The Right Feeding Moment and Time Habits

The Right Feeding Moment
If you start to feed your baby complementary food at an early age, in other words, before four months of age, you run the risk of:

• Keeping your breast milk. Remember that the more the baby breastfeeds the more amount of milk you will have.

• This can increase the risk of infectious diseases, because the baby receives less protection that breast milk otherwise supplies.

• A risk of getting allergies increases.

• The foods that the babies receive are less nutritious such as watery soups for example.

If you start to feed your baby complementary food at too late of an age, in other words, after seven months of age, you run the risk of:

• Decreasing or stopping the healthy growth of the baby.

• Increasing the risk of malnutrition or nutritional deficiencies.

• The World Health Organization recommends starting complementary feeding at four months of age, only when the baby does not reach the adequate weight even if the baby is lactating appropriately or when the baby is hungry after having been breastfed and when you do not have the necessary resources to acquire formula. 

Feeding Time Habits

• Always wash the baby’s hands before and after eating. (The mother too)

• The baby must always be sitting on a high chair or the stroller with a bib, even if the baby cries and yells for hunger, he or she must get prepared to eat with good manners.

• If you do not have special baby plates and silverware, take one from your dishes and keep this one specifically for the baby, this will help the baby identify it as his or hers.

• Use a tea teaspoon; little by little you will be able to move onto a soupspoon.

• Feed the baby food in a mug or cup with a spoon, never in a bottle.

• Feeding time should be a happy and fun moment. If the baby does not want to eat, don’t pressure him, find games or invent things that allow the baby to have fun and enjoy the experience.

• You will realize that your baby is satisfied when he or she no longer wants any more food, by moving his or her head, refusing to open their mouth or spits the food out.

• If the baby wants to eat with his or her hands, allow the baby to try it. It’s a baby’s way of exploring. However, do explain to the baby what the spoon is for and why it is better to use silverware.

• Encourage the baby to chew; this will diminish the risk of the baby suffering from gas or colic.

• Remember that you can only introduce new foods to a baby one at a time every three days.

• Preferably, start in the morning, at lunchtime, this way you will be able to detect if the food you gave the baby did not sit well in the baby’s stomach.

• Respect the pre-established terms for the first year, if not the food could cause the baby to have an allergy or not sit well in the baby’s stomach.

• Prepare the foods on the same day, with no more than a two-hour advance in order to avoid it from becoming contaminated. Refrigerate the leftovers immediately so that the baby can then eat it in the afternoon.

• Cook the baby food over medium heat so that the ingredients mix adequately and are tasty. Don’t use too much water.

• Some pediatricians suggest first feeding a baby vegetables and then fruit, since the baby will more readily accept sweet flavors. However, in the end this is a decision that only your pediatrician will be able to tell you about.