When the baby wants to enter the weaning stage from the full breast stage, it must first go through a gradual transition period, which is the complementary feeding stage! So, the rules and suggestions for adding baby food supplements, just read this one! Let's take a look at this issue with Baibai Safety Net here!
Adding complementary foods must comply with certain principles:
1. The amount added should be from less to more;
2. Food should be from thin to thick, from thin to thick, from liquid to semi-liquid to solid food;
3. Adding food types, you should also get used to the same and add another: If you don't add it successfully at one time, you can't think that the child doesn't like or adapt to it. You can try it again at a later time. Feeding must be patient and not forced. After each new food is added, you should pay close attention to its digestion. If you find stomach trouble, vomiting, abnormal stool or other conditions, you should stop feeding this supplementary food. When the gastrointestinal function returns to normal, start from the starting amount or smaller. If children are sick, do not add new food supplements for the time being;
4. Flexible control of the variety and quantity of supplementary food: When feeding, you should make appropriate adjustments according to your child's characteristics. The objective indicators for judging whether the feeding is appropriate are: the baby does not cry after eating, sleeps well, digests the stool, and gains satisfactory weight.
In addition, it is worth noting that the baby grows fast, but the digestion is not as mature as the older baby. Therefore, 6 suggestions for choosing and making complementary food for the baby:
1. Reasonable formula and balanced nutrition
Generally, the simplest formula for complementary foods contains only two foods, such as porridge plus one type of meat, which is called a basic mixed meal. But it is best to add some other foods to provide children with a variety of nutrients and make it a more complete and balanced diet. This multi-mixed meal generally contains four ingredients:
1) A staple food as the main ingredient, preferably cereal porridge, etc.;
2) A protein supplementary food, which can use animal or plant protein such as milk, meat, fish, eggs, beans, etc.;
3) A supplementary food vegetable and fruit containing minerals and vitamins;
4) A supplementary food oil or sugar that supplies heat energy to increase the heat energy provided by the mixed meal.
When these four ingredients are used in an appropriate ratio, a perfect balanced diet can be formed. Note that the ratio of main and supplementary foods is reasonable. For example, 65 grams of rice can be combined with 25 grams of poultry meat or 30 grams of eggs or 25 grams of beans. Sometimes two protein-providing foods, such as beans and small fish, can be used. Animal protein can be used to increase bioavailability. It is best to choose dark green and yellow-red fruits and vegetables rich in vitamin C, A and calcium.
2. Choose foods with high energy and nutrients
Babies have a small stomach capacity and cannot hold too much food in one meal. Generally, children between 6 months and 1 year old can only eat 100-200ml of food per meal. Therefore, a small but high-volume, nutrient-rich food should be prepared for each meal of the baby to meet the needs of the baby's growth and development.
3. Limit pure heat energy food
It is not advisable to add more pure caloric foods such as oil and sugar to the baby’s diet. You can only add 10 grams or 5 grams of oil and 10 grams or 20 grams of sugar every day.
4. Tasty, but not irritating
This is a challenge for mothers. When cooking, you should pay attention to the combination of different colors of food, so that it can stimulate the appetite of children.
A small amount of condiments, such as oil, salt, etc. can be added during cooking, but irritating condiments such as peppers are not suitable, and MSG should be used as little as possible or not. The cooking is mainly steamed or boiled, and it is not suitable for frying or frying.
5. Food should be fresh, chopped and boiled
Choose fresh foods, and choose their tender parts, such as vegetable leaves; meat should be liver or other internal organs and lean meat, soy products should be tofu, dried tofu, etc.
Before making, you should pay attention to chopped and boiled, but vitamin C is closely related to the production process, and vegetables should not be boiled for a long time.
6. Pay attention to hygiene
In the process of preparing supplementary food, if you do not pay attention to hygiene, it is easy to cause gastrointestinal infections in children, leading to symptoms such as diarrhea and vomiting.