Good nutrition is essential for infants and provides them with the right amount of nutrients to continue on through the day. Not only can they grow healthy, but they will also be able to stay active and maintain proper weight as well. It is never too early to set the right example for healthy eating in children. Starting out with great nutrition and eating habits earlier leads to good habits later on in life.
Infant Nutrition
Since infants grow tremendously in the first year, nutrition is an essential component of their lives. The infant stage begins the eating behavior, food preferences, and eating habits that are shown later in life. Depending on the parents, how they are fed, when they are fed, and what they are fed, they shape ideas and habits from those shown to them already.
Breast Feeding
Depending on your preference and what you might have heard, breast feeding might be the option by which you choose to feed your infant. There is also bottle feeding that many parents enjoy doing as well for various reasons. There is a lot of pressure out there for new mothers to breast feed their infants rather than bottle feed... be it from their doctors, spouse, and even peers. The decision is not based on whether or not you give into their pressures, but whether or not you choose to breast or bottle feed depending on your own personal decision to do so. This is the decision that is best for you and your newborn baby. However, the benefits of breast feeding should not be overlooked before making your decision even before the baby is born. They are very important, and can help your decision to breast or bottle feed.
Breast Feeding Or Bottle?
There are many reasons why a mother should breast feed over bottle feed because of the benefits that breast feeding has compared to bottle feeding. Even though infant formulas seem very advanced, there are still benefits to nourishing your baby with breast milk. Breast milk is uniquely designed to meet the needs of your baby with the necessary fats, carbohydrates, and proteins in the right amounts. Breast milk is also beneficial for the immune system enhancing benefits that reduce the amount of respiratory infections, ear infections, and even diarrhea. Breast feeding can be more cost effective since there is no need to purchase formula, and it is always at the right temperature for the baby.
Breast feeding is also believed to help provide protection against your child becoming obese or overweight as they become older. This is because they are not a detectable nutrient such as the nutrients or immune boosting antibodies are, but they are known through the act of breast feeding your child.
This is because with breast feeding comes:
The ability to control food intake on their own.
This is something that we are all born with, and provides us with an alert system that lets us know when we are hungry or have had enough to eat. It is known as being satisfied. This ability for the baby to respond to these hunger cues relies on the mom's interference or even lack of it when it comes to feeding them. When breast feeding, the mother is not able to see how much she is feeding the baby. This allows the baby to have full control of how much they eat and when they feel they should stop. When a baby is bottle fed, there is more control by the mother to choose how much the baby eats and when they should stop. The mom will feed the baby the whole bottle, even if the baby feels that they are full. This inability to respond to the internal cue can actually disrupt their ability to self regulate how much they feel satisfied eating. This inability to control or manage the intake of food is what leads us to overeat. This can be the onset of obesity in children and even adults.
Acceptance of healthy foods in their systems.
Breast feeding mothers should incorporate a healthy diet into their lifestyle. This is to provide as much nutrition as they can to their infant while breast feeding. There are studies that have shown that the flavors of the foods that the breast feeding mother eats seep into the breast milk, giving it the same or similar flavor. Introducing vegetables through breast milk earlier on has shown to have a significant difference in the transition and acceptance of vegetables as the child becomes older because of the prior exposure to the same flavors. The early acceptance of foods in an infant has a lot to do with the foods that the mother eats while breast feeding. This allows great eating habits to flourish through the life of the child when starting earlier on through breast feeding.
Introducing Solid Foods To Your Baby
It is recommended by The American Academy of Pediatrics that babies are introduced to solid foods between 4 and 6 months of age. Before beginning solids, it should be discussed with your pediatrician to ensure that your child is on the right stage to introduce them. Introduction of solid foods begins with grains, vegetables and fruits; while eventually transitioning to table foods by their first year of age. The interaction between the caregivers and the baby can greatly influence the baby's acceptance of certain types of foods in their diet.
Encourage Their Acceptance Of First Vegetables
Introducing Vegetables To Your Baby
Make sure to watch all of the gestures that you make when feeding solids. This is because even if you do not say anything, your gestures can make all the difference.
- Make sure not to agree with them by grimacing back and adding that the food is "yucky". Try to say "yummy" instead.
- Do not add anything sweet to the vegetables. This is because you do not want to cover the tastes of the vegetables. They will not like them in the end.
- Don't give up after a few rejections. Keep trying to introduce them with positive gestures and yummy looks.
- Try not to introduce any food items that are inappropriate or unnecessary to the well being of your infant. In a study done, FITS revealed that infants are:
- consuming more calories than they actually need; and
- eating below the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables.
This includes infants receiving fruit juices, french fries, and desserts high in sugar as early as 4 to 6 months of age. Try not to introduce fast foods and processed foods in this stage of life. It may be tempting, but holding off on it can help your child transition into much healthier eating habits later on in life. Infants need very little amounts of sodium, while a lot of the foods from fast food places are processed and have a high value of sodium in them. This might put some strain on the infants developing kidneys.
Fruit Juice Does Not Count As A Serving Of Fruit
Of course, giving prune, pear, or apple juice for constipation is sometimes done and is fine in moderation; there are actually no other nutritional benefits from drinking fruit juice. Fruit juice is not recommended to be introduced into the baby's diet until they are around 6 months of age or older, and should not exceed 4 to 6 ounces per day; as per the American Academy of Pediatrics. This can decline the intake of milk and formula when fruit juice is given more often. It also decreases the amount of whole fruits that the infant has on a daily basis. Fruit juice can give dental cavities and cause diarrhea in some small infants. Over-consumption of this type of fruit juice is also linked to childhood obesity because it is high in sugar, and low on needful nutrition. A lot of children might also use it as a source of hydration above water because it tastes better and they prefer it.
If fruit juice is introduced, it should be done after 6 months of age, and should be 100% all natural. It should also be placed in a sippy-cup, and never in a bottle. This can reduce the risks of cavities developing. To prevent dependency on it, fruit juice should be given with a meal in a small amount, and not sipped on throughout the day.
When It Comes To Good Infant Nutrition, Always Remember To Be A Great Role Model
All of the habits, behaviors, and routines that you have are going to be noticed by the infant that you have in your household. This is the best time to change things up a bit and spruce up the way you do things. They are greatly influenced by your actions. Making sure that you have healthy habits can help them build healthy habits. You want to make sure that if you do not want them eating processed, high fat, and high sugar foods that you're not eating them either. It should not be a "do as I say, not as I do" type of thing. You should not do it if you do not want them to do it.
Make sure that the environment that the infant is in embraces all the nutritious foods and healthy behaviors that everyone is participating in. This will show your infant how they should embrace these behaviors as well. Do an evaluation of the home you live in, and think to yourself what can be changed to alter the environment that the infant is growing up in. Are whole grains, fruits, vegetables, protein, low fat, and low sodium foods accepted and encouraged in your household? Make the modifications that will benefit the infant, as well as everyone else in the home for the better when it comes to healthy eating choices, habits, and routines. This can make a tremendous difference in everyone's lives, not just the little one's.
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