Baby Food Supplement Add Please put away this guide

How to eat the baby's complementary food has always been a hot issue of concern for "Bao Dad" and "Bao Mom". Recently, Wang Lei, deputy director of the Child Health Department of the Municipal Maternal and Child Health Hospital, sorted out a supplementary food addition strategy for novice parents.

How to choose between complementary food and breast milk?

It is generally recommended that babies born at term start adding complementary foods at the age of six months. Although breastfeeding alone cannot meet the needs of the baby's growth and development, breast milk is still the most important source of nutrition for the baby, and the nutritional composition of breast milk does not change over time, so there is no need to wean breast milk just because of the addition of complementary foods. For babies within 1 year of age, it should still be based on milk and supplemented by meals; babies after 1 year old can gradually reduce the amount of milk and increase the amount of meals according to the situation, and by 18 months, the transition to the "meal-based, milk-supplemented" eating stage.

For premature babies, it is generally recommended to start adding complementary foods after the baby has reached the age of 6 corrective months, rather than just 6 months of birth as a standard for adding complementary foods. Premature babies develop their digestive and absorption capacity relatively slowly, and by adding complementary foods too early, your baby's gastrointestinal tract may be difficult to tolerate. However, the addition of complementary foods for premature babies is not as late as possible, and it is recommended that it is best not to be 8-9 months old later than the corrected month of age, so as not to affect the baby's interest in food and nutritional intake.

If the baby is not yet 6 months old, but close to 6 months old, and there are the following manifestations, you can consider adding complementary foods to the baby: the baby is very interested in adults eating, will stare at the meal, the mouth follows the movement, drooling, eating hands, etc.; the baby's tongue reflex gradually disappears, when the parent puts the small spoon to the baby's mouth, he will take the initiative to open his mouth to suck, instead of pushing the spoon out; the baby's nervous system develops to a certain extent, can sit steady; in the case of ensuring the baby's daily milk (breastfeeding 8-10 times), Your baby's weight is no longer gained (you need to record the growth curve and observe it, not by feeling).

What are the principles of complementary food additives?

The types are from single to diverse, it is best to choose from the ingredients often eaten in the family; the preparation is from thin to thick; the production is from thin to coarse, and gradually adjusts to change the processing method of the supplementary food with the enhancement of the baby's digestion and absorption and chewing ability; the amount of addition is from less to more; the mixed feeding of various ingredients (initial), which is more conducive to the baby's acceptance of the taste of different foods; each meal is nutritionally balanced, including carbohydrates, proteins, fats, and the intake of cellulose and iron.

In the stage of just adding complementary food, considering that the baby's swallowing and chewing ability is not mature enough, and it has just transitioned from milk to complementary food, at this time, it should be mainly mud-like food. As the baby gradually grows and develops, the number of teeth that erupt increases, the ability to swallow increases, the acceptance of complementary foods gradually increases, and then the mud-like food transitions to fine granular food, and then to the larger granular food. Finally, as your baby's chewing ability develops, when he has better chewing ability, he can then transition the complementary food to a lumpy food that is close to adult consumption.

After adding complementary foods, it is recommended that parents regularly record the baby's height and weight and draw a growth curve so that they can scientifically grasp his growth trend. If after adding complementary foods, the baby eats well, but the weight is not long, parents can consider whether the baby's diet structure is problematic, such as eating too much vegetables and fruits, staple foods are too thin, such as often drinking porridge, eating dumplings, these have false thick situations, the baby seems to eat a lot, in fact, the staple food intake is insufficient; in addition, if the baby suffers from certain chronic diseases, such as congenital heart disease, severe eczema, etc., it will also increase the baby's nutritional consumption, resulting in slow weight growth.

Do I need to supplement nutritional agents separately after adding complementary foods?

After adding complementary foods, it is recommended to provide balanced nutrition by enriching your baby's diet. Under the premise of ensuring safety, try to enrich the variety of ingredients for the baby, such as after successfully adding meat, add one red meat and one meal of white meat to the baby for two meals a day, and each meal must have different vegetables and staple foods. In general, if the ingredients are abundant and the diet is balanced, the baby does not need to add additional nutritional supplements. However, regardless of whether complementary foods are added or not, babies within 1 year of age should be assured of 400 IU of vitamin D3 every day.

What should babies with allergies pay attention to?

Usually referred to as allergic constitution, mainly refers to the fact that parents are prone to allergies, at this time, although it does not mean that children will be prone to food allergies, but it is true that they should be more cautious when adding complementary foods. First of all, you should start with the ingredients that parents often eat. Due to genetic factors, the baby's physique and taste are similar to those of parents, and if it is breastfeeding, the baby has "tasted" the food that the mother often eats from breast milk. Therefore, especially for the so-called "allergic constitution" of the baby, when adding complementary food to the baby, the selected ingredients should be consistent with the parents' eating habits. Secondly, when adding a certain ingredient to the baby for the first time, remember to add only one new ingredient each time, and add 2-3 consecutive days, observe the baby's reaction, the general allergic reaction will appear within 72 hours of the first time eating a certain food, if the baby does not have abnormal reactions within 2-3 days, such as lip redness, skin rash, diarrhea, etc., you can continue to add the next new ingredient.

Liu Haixia Ding Yun

Source: Yangzhou Daily - Yangzhou Network