The baby’s body is developing. He actively moves, sits down, tries to get up. Weight gain begins to fall. This is one of the signals that it is time to introduce complementary foods. When is the best time to do this?
Not so long ago, just a couple of decades ago it was believed that it was time in 2-3 months. Now, most doctors unanimously say: it is best to introduce complementary foods at 6 months. True, this figure refers to complementary feeding of infants for months with breastfeeding. The fact is that breast milk is rich in substances necessary for the development and growth of the baby, and some components may be lacking in mixtures. When to start feeding babies on artificial feeding? Artificial babies are best given 4 months of complementary foods. At this point, the digestive tract is already mature enough to take new food. The activity of enzymes became higher, their concentration approached an adult.
There is another prejudice - some believe that introducing complementary foods for infants is only after the appearance of the first tooth. This is not true. After all, the appearance of teeth is individual, in some they appear by the year. And in the absence of a variety of nutrients, a child may even develop rickets! There are other, more revealing, signs of the readiness of the child's body to receive new food. The feeding of infants is introduced during breastfeeding for months.
Why are breast-fed infants given 6 months of age?
There are several reasons for this. First, babies have a food pushing reflex before this age. Everything that gets into their mouth, they push out with their tongue. There is this reflex in order to protect the child from the ingestion of foreign objects that can be swallowed or cause choking. The baby still does not know how to spit. After attenuation of this reflex, you can try to feed the baby with a spoon. He will be able to take in his mouth and swallow food.
An important role in readiness for feeding is played by the child’s posture. At 6 months, children usually begin to sit. Sitting with a spoon is much more convenient. The baby can even show in a pose his desire or unwillingness to eat. If food attracts him, he can lean forward to the spoon, if not, lean back.
Children spend a lot of calories, so mother’s milk is not enough for them. The fact is that more solid food is more caloric than liquid, which turns out to be like an aqueous solution of nutrients. After all, milk is 88% water. Porridge is much more nutritious. You can understand that the baby is not saturated with breast milk, because he begins to ask for breasts very often.
At this age, children are actively interested in everything that happens around. Including food. They see adults eating something, and reach out to try adult foods.
All these signs indicate the child’s readiness for the introduction of new products. All children are individual, therefore, the timing of the introduction of complementary foods can vary by half a month in one direction or another. If these symptoms do not exist, and 6 months have passed, wait 2-3 weeks.
The dangers of early and late feeding
If you include new foods in your baby’s diet too early, his body may not be prepared for this at all. The food contains microorganisms with which the baby's immunity can not cope. Food can be poorly digested, and also cause allergies. And a new treat can reduce the child’s interest in the breast or bottle, which will lead to a decrease in lactation in the mother or weight loss of the baby.
Why can’t you introduce lure too late? In breast milk, there is little iron and zinc, and a child can get these elements only from food. With iron deficiency, iron deficiency anemia develops. The baby needs more nutrients and the weight gain will decrease every month. Also, the absence of sufficiently solid food will inhibit the chewing reflex and further development of the muscles of the jaw and tongue. And they will still be needed not only for food, but also for speech.
Pediatric and pedagogical feeding
The most popular pediatric complementary foods, otherwise it can be called traditional. His goal is to take care of the health of the child. Introduce the diet of infants for complementary foods for months. First, a new food is given to the baby in a microdose, and in about a week its amount is brought to the age norm. The body of the child receives the necessary nutrients. Milk is gradually being squeezed out of the baby’s diet.
Pedagogical feeding is when a child receives new foods in microdoses from the adult table. Microdose - the amount that fits between the tips of the nails of the closed thumb and forefinger.
Pedagogical feeding of infants carries not only nutritional, but cognitive function. He introduces the child to the diet of adults. The main nutrition remains breast milk, at least up to a year.
Fruits or vegetables
What to enter first? For many years, it was customary to start complementary foods with fruit juices or mashed potatoes. Modern doctors do not advise doing this. Fruits - food is quite aggressive for the gastrointestinal tract of babies. Better to wait with them. In addition, mashed potatoes, and especially juices, are rich in sugars, and this can have two undesirable consequences. Firstly, a child can gain a lot of weight, not only due to the growth of the whole body, but due to the accumulation of excess adipose tissue, and secondly, after sweet mashed potatoes, boring cereals and vegetable mashed potatoes may not appeal to him at all.
Where to begin?
So, the most suitable products for starting infant feeding are mashed potatoes and cereals. They have a little sugar and acids that can irritate the stomach. Most often advised to start with light and hypoallergenic vegetables. But if the baby is gaining weight poorly, then doctors often recommend starting the first feeding of infants with cereals. Porridge is selected gluten-free. These are cereals from corn, buckwheat and rice. The fact is that the baby’s body is not yet able to digest gluten, and this will give it an unnecessary load and harmful substances.
Errors in the introduction of complementary foods
Do not immediately give an age-related dose of the product. It’s best to start with about a quarter teaspoon. Usually, the amount of new food is brought up to an age dose in a week, but sometimes the process stretches out for a month, and if there are no health problems, other dishes start to enter the diet at the same time. It is important to monitor the condition of the baby: does he not show signs of discomfort, what color and consistency he has stools and how often he happens.
