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Baby feeding and reality

Writer's picture: quim boschquim bosch

Life is beautiful but sometimes complicated. Mostly your child is seen as the most beautiful thing you can have in life but your diet can be complicated, because there are conditions and nuances that appear and make things difficult. And this is where I will try to give you a hand.

Those who know me know that the pediatrics I practice are oriented and adapted to the baby / parent binomial and have tried to follow the advice of most societies and / or health, food and pediatric institutions, not all realities are the same and there may be small conditioners.

No one disputes that breastfeeding is the best food for our baby from birth to the first 6 months of life (recommendations from WHO, UNICEF, AAP, AEP, etc. and that it is exclusively) but there are situations in which it may not be possible such as maternal illness, infant illness, problems with breastfeeding that happens often, reconciliation with working life as maternity leave lasts 16 weeks, maternal will of the mother to breastfeed with adapted milk, etc. And this is where it is necessary our involvement trying to help the mother’s will and the baby’s interests. You should always try to find solutions (external help to the mother with breastfeeding, facilitate breastfeeding at work, compaction of breastfeeding time, extra extraction of breast milk to be able to give it while the mother is at work, etc.) . As you can see there are many possibilities because the reality of each family is different. And always try to find the most optimal solution for parents and baby.

What we already see during breastfeeding also happens with complementary feeding. As well as the recommended start of complementary feeding is from 6 months of age (never before 4 months). We often find that the mother with the return to work cannot maintain or has decreased breastfeeding and for this reason can help with adapted milk or the start of complementary feeding as it is often rejected by babies the teat, syringe, glass or others.

With the introduction of complementary food we also find the dilemma of progressive introduction of food, whether crushed or in pieces (Baby led weaning), etc. Here, too, it is important to talk to the family and analyze the existing reality and make adjustments if necessary. A priori I opt for introducing foods with a minimum temporary separation (about 3-5 days if they are of the same type) and about 10 days if they are of different types (cereals, fruits, vegetables, meat, fish) to see how the adaptation is of the baby these. More supportive than at 6 months this introduction is in the form of crushed food rather than crushed (soft but irregular consistency) than in chunks (as there is sometimes doubt as to what is optimal size and there may be drowning risks). It is important to eat with the baby at the same table, let him handle his and our food if he wants to put it in his mouth and that the food is progressively less crushed. In this way, at 8-9 months, where they already have a good learning experience, they can be the ones to take food and eat it and it can already be in pieces.

There are families who want / demand a diet schedule to follow and here our collaboration is also important.

As you can see not everything is as easy as it sounds and every reality may need an adaptation.

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