In twelve months an infant goes from one food to the family table. Slide through the year: watch where the day's energy actually comes from, see which developmental signs open the next door, and tap any food to find out when it usually appears — and why.
Where the day's energy comes from
Total height = the DRI Estimated Energy Requirement for healthy term infants, kcal/day. The amber band = WHO age-band estimates of the energy expected to come from complementary foods (about 200 kcal/day at 6–8 months, 300 at 9–11, 550 at 12–23), which is why it rises in steps. Milk is the remainder — and it stays the larger share for most of the first year. The millilitre figure is back-calculated from that energy at ~0.67 kcal/mL, so it is a requirement estimate; observed average intakes run somewhat lower, and a real infant self-regulates rather than hitting a number.
—kcal / day
—kcal / kg / day
—mL milk / day
—kcal from food
Head & trunk control—
Tongue-thrust fading—
Reaches food to mouth—
Readiness is developmental, not calendar. These signs cluster around 4–6 months, but a given infant may reach them earlier or later — the signs, not the birthday, are what open solid foods.
The first yearslide to any month to begin
Weight is used here only to scale the energy estimate — the equations take kilograms as an input. There is no target number: infant growth is read as a pattern over time on a growth chart, not as a single value on a single day.
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A teaching model, not feeding instructions for a particular baby. Preterm infants, infants with medical conditions, and infants with a family history of food allergy follow individualized plans made with their own clinician.