No need to introduce complementary foods in the afternoon. If you give a new product to a child in the morning, it will be easier to track his condition throughout the day.
Do not introduce new products too often or, conversely, delay this process. The optimal interval between the introduction of a new meal is a week.
Do not hurry. Introducing two products on the same day is not necessary. Also, all dishes should include one component.
There are times when it is not worth introducing a new complementary foods in a child’s diet. This happens when his body is weakened: during an illness, a week before vaccination and a week after it, during travel and extreme heat.
How to introduce complementary foods
How does the correct feeding of infants occur? It is important to do this in a relaxed atmosphere so that nothing distracts the child. Mom herself can try a spoonful of mashed potatoes and show her facial expression how delicious it is. After all, babies already distinguish and copy facial expressions! Immediately after feeding the baby, you can breastfeed. Breast milk still remains in his diet, and the baby’s breast sucking process is pleasant and calms him. If a child refuses to eat a new product, do not force it, but try again in a week.
If the baby is breast-fed and does not drink water, with the introduction of complementary foods, water becomes simply necessary for him. After all, new food is harder and contains less liquid.
There are recommendations for the introduction of complementary foods for infants by months.
Vegetables
To avoid constipation during complementary feeding in infants, a healthy child with a normal and even more weight should start with vegetables. The baby is ready for them as early as 6 months. They are introduced in the form of mashed potatoes. You need to start with vegetables such as zucchini, cauliflower, broccoli, pumpkin, potatoes, carrots. What is important to know? At the beginning, puree from one vegetable is given, then, when the baby has already got acquainted with all the others and his body has accepted them, you can make puree from two vegetables. Potatoes should not be carried away, it is difficult to digest in infants, therefore it is usually used as a component for mixed mashed potatoes. Initially, green vegetables are introduced into the child’s diet - they are less allergenic than orange ones. The first may be zucchini, then cauliflower, then broccoli. It is possible for a child to pumpkin from 7 months, carrots even later, and 2-3 times a week and in combination with other vegetables.
How to cook mashed potatoes
How to cook zucchini for the first feeding the baby or the vegetables following it? Make it easy. Rinse vegetables, peel and seeds. Then you need to cut them into cubes and put in a pan or a double boiler, put to cook. Boiled vegetables are crushed with a blender, adding a little broth in which they were cooked. By consistency, the resulting mashed potatoes should be quite liquid and resemble kefir. You need to use it immediately and do not store in the refrigerator. No salt, no sugar, no spices to put.
Porridge
Introduced the next month if the child is healthy. As already mentioned, you need to cook corn, rice and buckwheat porridge. Porridge is boiled for feeding the baby on the water, sugar is not put. Up to a year, children are prohibited from both cow and goat milk. But a little breast milk or a mixture can be added. Porridge after the introduction of each can be alternated every day. Usually, children are given porridge in the morning and in the evening, but if they are overweight, they should be introduced only in the morning. Porridge for babies by consistency should resemble mashed potatoes. To do this, grind the prepared porridge with a blender or grind the grits before cooking in a coffee grinder.
At 8 months, millet porridge can be introduced.
Meat
Children are ready to eat meat from the 8th month. It carries bioavailable iron, which is an excellent prevention of anemia.
The meat is also introduced into the baby's diet in the form of mashed potatoes. Start correctly with veal, beef, turkey, rabbit. Chicken is considered quite allergenic. With the independent preparation of minced meat, boiled meat is passed through a meat grinder 2 times. After a month, you can add meat broth to the child’s diet. At 9 months, you should try the steam meatballs from minced meat. Around this time, the baby’s body is ready for fish. Use it is 1-2 times a week. But if a child suffers from allergies, then fish and broth should not yet be on his menu. But pork will enter the child’s diet only in a year and a half and in very small quantities.
Fruit
As early as 7 months, applesauce can be added to the baby’s diet. At 8 months, prune is introduced. Ideally, it should be introduced in parallel with rabbit meat. This balances the effect of the products. For breakfast - porridge and fruit, for lunch - meat and vegetables. The next fruit may be a pear. You can enter other fruits that are characteristic of the place of residence. Peach, apricot. Many kids love bananas.
Beverages
From 7 months old, herbal teas can be introduced into the baby's diet. And after he learns the taste of apple and prunes, you can cook compote from them. Dried apricots can be added to compote only after a year.
What a child can eat by the year
By the year the baby’s body is mature enough to eat yolk, cottage cheese, fruits and juices. His menu already has vegetables, cereals, meat and fish, you can fill up this list with a small amount of bread, cookies, dairy products, vegetable and butter. As for the yolk, you can use chicken or quail eggs, giving preference to the latter, because they are less allergenic. It is best to eat the yolk in the morning, adding it to porridge or rubbing it with breast milk.
Cow's milk is not recommended for up to a year, especially since it is unable to replace breast milk or a mixture. In the year it can be administered if the child is not prone to allergies and did not eat a hypoallergenic mixture. If the baby refuses to drink it, you can first mix it with breast milk or baby food.