sugary snacks, desserts, cakes, biscuits and anything with added sugar where possible. 

• Use whole foods -focus on whole foods like fruits that provide natural sweetness as well as the fibre and other nutrients. 
• Avoid fruit juices and sugary drinks – they don’t need to drink these. Water and milk should be their main drinks. 
• Read labels for hidden sugars. You can find out more about this for babies and toddlers in my blog. 

5. Responsive feeding matters

Encouraging self feeding and allowing your baby to explore food at their own pace supports a positive, stress free relationship with food. This is a key part of gut brain connection and lifelong healthy habits. 

If your baby or toddler is struggling with self feeding or refusing (which is very common) then I have a blog to support you with this and my 7 expert ways to help. 

Supporting your baby’s gut health doesn’t have to be complicated. By offering lots of variety, time to enjoy meals, including a little fermented food, fibre and being responsive to your baby you’re giving your little one the best possible start for a thriving tummy and happy baby.  If you are worried about your baby, then please get in contact with your GP or dietitian that specialises in childrens gut health. Find out more about gut health from the BDA.