0 to 12 Months Baby Weight Gain Diet Plan, Diet Chart

Created by Puja Sharma Vasisht Updated on Apr 04, 2020

Are your worried your infant is not gaining as much weight as he should? Then read our complete guide - categorized age-wise - to know what foods you can give to your baby to push up his weight gain. With an infant, a first-time mom is always on the edge - especially regarding his weight. Is he gaining enough weight, is breastfeed enough for him, what can I do to push his weight up? —Are some questions a mom is always battling with. Here, we bring to you a short and crisp blog on how to increase your infant's weight in a healthy way.
What Should be 0-12 Month Weight Gain Diet?
First Six Months (0 to 6 months) Baby Diet:
Ideally, an infant gains enough weight on just breastfeeding, till the age of 6 months. So, if the infant has doubled her birth weight at 5 months, it means she is gaining sufficient weight. But in case, this does not happen, consult the pediatrician for advise as, before 4-6 months, the infant is not given any top foods.
6 to 9 Months Baby Diet - The Next 3 months Diet Plan
Once the infant starts on some solids, then certain foods can be included in his diet to specifically push up his weight. These are generally the energy dense protein-richrich foods ...
- Focus on cereals: This means you need to give more of cereals like rice, rice flakes, suji, sago, sprouted ragi powder etc. Give it to the baby in the form of porridge, kheer or phirni
- Increase Intake of Starchy Fruits & Vegetables: Fruits such as banana and vegetables like potato, sweet potatoes should be given to increase weight. Vegetables can be boiled and mashed given with little butter / ghee on them. Alike, a banana can be well mashed and given as it is or with jaggery powder / mashed dates, or full cream milk
- Egg yolk & Mutton / Chicken Stew: If your pediatrician permits introducing egg yolk, then half boil an egg yolk and add it to boiled, mashed potatoes / overcooked mashed rice. Add a teaspoon of butter / ghee to make a complete nourishing meal
- Pulses: Best tolerated green gram / mung dal can be given boiled and well mashed with a spoon of oil / butter / ghee added to it. Around 7-8 months you can start with khichdi of both dalia / rice with dals and veggies like potato, carrot etc. add to the khichdi
- Milk Products: Like curd / yogurt, use full cream milk to set the curd. Give with mashed banana / dates or jaggery to the infant, especially during afternoon hours. Check - Child-friendly Healthy Banana Bread Recipe
10 to 12 Months Infant Weight Gain Diet
At around this time, the baby should triple her birth weight once. If the weight gain is slower, you can focus on the following foods:
- Cereals - besides porridge, kheer, and khichdi you can start with chapatti mashed with dal / chicken soup / scrambled egg. You can also give idli / rice with a spoon of butter / ghee. Sometimes, halwa of atta / suji can also be given
- Fruits - instead of giving plain fruits you can give fruit yogurt, fruit in kheer, custards, fruit smoothie especially made of banana, honey and malai, milk / curd. (Provided your baby can tolerate dense foods like malai. In case of a stomach upset, please discontinue)
- Vegetables - use more potatoes and sweet potatoes. They can be added to parantha, dosa, khichri, soups or to other vegetables. You can also make halwa of these vegetables
- Eggs - can be given as scrambled with added milk / fresh malai, or an egg nog can be added to the soup
- Fish / Poultry / Meat - stews and well-cooked meat, mashed, can be given to infants, provided your pediatrician agrees to it
- Home-made paneer - Closer to the 1st birthday, the baby can be introduced to fresh home-made paneer and mild processed cheese. You can mash paneer finely with jaggery or powdered sugar, roll it into laddoos and offer as finger foods or a quick snack to the baby. If giving cheese, do so in limited quantities as cheese is very high in salt
- Full-fat milk-based puddings - Like rice kheer / dates and raisins (cooked and mashed) custard / vermicelli kheer / gajar kheer can be given to the baby to push up his weight. For more - Month-wise Healthy Weight Gain chart for Infants
Always Remember for Consistent Weight-gain in 0-12 Months Infant?
- Only till the age of 2 years, additional ghee / butter / oil can be used for children. In case the child's weight is on the higher side, please use these in moderation
- Whole cream milk to be used until 1-2 years only. After 2 years or if the child is on normal weight, use toned milk only
- While giving above foods, give only little amounts first, to check for any allergy. If there is no allergic reaction only then continue with those foods
Did you find this blog on baby diet useful? Share your thoughts and feedback with us in the comments section!

