Wen | Jingma
The World Health Organization recommends that children who reach the age of 6 months should continue to breastfeed until they are two years old or even longer on the basis of complementary foods!
That is, breast milk is the best food for children, but after 6 months, children should also add complementary foods.
Because the nutrition in breast milk alone can not meet the needs of children's growth and development, and breast milk is liquid, children will slowly grow teeth after 6 months, at this time to give children to eat complementary food is to exercise children's teeth, exercise children's chewing ability, can make children eat better and healthier.
But 6 months here does not mean that when your child turns 6 months old, you must add complementary foods to him.
After all, when we add complementary foods to children, we still have to look at the child's condition, for example, the child just went to the preventive injection on the day of 6 months, then it is necessary to postpone the addition of complementary foods to the child.
Or the child is not up to 6 months, but the child's growth and development is relatively fast, his weight has been 15 pounds, and every day to drink 7 times 8 times of breast milk or milk powder are not enough, at this time you can consider adding complementary food to the child a little earlier.
Therefore, adding complementary foods to children, time is not the only standard, when we add complementary foods, mainly depends on the signal sent by children.
Because the complementary food is eaten by the child, it depends on the child's situation, not the parent's mood.
When the child sends 7 signals, the mother quickly adds complementary food to the child, don't wait any longer
Signal 1: Weight gain more than twice, that is, more than 12 pounds
If the child is born at 6 and a half pounds, and by 5 months, his weight has reached 13 pounds, then the feasibility of adding complementary foods to the child at this time is relatively high.
But if your child is born prematurely, has been 6 months, and weighs less than 12 pounds, then the addition of complementary foods should be postponed, and it is not too late to wait until the child is 7 months or even 8 months.
Signal 2: Not enough to drink
We recommend exclusive breastfeeding, or infant formula, until your child is 6 months old, and if your child is full, he will generally be able to sleep well.
But if the child drinks 8 to 10 times a day, or can drink 1000 ml of milk, but still hungry all day to cry, in the middle of the night is often hungry, to get up to drink night milk.
That means that liquid food alone cannot meet the needs of children's growth and development, and at this time, semi-solid supplementary foods can be considered.
Signal 3: The child develops in large movements
The child's large movement development will affect his eating, and when the child adds complementary food, he can at least sit firmly on his children's dining bench and turn his head freely.
This means that the strength of his neck can control his head and his upper body, so that the child can swallow more smoothly when eating.
Signal 4: The child's tongue extension reflex is gone
As soon as the child is born, it will bring various reflexes, such as the child's innate sucking reflex and the foraging reflex, which are the breast milk that allows the child to find the mother as soon as he is born.
And the child also has a protective reflex, that is, the tongue extension reflex, the child's tongue extension reflex is that when the child is two or three months old, if you take a spoon to feed him something, he will subconsciously use his tongue to push things out, that is because the child's gastrointestinal tract can not digest food, so it can not eat casually.
Generally, the child's tongue extension reflex disappears after 4 months, at this time the mother takes a spoon with a small amount of rice paste for the child to eat, he does not use the tongue to push out, but the spoon is included, which means that the tongue extension reflex disappears.
Signal 5: Stare at others eating
When he sees others eating, the child will stare intently, which means that he has become interested in complementary foods.
Signal 6: The child starts eating indiscriminately
At four or five months, a child likes to suck his fingers, but at six months, he likes to stuff everything into his mouth, or even the whole thing.
He is not just sucking but to eat, which means that the child has a need in the action of "eating" and is going to start adding complementary foods to the child.
Signal 7: Happy when eating
When parents try to give their children a small amount of rice paste, the child will be very happy, very happy to swallow something and eat it, indicating that it is time to add complementary foods.
But when the child shows no interest when eating, the parents should not force it.
Parents learn to look at these signals of their children and correctly add complementary foods to their children in order to make children eat well and grow taller and smarter.
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