The moment a child moves from breast milk or a mixture to adult food is very important. It should be gradual, so that the digestive system of the baby has time to adjust from digestible and homogeneous food to a harder and coarse food. Getting the baby the first portions of ordinary food along with milk is called a lure. Under it is usually meant vegetables, fruits, meat, fish and, of course, porridge.
Porridge is a very useful and nutritious dish for children. They are one of the main sources of vegetable proteins, B group vitamins and minerals. Up to a year of porridge for children is very important as part of the daily diet.
When a child can give porridge?
Lure for children up to the year, including porridges, should appoint a pediatrician. He will tell you exactly when you can introduce porridge into the diet, and which ones. It depends on the characteristics of your child's development: how well he gains weight, whether his indices correspond to norms, whether there are any problems with digestion.
Feeding the baby's porridge begins at half a year, plus or minus the month. As a first supplement, porridge is usually prescribed to children, who for some reason do not gain weight. If the child is healthy and well-fed, then its first lure becomes a one-component vegetable puree, followed by 1-2 months later followed by porridge.
Clearly listen to the recommendations of your pediatrician and do not rush things. New dishes in lure - this is a kind of test for the digestive system of the baby. They should be introduced only when the body is ready to accept them.
How to cook and give porridge to a child?
Baby porridge come in:
- milk and dairy-free;
- gluten-free and gluten-free;
- industrial and home cooking.
It is desirable that porridge for children for up to a year were dairy-free, since the whole dry cow milk in the milk porridge is hard to digest for toddlers. In addition, for such a mess the child may have an allergy. But at the same time, a porridge for a child can be done on expressed breast milk or on the basis of a milk formula.
For the first complementary meal, and also, if your child is allergic, choose gluten-free cereal (buckwheat, corn, rice). Finished baby porridge, which are sold in stores, are very convenient option. They are maximally adapted for a specific age of the child, have a uniform consistency, do not require cooking. In addition, they are additionally enriched with useful vitamins and minerals. That is why modern doctors recommend infant food for industrial production.
The main purpose of complementary feeding is to first acquaint the child with adult food, and then gradually introduce it into the diet, completely replacing breastfeeding or artificial feeding. For this reason, the child should be given a spoon from a spoon, and not from a bottle. Thanks to such feeding, the baby gets used to a new consistency of food. In addition, the food is enzymatically treated with saliva and easier to digest by the stomach. Liquid cereal for children under one year, which "fed" in bottles, is absorbed worse precisely because the food is too little time is in the oral cavity and does not undergo saliva treatment. Therefore porridge for complementary foods, including at night (evening feeding), give the child only with a spoon. At night, the baby can continue to eat the mixture or breast milk.
How much should the child eat?
It depends, first of all, on the age and weight of the crumbs. On average, from 6 to 12 months, the daily intake of cereals should be adjusted from 1 teaspoon to 200 g. But do not be discouraged if your child eats much less than the norm, and do not try to feed it against the will. The child's organism has an excellent system of self-regulation, and the baby will never remain hungry. Maybe he just does not need these 200 grams, and he will be perfectly satisfied by eating 100 grams of porridge. These norms are very conditional, they are designed as an average indicator, and after all, children are so different!
Approach the issue of complementary feeding correctly, and your baby will always be satisfied and satisfied!