How to administer complementary foods to a child: WHO recommendations and manufacturer reviews

The moment of introduction of complementary foods for infants is especially exciting for the parents of the first child. So many questions swarm in their head: what to feed? What dishes? What if the child does not want to eat something other than milk? And the main one of these questions: how to introduce complementary foods? At 4 months from the birth of the baby, it is already quite possible to start looking for answers to these questions.

When to introduce complementary foods

The first six months of his life, the baby is quite capable of dispensing with breast milk alone or its substitute in the form of a water-soluble mixture. It should be clarified that dosing with water, stewed fruit, or even juices up to 6 months is also not required. The baby will receive all the necessary fluid during breastfeeding. The best way to check if a baby has enough milk is to see how many times a day he pees. Must at least six times.

But at about six months old, pediatricians and the World Health Organization are encouraged to introduce adult foods into the diet. Of course, not immediately, but gradually, according to a verified scheme.

Why exactly six months? Because in most cases, before the baby reaches this age, his intestines are not yet ready to digest anything other than mother’s milk, and only the mixture for artificial feeding is as close as possible to it in composition.

How to introduce complementary foods to a child? It is necessary to enter it when the baby is completely healthy and is not exposed to the following risk factors:

• a disease has recently been transmitted;
• the family had a move;
• the baby was "relocated" to his bed or even a room;
• there was serious psychological stress in the parents;
• a sharp change in weather conditions;
• was vaccinated.

If such factors are present, it is recommended that you wait at least a week with the introduction until they are eliminated.

Signs that the baby is ready

Sometimes it is correct to introduce complementary foods at 5 months, as soon as indicators appear that the child’s body is ready to digest other foods. These signs are the following:

• there is at least one tooth;
• a rather strong food interest appeared;
• the child can sit without falling over.

It happens that children develop faster or slower, and within 1-2 months this is usually the norm. Therefore, after the examination, the pediatrician can give the go-ahead for complementary foods earlier than 6 months or, conversely, advise "hold horses".

How to: introduce complementary foods to the child at 5 months or at 6? This is up to mom. But it is definitely better to start complementary foods at 5 months (if the pediatrician advises) than to delay until seven, since the late start of complementary foods is fraught with the fact that the child will not receive the necessary micronutrients. And this shortage can lead to serious illnesses such as rickets or anemia.

In order to learn how to properly administer complementary foods to a child 4 months old, you must always consult a pediatrician and have a good reason for this. Because introducing complementary foods up to 4 months can be even dangerous for the baby, since his intestines are probably not able to digest anything other than mother's milk or its analogues.

Mashed potatoes or solid foods?

How to introduce complementary foods at 6 months: with mashed potatoes or lumpy foods? It is necessary to start feeding the baby with food, ground to a puree state, otherwise the child may simply choke. To obtain food of this consistency, you can purchase food in a ready-made form, fortunately, the choice is now very rich. But you can get confused and cook your child’s own food. This is done for the most part, in order to be sure of the natural composition of the fact that the baby will be introduced for complementary foods.

How to cook extra food at home is easy to remember. For this, fruits, vegetables or meat must first be boiled or steamed, and only then grind them with a blender. For the first time, you can even wipe the mashed potatoes through a sieve to obtain the most uniform consistency. For convenience, blenders are sold combined with a double boiler. That is, everything is done immediately in one more often.

But porridge for infants is prepared differently. Even at the cereal stage, you need to grind it in a coffee grinder or blender. And already from the resulting flour cook porridge for the baby. Cooking time is reduced to a few minutes.

But closer to 8 months it is worth grinding, leaving more and more large pieces, so that by the year the child can already eat almost like an adult. This is necessary so that the jaw develops correctly, and the muscles of the speech apparatus are more developed.

What products should I start with?

Hypoallergenic, low-starch vegetables are the best option. And such are cauliflower, broccoli and zucchini. But in order for the child to start eating them, there are often problems, since they are not very pleasant to the taste. It will save if the child does not know what other food can be tasty and sweet. Therefore, those who started complementary foods with fruits, cookies, or sweet cereals more often have problems persuading a child to eat mashed vegetables.

For small babies, as an option, liquid porridge is suitable. But the first porridge should be milk-free and hypoallergenic. Such are buckwheat, rice and corn porridge.

You should not start complementary foods with meat and especially fish, this is too aggressive food for dating.

Up to a year, the main task of introducing complementary foods is not to feed, but to instill the correct eating behavior, to teach to chew food and, if possible, use a spoon. It is worth remembering this if the child eats almost nothing. The main thing is that he drank enough and was fed breast milk or a mixture.

Porridge

They are rightfully considered one of the most dietary dishes. But despite this, there are two important rules on how to properly introduce porridge into lure.

The first rule is that not every kind of porridge will suit the baby. You need to start with the most hypoallergenic and mono-compound, no multi-cereal. Here you need rice, corn, buckwheat, a little later you can enter corn. Such cereals, like pearl barley, semolina, can be introduced by about a year, and already immediately in the form in which adults eat it. But it’s precisely without semolina porridge that you can do completely, despite the fact that many ate it in childhood. This porridge is almost useless in terms of the content of vitamins and minerals. For comparison, buckwheat is just a storehouse of useful substances, and there is no starch in it.

The second rule is no additives in the form of sugar and fruits, as well as milk. If the baby refuses porridge, then this means that it is worth trying again or replacing the porridge. It often happens that the baby refuses buckwheat, but devours rice on both cheeks or vice versa. Introducing milk porridge is never too late. Therefore, you can start with dairy-free, since when using them, the risk of a tendency to allergies is much lower.

If the child does not gain weight at all, then it will be with porridges that he will correctly introduce complementary foods both at 4 months, and at 5, and at 6.

