Giving a baby other foods in addition to breast milk after the age of 6 completed months is called complementary feeding. Complementary feeding need not be expensive; the baby can eat soft and mashed traditional Zambian foods from the home-garden or local food market. Examples of these foods are maize, millet and cassava porridges with either added groundnuts, finely chopped local green leafy vegetables, bean flour, cooked and crushed fish as well as fruit snacks like chopped or mashed bananas, mangoes, pawpaw or fruit juice.
The benefits of home-made complementary foods are that you can control the amount of salt or sugar added to the food, they are more affordable and they are freshly made for the baby to eat. Remember that when complementary foods are introduced, breastfeeding should still continue for up to two years of age or beyond because the baby still needs the substances in breast milk to continue growing well.