This content has been checked & validated by Doctors and Experts of the parentune Expert panel. Our panel consists of Neonatologist, Gynecologist, Peadiatrician, Nutritionist, Child Counselor, Education & Learning Expert, Physiotherapist, Learning disability Expert and Developmental Pead.



| Dec 01, 2015
Hi dis is nancy.. I hav a major problem as .. In vry initial beginning ma baby doesnt drink milk.. No mother feed no any kind of formula milk ... I tried through many way bt she doesnt drink.. She vomit .. All d tim .. By 3 month i strtd given her semisolid food.. Lyk mashed banana mongo dal.. Bt she vomit vomit n vomit nw as she is 10month old n her weight is just 7kgs... I consult many doctors .. All her test are done bt in test evrythng is shown to be alryt bt doesn't understand whats wrong with her why dnt she eat... She cry all d time for nt to eat food.. 5out of 4 tims she vomits in a day... M all upset.. I dnt knw how to gain her weight.. Evn till nw she dnt drink milk.. Pls pls pls if any1 cn help me wid dis.. Wat should i do...



| Dec 01, 2015
I am first time mum and my baby is of 6 months. He is lill slow in weight gain which is cause of lill worry. Feeding him home made cerelac made of all types of cereals. Also giving him rice one time. I am planning to follow the tips given in the blog. Hw often shld i feed my milk and other source of food? Please advice. TIA









| Dec 13, 2015
Hi puja, gud info.. my daughter is 4 months old.. im breast feeding her, times when my milk secretion is low i try to give formula.. she refuses to have that.. i tried enfomil and similac.. is it advisable to give cerelac in watery consistency, when breastmilk is less for a 4 month old baby

| Dec 13, 2015
Hi I am new mom my girl is 4 month old . She is surfing from cold from last 7 days . My problem is her weight she is not gaining weight looking week and confused not happy at all . Her weight at birth was 2. 8 kg and now she is 5. 6 kg . Dr say she is slw gainer . Tough wood she is active baby . But now she stopped gaining weight from last 2 weeks . Dr says it's because of cold . I am very very worried about her cold and weight. What to d???? Please give some suggestions.

| Dec 14, 2015
@Sasi, please don't give cerelac before 6 months of age. You can focus on foods that help in lactation. Read the following blogs on our website- https://www.parentune.com/parent-blog/8-nutrition-tips-for-breastfeeding-mothers/539 https://www.parentune.com/parent-blog/how-to-increase-breast-milk-supply/584 If these too don't help and you don't lactate enough (baby weight gain slows down), then do take paediatrician's advice on starting top feed.






| Dec 17, 2015
hi puja... thanks for the food ideas... my 11 m boy gulps only blended food... simple mashed with spoon or hand, makes him throw up. He nimbles on finger food but if he takes big bite, he throws up whatever is eaten. Also he weighs 8. 5 kg (3kg being birth weight). Your suggestions please.




























| Jan 07, 2016
Hey... very useful and one question I desperately need help with from any mom here.. My baby is 10 months and can't tolerate any textured, I mean solid thing.. he has 6 front teeth... 4 upper 2 lower.. he can cut but can't chew and vomits any biscuit or fruit we give. I gave him mashed finely... or khichdi mashed in a mixture so that it is viscous but no solid... he can tolerate moong green dal though it have those green dal chilka but he is not able to tolerate anything that is not semisolid.. Kindly advise if that's fine, I am worrying uselessly or I can do something else to start him on some of these textured or solid food



