A complete guide to the timetable for adding complementary foods to your baby! Are you still adding rice soup?

Adding complementary foods is a must for every baby. Many parents are confused about how to add complementary foods. How to add? When will it be added? Can porridge and rice soup be used instead of nutritious rice noodles? There are a lot of questions to ask. Taotao summarized everyone\’s questions together and found an old friend of mine to give you this complete guide to adding complementary foods! 01 Reasons for adding complementary foods Starting from 4 to 6 months old, breast milk or formula milk can no longer meet all the nutritional needs of the baby. Especially for iron, the iron that babies bring out from their mother\’s belly can only last for about 4 to 6 months. Breast milk is an iron-poor food and cannot meet the baby\’s iron needs. The iron demand of a 4 to 6-month-old baby is almost close to that of an adult male. Even simply consuming iron-fortified formula milk powder cannot meet the demand. At this time, iron-rich foods need to be added in time to provide the baby with enough iron in the form of complementary food. Of course, in addition to meeting the needs of nutrients, another important purpose of adding complementary foods is to train the baby\’s chewing, swallowing and gastrointestinal digestion abilities, so as to make a perfect transition for the baby\’s adult eating pattern after weaning. 02 The time for adding complementary foods is generally recognized by various countries as the time for adding complementary foods is basically around 6 months of age. The 2016 \”Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents\” specifically pointed out that exclusive breastfeeding should be adhered to within 6 months of age, and complementary foods should be added from 6 months of age onwards. Generally speaking, depending on the baby\’s growth and development, you can try to add complementary foods starting from 4 to 6 months old. As a mother, in addition to remembering the key data of 4 to 6 months. What is more important is to pay attention to the following phenomena: the baby\’s tongue thrust reflex disappears, he can maintain a sitting position on his own, and he starts to become interested in adults\’ food. When your baby meets these conditions, it’s time to add complementary foods! 03 Principles of adding complementary foods (1) When adding only one kind of food at a time to enrich the baby\’s \”complementary food library\”, mothers should remember that each new food should be a single food. A single food can be a good way to determine whether your baby is allergic to this food, which is a very important measure to prevent food allergies. Only when the baby has added several foods separately and digested and absorbed them well can these foods be mixed and fed. Every time a new food is added, it is necessary to observe whether the baby\’s gastrointestinal tract is tolerated. Generally speaking, it means whether there are any allergic symptoms such as vomiting, diarrhea, rash, etc. To be cautious, mothers can feed the food multiple times in 2-3 days to determine whether the baby can accept it, and then introduce other foods. (2) From thin to thick, from less to more, the same kind of food can be cooked differently according to the age of the baby. The properties of the food should range from pureed (red meat puree, rice noodles, vegetable puree) to semi-solid (mashed noodles, red meat minced, soft minced vegetables) to solid (fruit pellets, vegetable pellets, sweet potato chunks). In addition to the characteristics of complementary foods that need to be gradually introduced, every time a new food is added, the principle of feeding from less to more should also be followed. Try feeding a small spoonful first. After trying 2 to 3 times, if the baby does not reject it, you can gradually increase the amount in the next few meals. When you first add rice flour, be sure not to make it too thick but smooth so that your baby can easily accept it. Remember that every time you add a new complementary food, the purpose of giving a small amount is not to fill the baby\’s belly., but to observe whether the baby can accept this new food and whether any allergic symptoms occur. 04 Milk volume after adding complementary food 4 to 6 months When the baby starts to add complementary food, the energy provided by the complementary food should be close to 1/3 of the total energy in the food intake as soon as possible. At the age of one year, the energy provided by complementary food accounts for almost 1/2 of the total energy in the food intake. After 1 year old, complementary food becomes the protagonist on the baby\’s table, and milk becomes the supporting role. Under normal circumstances, babies need to drink 800-1000ml of milk every day before adding complementary foods. After starting to add complementary foods, the amount of milk can be gradually reduced to 600-800ml per day, and the number of feedings should also be reduced accordingly. Babies after 1 year old only need to ensure 360-500ml of milk per day (Taotao: Guidelines vary slightly from country to country. The Chinese Nutrition Society recommends that babies aged 1-2 years old should have 500ml of milk per day). The rest depends on the intake of \”three meals” to meet the needs of growth and development. 05 How to eat the first complementary food? According to my country’s latest dietary guidelines, babies can add complementary foods when they are 6 months old. Priority should be given to iron-rich puree foods such as iron-fortified rice noodles or red meat puree. Compared with the previous point of view, red meat puree has also been mentioned as a priority to be added to complementary foods, but iron-fortified rice noodles are still a priority to add. In actual situations, complementary foods can be started to be added based on the baby\’s actual development around 4 to 6 months old. The first choice of complementary foods is iron-fortified rice noodles (or red meat puree). When the baby\’s tongue thrust reflex disappears and he becomes interested in foods other than milk and can sit with support or alone, these changes in behavioral abilities are signals for adding complementary foods. 