I tried to recall what I learned from my experience, what I've read on some books and pedia advice retained in my mind on feeding a child.. Here are those that are worth sharing. I cannot guarantee if same will be effective with your baby as what could work with my 2 kids would work otherwise for your child. Hope this helps mothers out there especially those struggling how to feed their child.
1. Breastmilk is best for babies upto 2 years and beyond. Most moms would have exclusive breastfeeding of upto 6 months then start on complementary foods thereafter. Some moms would start weaning their child to baby food as early as 4 months onwards. Check what you think is the best schedule for your baby. If your baby is having rashes or has acute dermatitis, it is best to postpone infant weaning to about 6 months onwards and start slowly on trying out different food types for your baby.
2. Baby foods that are good to start at those that are finely mashed or diced such as potatoes, apple, banana, mango, strawberry, carrots, squash, chayote, papaya and camote. Some would have rice porridge or what we locally term as "lugaw". Others would boil water used for washing rice or what we locally call as "am". For hassle free and convenient options, there are a lot of stage 1 infant cereal available with Cerelac as the trusted infant cereal brands by most moms. As infant grows older, you can adjust his cereal to the next stage. You may also opt to mix and match finely mashed or diced fruits and vegetable above to your babies delight. My pedia's advise was to start offering ground or flaked meat to my second child as she turned 9 months old.
3. Rule of thumb when trying food for the first time is to have these offered to the baby for around 3 days straight to check if he doesn't encounter any allergy with the food offered. For infant cereal product, a teaspoon of Cerelac stage 1 coupled with few drops of water is best. Make the first baby food as watery as possible and gradually adjust consistency as soon as you feel your baby is ready for it.
4. For babies with sensitive skin or has acute dermatitis or encounters allergy rashes, it is best to postpone introducing other poultry based products and food known to alleviate allergic reactions such as nuts, chicken, fish/seafood and eggs. My pedia advised me to delay in giving these to my son who had acute dermatitis until he turned 1 year old. We offered these when he turned 1 and he encountered some rashes when he took these items thus we further delayed introducing these products and recently offered him these items now that he is 2 1/2 years old. Fortunately, he doesn't have any allergic reactions to these anymore. Good news: fish and chicken are now his favorite food to eat during meal times.
5. There are times when your baby will reject some of the food being offered. Do not despair. Try and try until you succeed as they say. My second baby used to reject every new food being offered to her. We never gave up on reintroducing the food initially offered to her the following day, the week after even months after. Today, she now eats almost every food being offered to her.
6. Meal times for your kids are social times as well. If possible, take your meal together with your child. Bond with him as best as you can during meal. Do not be impatient as most mealtimes really takes longer than expected. For my first born, meal time takes an average of 30 minutes. For my second child, it is a few minutes less. We used to let our firstborn take his meal ahead of us. There are some struggling involved when we put him in his high chair and in letting him eat his food. This sometimes drains us when it is already our time to eat. Most of the time, we even let his nanny feed our child even if we are around. For our second child, we changed this and have her with us whenever we take our meals. We already kept the high chair since she would rather sit on our lap during mealtime. Sometimes she sits on her own on the regular vacant chair. We just let her be and make sure that she does not fall from the chair.
7. Start introducing other dairy products as early as your kid can tolerate it. When my kids turned one, they loved Chamyto - a lactobacilli drink as well as Yogurt. My firstborn's favorite snack drink are those of Nestle's Yoghurt drink in various flavors - strawberry, mango and even orange if im not mistaken. He loves NIDO Yoghurt and Nesvita yoghurt as well for more than a year of taking it already. We never fail to include in his baon when he goes to toddler class a bottle of Chamyto/Yoghurt drink or a cup of Nido/Nesvita Yoghurt together with his small pack of breakfast cereals. We occasionally treat them for a few spoons of ice cream when they turned 1 year.
8. Minimize (if not unavoidable) giving them junk foods such as chips which are very high in sodium since their kidneys cannot tolerate these types still. Offer them healthier alternatives instead such as breakfast cereals or cookies.
9. There will come a time that you child would start wanting to eat on her own. Early signs would be wanting to hold his own spoon or fork. Drinking from a grown-ups glass instead of his sippy cup. Do not discourage this behavior. I used to regret scolding my firstborn on doing this stuff and until now he still eats with maximum supervision at 2 years of age. For my second child, even if it quite messy to do so, we encourage her to explore her utensils, try to feed by herself using her own spoon and exploring various ways to try food - with her hands, with the spoon, with the straw etc. We got used to cleaning the mess afterwards and when we dine outside - we only go to child-friendly restaurants and make sure to give a generous tip to the attending food staff who tolerated our kid's mess.
10. Do not force-feed your child. If he doesn't want to partake his meal then let it be. Some disciplinarian parents would object on this tip but a child will eat when he feels hungry. If he would rather play than eat, then let him be. There will come a time that he will look for food or let you know that he is already hungry. Do not worry when he eats only one type of food for a given time. Each child is unique in his own little ways - there are some who are quite hard to feed, there are those who would just eat whatever is being served to them. You don't need an expensive milk or shift to another milk to give to a hard to feed child. You might not realize that you are just spending more or giving your child additional excess sugar depending on the type of milk you plan to shift him to. Just let him be - offer food that he wants and offer healthier alternatives such as increasing his milk intake. As long as his weight for his height is still within the norms for his age then there is no cause to worry. I used to see in the TV ads with Pediasure and Lactum being promoted for hard to feed kids. Upon consulting with my pedia and checking out that Pediasure contains similar nutrients with my child's current milk - NIDO 1+ and its just the caloric content per serve which differs - i chose the less expensive option - to retain to NIDO 1+. The solution advised to me by my pedia was to increase my son's intake of NIDO 1+ to get the same caloric value of Pediasure's serving. With regards to Lactum, upon tasting the product during one of the samplings it offered in the supermarket, I noticed that the product is too sweet and too much sugar is a no-no for my kids. The earlier my child is predisposed to excess sugar, the greater his chances of having health related problems such as obesity. When I checked the label, true enough, sugar is the second ingredient highest in the product. From what I learned during nutrition seminar, Ingredient list in the labels are arranged in which those appearing first in the list are those of highest quantity. Sugar is listed second in lactum's pack while only listed third in NIDO. Thus I was further convinced that I did a smart choice in giving my child NIDO. They still continue drinking NIDO until this day.
Hope this tips helped some moms in a way. These are based on personal experiences and we might find similarities or differences in feeding our child.
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