Add complementary food guidance to babies

Babies are best exclusively breastfed until they are about 6 months old. When your child is 4 to 6 months old, you can start adding complementary foods. Complementary foods are best soft, so that it is safer for children. At this stage, having your child start eating foods that contain peanuts can prevent him from becoming allergic to peanuts later in life. If your child has severe eczema or is allergic to egg protein, you should consult your pediatrician first.

There is no evidence that waiting until your child is 6 months old to add allergenic foods such as eggs, dairy, soy, peanuts or fish can prevent food allergies. This is also why allergists and pediatricians recommend adding allergy-prone foods to a baby's diet as early as possible. The best time to add complementary foods may be when the baby can eat something and the child shows an interest in what he wants to taste. Of course, his main source of nutrition is breast milk. Breastfeeding mothers don't need to deliberately avoid some foods because breast milk can make the child's body more tolerant of common allergens, rather than more sensitive. Babies are born with a tongue reflex, and babies instinctively use their tongues to push out what is sticking out of their mouths, including food. Most babies no longer have tongue reflexes by 4 to 5 months of age, so this is a good time to start letting him "practice" eating complementary foods. When your child is 4 months old and has a physical exam, you can ask the doctor when to give your child complementary foods, especially if there is a history of severe food allergies in the family or if your child has severe eczema.

If you decide to add complementary foods to your child, you can start with the most acceptable meal for both you and him. However, as he grows older, he may prefer to eat with other family members, and eating with the family will also bring benefits to the whole family, including improving eating habits, strengthening the connection between family members, and most importantly, being able to help the developing baby contact a lot of language, stimulating their brain development. To avoid food from entering your child's airway as much as possible, you should let him sit up straight when you feed complementary foods. If you keep crying or refusing when you try to give him a complementary food, don't force him to eat. It's even more important that you enjoy the moments you eat with your child, and you don't have to choose a special day for him to start eating complementary foods. If your child doesn't eat it, you can continue to give him breast milk or formula for 1 to 2 weeks, and then try to feed him complementary foods at another time. As with breastfeeding or formula feeding, you should decide how much your child eats based on signals of "fullness" and "hunger," rather than focusing on the amount of food your child must eat at each meal.

When trying to feed your child complementary foods, take the food with a spoon or your finger, or let the child hold it with his own hands. It is not recommended to put complementary foods in bottles or baby feeders with pacifiers, as this can greatly increase intake per meal, lead to excessive weight gain for your child, and increase the risk of food entering your child's respiratory tract. It's also important for your child to develop good eating habits – sit up straight when tasting uneaten food, pause before taking the next bite to ensure chewing slowly, and stop eating when you're full. A child's early eating habits will lay the foundation for good eating habits throughout his life.

Standard-sized spoons can be too wide for babies, small spoons tend to be just the right size, and silicone baby spoons are also a good choice to avoid hurting babies. In the beginning, give your child little or very little food at a time and talk to him during the feeding process (like "Come, open your mouth, baby is so good!"). ”）。 On the first two feedings, your child may not know what to do, look confused, wrinkle his nose, and completely reject the food you offer him. This is completely understandable, after all, the way he eats is changing dramatically.

A good way to make a smooth transition is to let him try a little complementary food at a time, and then give him his usual breast milk or formula. This will prevent the child from making a fuss when he is very hungry because he is not used to complementary foods, and will also allow him to slowly adapt to eating complementary foods with a small spoon. No matter how you feed him, the complementary food will be on his face and mouth at the beginning, so you must increase the amount slowly, initially only feeding him a spoon or two, and then adding to it until he is fully accustomed to swallowing the food.

What kind of complementary foods are you fed at 4 to 7 months of age? Traditionally, he was fed a grain at the beginning. However, there is no medical evidence that feeding complementary foods in a specific order has particular benefits for children. Although many doctors recommend feeding vegetables and then fruits, there is also no medical evidence that if you feed fruits first, your child will not like vegetables or be allergic to vegetables. When you are still breastfeeding your child, you must eat a variety of foods, including various vegetables, because if your child has tasted these foods during the time of breastfeeding, then he will have less resistance when he starts to eat complementary foods. Many babies prefer to eat cereals. You can buy pre-blended liquid baby rice flour paste, or dry rice flour that needs to be mixed with formula and breast milk into water. Today, pediatricians recommend that parents choose whole grain rice flour over finished rice flour. There is no evidence that one grain is better than others, but some rice does have higher levels of arsenic than others, so children should eat multiple grains instead of just one. Whichever food you choose, make sure it's very soft or completely puree.