06 Precautions when adding rice noodles for the first time. Just give 1 to 2 spoons for the first time. The purpose is to observe whether the baby is allergic to rice noodles. If the baby does not have allergic symptoms, then the feeding amount can be gradually increased according to the baby\’s appetite. Babies between 6 and 12 months old still need breast milk as the main source of food, supplemented by complementary foods. Therefore, the amount of rice cereal fed does not affect the normal milk volume. Don’t worry about the specific grams. Each baby’s appetite and acceptance of rice noodles are different. 07 The difference between self-ground rice noodles and commercially available rice noodles is that it does not contain iron! ! ! The most common cause of anemia in babies is iron deficiency. If your baby is pale, irritable, and has poor appetite, it is best to go to the hospital to be screened for anemia (a routine blood test will do). Iron deficiency anemia, if not actively corrected, will impair the baby\’s growth and development. Iron deficiency in infancy can lead to irreversible neurodevelopmental impairment. I grind my own rice flour, it is not fortified with iron! It no longer meets the requirements of the baby\’s first complementary food and cannot meet the purpose of adding complementary food at the beginning. That’s why you need to buy iron-fortified nutritional rice noodles produced by factory standard processes. 08 Why porridge and rice soup cannot replace nutritious rice flour. Porridge contains particles and must not be given to babies as the first complementary food. It is prone to choking and even suffocation. The inability to eat mentioned here means that when giving complementary food to your baby for the first time, you must start with muddy lake-shaped food and not directly feed it with granular food. Rice soup has very low energy density, contains only a small amount of carbohydrates, and is extremely poor.iron. Compared with iron-fortified rice noodles, both of the above are definitely unqualified nutritional supplements. Of course, if you want to give your baby rice soup, it’s not impossible, but there are better choices now, and rice soup is not the most suitable complementary food for your baby at this age. We all know that starting from 4 to 6 months old, breast milk or formula milk can no longer meet all the nutritional needs of the baby. Especially iron, the iron that babies bring out from their mother\’s belly can only last about 4 to 6 months. Therefore, at this time, it is particularly emphasized that the baby\’s first complementary food needs iron-fortified rice noodles instead of ordinary rice soup. Of course, if your baby can eat pureed meat every day just like other babies eat nutritious rice noodles, that\’s not bad. But how many babies can gulp down rice soup and eat minced meat at the same time? If your baby only drinks rice water as complementary food for the first time, where can he get the iron he needs most? It is important to know that iron deficiency in children under 2 years of age can impair their cognitive ability, which is difficult to recover even after iron supplementation. Iron deficiency in infancy can lead to irreversible neurodevelopmental damage that can persist into adulthood. Iron deficiency can also affect immune function, leading to a reduction in the body\’s ability to fight infections. Therefore, the 2016 \”Dietary Guidelines for Chinese Residents\” specifically emphasizes that infants and young children get up to 99% of their iron from complementary foods. Therefore, the first complementary foods for infants should be iron-rich high-energy foods, such as iron-fortified infant rice cereal, minced meat, etc. Some parents may want to say, since iron is so important, can I give my baby milk, high-iron rice noodles, and rice soup at the same time? Please don\’t ignore the fact that the baby\’s stomach capacity is large. If your baby has a particularly good appetite, he can eat high-iron rice noodles, meat puree, vegetable puree, and fruit puree without reducing the amount of milk, and still have \”space\”. Go drink rice soup that you think is very \”nutritious\”… Well, you can automatically ignore the above content… 09 Other high-iron foods In fact, red meat and iron-fortified rice noodles are the best sources of iron. Animal liver is also a very rich iron-containing food, but due to the high vitamin A content, the frequency of consumption must be controlled. In addition, green leafy vegetables, mushrooms and beans are also rich in non-heme iron. Although the absorption and utilization rate is not as good as that of red meat, eating it with foods high in vitamin C can promote the absorption of non-heme iron and is also an iron source. good source. But in the final analysis, the most economical and feasible ways to supplement iron are red meat puree and iron-fortified rice noodles. 10 Constipation after adding complementary foods is first of all a normal phenomenon. After the baby adds complementary food, it takes a process for the gastrointestinal tract to adapt to the new food. During this process, constipation or diarrhea may occur, including undigested food residues (such as carrots) in the stool. Mothers don’t need to worry too much, as it usually gets better on its own within two days. Developing a reasonable diet and good bowel habits is the best way to prevent constipation. In addition, foods that help with defecation include breast milk, vegetables, mushrooms, fruits with seeds, etc.