By Suzanna Pillay

WHAT can babies eat or not eat? Well, it depends mostly on the baby and whether he's got food allergies.

The problem is, babies can't tell you what they can or cannot eat, so it's up to parents to develop a feeding system where they introduce new solid foods to a baby slowly and monitor his reaction. This will help determine, then eliminate, the likely allergy-causing foods from the baby's diet.

"When introducing new solid foods to a baby, follow a four-day wait rule and serve each new food separately. This will let you see how your baby reacts to each food, and it's especially important if your family has a history of food allergies," says dietician Ng Ai Kah.

"Although fish can be introduced into a baby's diet when he's a year old, it's best not to introduce seafood until he's at least about two." Ng suggests some sample combinations of meals:

• If your baby is aged between four and six months old, introduce cereals and grains, vegetables and fruit. Sample menu: A trio of plain porridge, mashed potato and green peas, pureed and served separately.
• If your baby is aged between seven and eight months old, start to introduce protein into his diet such as tofu chicken. Sample menu: Pureed chicken, green peas, mashed potato and plain oats.
• At nine to 10 months old, the baby is stronger, so add more variety into his diet. Include more protein such as egg yolk, and more fibrous vegetables such as spinach and carrot. The texture of the food can be coarser, that is minced instead of pureed.
• At 11 to 12 months old, the baby can start having more fibre such as minced broccoli and cauliflower. Also start to serve one-dish meals by mixing two ingredients together such as chicken with porridge or fish with porridge.

For more detailed examples of combining different foods for babies, Adam Gaffey, executive chef of Prince Court Medical Centre, has some recipes for breakfast, lunch, snack and dinner.