In the past, pediatricians advised a baby to give him a new food, let him eat it for a few days, and then give him another one so that parents could see how the baby reacted to various foods. But new research suggests that it's also safe to serve multiple foods at once. During these 2 to 3 months, your child's daily diet should include breast milk, high-speed rail whole grain rice flour, vegetables, meat (including fish), eggs, fruits, and nut butter (never give your child whole nuts), and you should arrange these foods reasonably in three meals a day. Remember, unlike adults, a child does not need to add sugar and salt to his food. Also, you know that your child rejects a certain food in the first 10 times, but may fall in love with it on the 11th attempt. When starting to feed vegetables such as broccoli and asparagus, it is important to expose your child to these foods repeatedly. Once your child is able to sit up on his own, you can give him some small pieces of food that he can hold and eat with his hands and let him learn to eat on his own. Nowadays, many parents skip pure puree foods and prefer to give their children soft foods that he can feed himself, a trend known as "baby-led complementary food additives." Most babies learn to eat on their own without outside help by about 8 months of age. Make sure that the food you give your child is soft and easy to swallow, and that it is small so that he does not block the airway from food. Carrots, sweet potatoes, chicken, pork, as well as small slices of bread and whole wheat biscuits are all good choices. Don't give him food that he has to chew, even though he's already teething. After eating, gently wipe your child's mouth with a damp cotton cloth for oral care. When giving a child a complementary food, do not take it out directly from the bottle, jar or bag containing the complementary food, but first pour the appropriate amount of complementary food into the dinner plate, so as to prevent the remaining complementary food in the container from being contaminated by bacteria in the child's saliva. The remaining complementary foods on the plate should be discarded in time, and should not be put to eat next time. While there is an assortment of baby food in the store, you don't need to rely on these canned or bagged foods. You can make your own soft, fully cooked complementary foods. Steaming fresh vegetables and fruits is the easiest thing to do. Although bananas can be crushed directly and eaten, most other fruits need to be heated to make them soft. Unused food should be put in the refrigerator immediately, and before using it next time, be sure to carefully check whether the food is rotten. Do not give your child foods that can easily block the respiratory tract, such as whole nuts, uncut grapes, cherry tomatoes, raw carrots and parsley. Do not give your baby other drinks than breast milk (or formula) and water.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants not drink juice because it does not provide nutrients for babies. The American Academy of Pediatrics also does not recommend that infants under the age of 1 drink milk. For infants at this stage, it is necessary to avoid drinking juice as much as possible, and parents should never use juice as a drink when their children are dehydrated and have diarrhea. Giving babies and toddlers juice can also make them addicted to sweet drinks, which can lead to excessive weight gain and dental caries. If between feedings, your child appears thirsty, you can feed him some breast milk or formula, and if he is 6 months old, you can also feed him a small sip of water. Having children drink boiled water is a very healthy drinking habit. During the hot season, your child loses water by sweating, and you can feed your child 2 or more times a day. If your water is fluorinated, it can also prevent caries. You can use your home water meter to check to see if your water has been fluorinated. Most municipal water is fluorinated, and some wells naturally contain fluoride. If your child needs fluoride supplementation, a pediatrician or dentist can provide guidance. If your home uses well water, it is important to regularly test the well water for contaminants such as bacteria and toxins. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that drinking well water be tested at least once a year in the spring. If contaminants are present, testing is more frequent. Another option is to install a well water filter.

By the time the child is 6 to 7 months old, he is already able to sit on a baby's high-foot dining chair. To ensure your child's comfort and safety, use seat belts and wash your dining chairs regularly. Choose a dining chair with a detachable tray and a higher edge around the tray. When a child eats, the edges of the tray prevent food from falling. The removable tray can be taken directly to the sink for cleaning, which is more convenient. (Every once in a while, you'll need to wash the entire dining chair.) As your child eats more and more foods and your child's diet becomes more regular, you need to consult your pediatrician about your child's nutritional needs. Poor eating habits formed in infancy can lead to health problems in your child later in life. The doctor will help you determine whether your child is excessively obese, whether he has eaten enough food, whether he has eaten too many inappropriate foods, etc. You can learn about the calories and nutrients of the food your child eats, so you can make sure you're giving him the right food. Pay attention to the eating habits of other family members in the family, as your child eats more and more at the dinner table, he may imitate the way you eat – every family member should try to set a good example of healthy eating, balanced nutrition. At the same time, your meal time should be fun, not tense. What if you are worried that your child is overly obese? Even when children are very young, some parents begin to worry that their children are overweight. Due to the increase in childhood obesity and potential complications such as diabetes, it is wise for parents to be sensitive to this issue, which has nothing to do with the age of the child.

Some evidence suggests that formula-fed babies gain weight faster than breastfed babies, possibly because parents encourage their children to drink a full bottle of milk each time. Don't worry about your child being overweight, though, make him drink too little milk in the first year of his life. It is important to remember to determine how much your child eats based on his "hunger" signals, and not to rush him to eat a certain amount of food. Be sure to follow your doctor's advice before adjusting your child's diet. During these months of rapid growth, your child will need to mix it with a balanced mix of fats, carbohydrates, and proteins. When you start giving your child complementary foods, his stool becomes more formable, more colorful, and may have a stronger odor. Peas and other green vegetables can make a child's stool dark green; beets may turn a child's stool red (and sometimes his urine will turn red). Children can grow up to contain undigested foods, especially the stems and leaves of peas, corn, tomato peels, or some other vegetables. This is all normal. If your child's stools are very thin and have mucus, it may be because of problems with his digestive system. You should consult your doctor to see if your child has digestive problems.