Answer: Hi there,
well done to you for being so keen, nutrition is a fantastic area of understanding to have up your sleeve as a parent! My company Cadence Health in fact has a great kids nutrition course for parents, its distance and totally flexible (so no pressure to get it done fast). So if you wanted to really sink your teeth into something (excuse the pun) then this would be ideal for you.

Up to 12 months there is only limited data that is used in the creation of dietary requirements, from 12 months you begin to see clearer recommendations in regards to nutrient requirements. There is a government document called the Nutrient Reference Values (on the Food Standards website), it shows all nutrients in terms of RDI, upper limits and adequate intake (AIs) etc. Just to give you an idea re fat and children I have copied in some information we use with our students at Cadence Health:

Infants and preschool children
• Reduced fat diets are NOT suitable for infants and young children. The recommendations being made for total fat intake do not apply to infants and should be moderated in preschool children. The ultimate reference for nutrition of infants, human breastmilk, contains about 54% of energy as fat.
• Fat content of and from milk (breast or formula) decreases with age as other foods begin to provide more nutrients including fat.
• Skim milk (which has less than 0.5% fat) and reduced fat milk (which has between 1.5 and 2.5% fat) should not be used in children under 2.

Children 2-5 years
When it comes to young children, the focus should be on a healthy and varied diet rather than on reaching prescribed levels of nutrients often based on adult studies. Research quite clearly shows that establishing healthy eating patterns early on has a positive influence on overall health throughout life.
• Generally speaking, a diet for children will have about 30% fat, with around 10% of this from saturated fat along with the regular inclusion of foods rich in EFAs such as fish.
• Reduced fat milk can be used; however skim milk should not, although the use of skim milk in family meals (such as in sauces) is fine.
Fat fact: The National Nutrition Survey (1995) found that the most common sources of saturated fat in 2 – 18-year-olds was dairy (e.g. milk and cheese). The intake of fatty snack foods such as sweets, biscuits, cakes and buns has increased across all ages but more so in the under 10 age group.

Note: Skim milk has less than 0.5% fat, reduced-fat milk has 1.5 – 2.5% fat content, neither should be used for children under 2 years of age.

In all honesty, one of the best ways to set up both a health diet and healthy eating habits is to offer VARIETY and allow children to eat as much as they wish at each meal. Babies and children up to about 3 are in fact great at self-regulation of energy intake, so your bub is likely to be your best and most accurate guide. By 7 months most bubs will be on or heading to 3 meals a day and by 9 months they will be on solids before breast/formula and be eating 3 meals and 2 snacks a day as well as usual ‘milk’ feeds.

To give you even more info on solids I have some tip sheets on Huggies on starting solids and also a book that might help with solids (sorry I am not trying to sound like a sale pitch here, just giving you all the info), the links are:

Solids
http://www.huggies.com.au/baby-care/baby-feeding/solids

Book club
http://www.huggies.com.au/benefits/book-club
(it is at the end as the books are listed in alphabetical order)

Plus a great little fridge chart I did with Organic Bubs on solids on my
site:
http://www.sneakys.com.au under the nutrition resources page.

Also, keep an eye on baby’s growth and if it remains consistent then you can be pretty sure that what is going in is meeting baby’s requirements for growth.

So I hope that helps, have fun with solids and let baby be your guide!
Cheery oh
Leanne