Ten things to note when choosing complementary foods for your baby, new mothers please check them out!
1. Added foods should be suitable for the baby's age.
Adding supplementary foods too early or too late will have adverse effects on the baby's health. Adding food that is not suitable for babies to digest too early can cause vomiting and diarrhea because their digestive function is immature, leading to digestive disorders.
Adding complementary foods too late can cause malnutrition in babies, and some babies may even refuse to eat non-dairy liquid foods.
2. The added food should start with one type and gradually transition to multiple types.
The types of food should be gradually increased according to the baby's nutritional needs and digestion ability. After trying for 3-4 days or a week, if the baby's digestion is good and defecation is normal, then you can let the baby try another food. Never add several foods at once in a short period of time.
Another advantage of adding complementary foods to the baby in this way is that if the baby is allergic to any food, it can be observed after trying it alone for a few days. If allergic reactions occur 2-3 times in a row, it can be determined that the baby is allergic to this food.
3. The added food should gradually become thicker from thinner
At the beginning, only liquid food can be added to the baby, gradually becoming semi-liquid, and finally developing to solid food. Because the baby has not yet grown teeth, liquid food is more suitable for the baby. Gradually transition according to the development ability of the baby's digestive tract and the growth of teeth, that is, from drinking vegetable soup, juice, and rice soup to rice cereal, vegetable puree, fruit puree, and meat puree;
and then gradually turning into small pieces of vegetables and fruits. and meat, or transition from rice soup, rotten porridge, gruel to soft rice. In this way, the baby can digest and absorb well and avoid reactions such as indigestion.
4. The texture of the added food should gradually change from small to thick.
The food made for the baby should have fine particles and a tender texture. Make more "pure" food for the baby, such as vegetable puree, carrot puree, and apple puree. , banana puree , steamed egg custard , chicken puree, pork liver puree, etc., in order to facilitate the development of the baby's swallowing function and lay the foundation for the gradual transition to solid food in the future.
At the same time, it can also help babies become familiar with the natural flavors of various foods from an early age and develop a good habit of not being picky or picky about their food. Moreover, the cellulose, hemicellulose, lignin, pectin, etc. contained in the "mud" can promote intestinal peristalsis, facilitate digestion, and are also beneficial to the baby's defecation.
5. The added food should start from a small amount and gradually increase.
Every time you add a new food, please note that you can only feed your baby once a day at the beginning, and the amount should not be large, and then gradually increase it.
For example, when adding egg yolk, give the baby a quarter of an egg first. After 3-4 days, the baby has no reaction, and when there is no hunger between meals, normal defecation, and stable sleep, you can increase the amount to half. Egg yolk, then gradually increase to a whole egg yolk.
6. Stop adding
as soon as the baby is not used to it. After the baby eats the newly added food, the mother should closely observe his digestion. If diarrhea occurs or there is a lot of mucus in the stool, stop immediately and start adding a small amount again after returning to normal.
What mothers need to understand is that when the baby first eats supplementary food, there may be some changes in the stool, such as the stool becomes darker, dark brown, or undigested vegetable residues are visible. This does not necessarily mean indigestion. As long as the stool is not If it's thin and has no mucus, it won't be a big problem. What needs to be adjusted is that the speed of adding food should not be too fast to allow the baby's digestive tract to adapt.
7. It is not advisable to eat liquid or pureed food for too long.
When supplementary food is first introduced, the baby has not yet grown teeth. Therefore, liquid or pureed food is more suitable for their gastrointestinal digestion and absorption. However, eating this kind of food Food should not be kept for too long. If it is too long, they will miss the critical period of chewing ability development, which may lead to chewing dysfunction after 1 year old, such as difficulty chewing granular or solid food.
The sensitive period for chewing is generally around 6 months. Therefore, from this time on, opportunities should be provided for the baby to learn to chew. After 7 months, the baby's chewing function should be consciously trained. Therefore, babies cannot be allowed to eat liquid or pureed foods for a long time.
8. Don’t let complementary foods replace milk quickly.
In order to let their babies eat more and richer foods, some mothers start to reduce the intake of breast milk or other milk when their babies are less than 6 months old. This approach Very undesirable.
At this age, the main food for babies should be breast milk or milk, and supplementary food can only be used as a supplementary food. Otherwise, the baby will often suffer from indigestion, which will affect his normal growth and development.
9. The added food should be fresh, hygienic and tasty.
When making supplementary food for babies, do not think that they do not understand taste and only focus on nutrition and ignore the taste of food. If this is always the case, not only will the baby's taste development be affected, laying hidden dangers for future picky eaters, it may also make the baby feel disgusted with supplementary food, affect the intake of nutrients, and over time, the baby will suffer from anemia, rickets malnutrition diseases.
The correct approach is to use natural and light principles when making. Add as little or no salt and sugar to food as possible to avoid developing bad habits of salt or sugar cravings. It is also not advisable to add MSG and artificial colors to avoid increasing the burden on the baby's kidneys and damaging kidney function.
In addition, supplementary foods should be made separately, and the raw materials must be fresh and tender. It is best to soak vegetables and fruits for 15-20 minutes before making to completely dissolve the pesticides.
Cooking utensils must be cleaned and disinfected frequently to keep them clean and hygienic. It is better to make supplementary food freshly prepared and eat it now. It is best not to let the baby eat the leftover food, especially the leftover vegetable juice.
10. Understand that new foods are a challenge to babies.
Mothers are very concerned about how much nutrition their babies can absorb from supplementary foods, but it is often easy to ignore the impact of adding supplementary foods on their babies' psychology. In fact, adding supplementary food is also a severe test for the baby's psychology - they have to accept that they have no understanding at all, it is just what the mother wants to eat, and this situation will last for a long time.
The addition of every new food is a psychological challenge for babies. Therefore, when mothers feed complementary foods to babies, they must first pay attention to creating a pleasant and harmonious eating atmosphere and environment for them, and try to avoid When your baby is in a bad mood, avoid giving him unpleasant emotional experiences.
When your baby expresses unwillingness to eat, do not use force. This will only leave too many bad impressions in their minds, making them more stubborn and suspicious in the future, and they will never eat this kind of thing again, or even try other things they have never seen before.
When the baby gets complementary food all over his body and face and the surrounding environment becomes messy, the mother should be particularly patient with him and especially not get angry with them. Because adding supplementary food to your baby is not only to supplement nutrition, but also to cultivate your baby's healthy eating habits and etiquette, promote your baby's normal taste development, and determine his attitude towards doing things. If the baby is psychologically frustrated when receiving complementary food, it will have many negative effects on him.