Milk products

Dairy products should be introduced no earlier than 8 months, and it is better to let it be a baby curd.

Up to 3 years, eating dairy products for adults is not recommended. In the children's department for sale you can find adapted milk, kefir and other dairy products. And this is not just a marketing move, they are actually more adapted.

Oddly enough, but an allergy to milk is one of the most common among babies. And among all dairy products, whole milk is most difficult to digest. Sour-milk products are enriched with bifidobacteria that promote good digestion, and therefore are digested several times better. Now it’s clear why you need to start acquaintance with dairy products from them.

Is it worth it to sweeten and salt food

There is an opinion that salt and sugar are necessary for the body, and this is true. But the other truth is that they are already present in sufficient quantities in products in their natural form. And the fact that the food seems fresh is a consequence of the fact that the taste buds have already become dull from prolonged salting and sweetening. If you stop adding salt and sugar to food, then after some time the receptors will return to normal, and the real taste of the products will begin to be felt. Then it turns out that they are not tasteless at all.

Having this information, it is easy to understand that if you do not add sugar and salt to your baby from birth, he will be happy to eat such food, feeling its true taste and not suspecting that it can be "improved" somehow. But it is worth giving the child at least once sweet, and he will always demand it. That is why it is better to first introduce all the vegetables, and only then begin to introduce sweet fruits. For those who have never tried artificial sugar, the fruits will seem very sweet. Therefore, it is better to agree on this with grandmothers, aunts, nannies, and everyone who will sit with the child, that he eats unsalted food, and only sweet fruit from him.

Yes, over time, he will probably have to get acquainted with artificial sugar and salt, but the later this happens, the better. This is useful not only for children, but even for adults. There are families where, in principle, they do not eat salt and sugar and feel great about it.

Allergy

Another factor that can interfere with the introduction of complementary foods is allergies. To know for sure that there is no allergy to a certain product, you need to introduce new types of food gradually. Start with one or two spoons, adding another spoon every day, and bring it to the norm recommended by age. You should not introduce a new product more than once a week. You should start with colorless cereals and vegetables, as they are the most hypoallergenic. Bright vegetables such as pumpkin and carrots are most likely to cause allergies.

Age norms of nutrition of infants

In order to introduce complementary foods correctly, you must comply with the age norm for the number of foods consumed. An overdose of micronutrients is just as dangerous as its lack. For example, increased or decreased intake of foods rich in calcium and vitamin D will lead to bone formation problems. Below is a table of the introduction of complementary foods, as recommended by WHO.

Pedagogical feeding

There are two types of introduction of complementary foods: pediatric and pedagogical. Prior to this, a type of administration recognized by pediatricians was described, that is, pediatric.

But there is also a pedagogical one, and it is necessary when there is a problem with food interest, and the child refuses to try new food, and it is time for him to do it. How to properly administer complementary foods to an infant of this type? The whole point of pedagogical feeding is to eat right next to the child, thereby setting an example for him. The innate desire to imitate parents will force the baby to reach for the plate of the mother or father, and then it is worth sharing. Naturally, during the introduction of pedagogical feeding, the diet of parents should correspond to the age of the child, and not to the desires of adults. During this period, fried, salty, spicy foods and convenience foods are excluded in the plate. Diet soups, mashed potatoes, cereals and heavily boiled foods without spices and onions are best suited.

Breast-feeding

It would seem that only difficulties behind establishing lactation were left behind, as a new question arises for mom: how to properly administer complementary foods during breastfeeding? Despite the fact that at six months the child will begin to eat adult food, his main diet at first remains mother's milk or infant formula.

A rather contentious issue is when to wean a baby. To date, it has been proven that feeding breast milk up to 2 years of age has a positive effect on the formation of immunity and intestinal flora in a child. But especially urgently children need breastfeeding only up to a year.

But these are just dry facts, and this question should be decided individually. When exactly to finish breastfeeding, only the mother and the baby should decide. The main thing is that feeding is comfortable for them. And if it gives them both pleasure, then you can feed them for longer than two years. After all, this is not only nutrition, but also a way of communicating and reassuring the child.

It happens that the children themselves give up breasts quite early, or the woman has lost milk. If, despite this, there is a desire to continue feeding, then you need to contact a specialist on this issue, and he will help restore lactation. But it happens that the mother herself breastfeeding brings a lot of discomfort and inconvenience. You should not sacrifice yourself, because it’s not so long to project your discontent on the child. Breastfeeding is not the only way to strengthen the immune system and prove your love to the baby.

Artificial Feeding

There are times when breastfeeding is not possible, then in the first months of a child's life you need to feed adapted infant formula. Cow or goat milk is quite different in composition from its mother and how its substitutes are not suitable. The same goes for liquid semolina. Baby formula is not a way to cash in on mothers who cannot breastfeed, but the only adapted food for a baby younger than 6 months old and the best replacement for mother’s milk when he is a little older.

How to correctly introduce artificial foods? The principles of administration are the same, but with the caveat that you can start the introduction of complementary foods a little earlier, in 4-5 months, depending on its readiness and speed of weight gain. Usually, if the mixture is not enough for a full weight gain, it is recommended to introduce baby cereals from 4 months, but not earlier.

Another difference in the introduction of complementary foods to artisans is that after a year it is already desirable to completely replace the mixture with adult food, since it does not contribute to the development of immunity, and when eating from a bottle, an incorrect bite may form. When breastfeeding, you can not be afraid for a long time for the incorrect formation of the jaw, because the capture of the nipple is different from the capture of the nipple. Here nature thought over everything, and when capturing the mother's nipple, the child makes the "right" movements.