Infants Nutrition Assignment
A famous saying suggests: ''Your diet is like a bank account, good food choices make good investment''
Diet plays a significant and vital role in human health for all age groups; however, infants are more vulnerable and susceptible to numerous adversities regarding their health and well-being. Therefore, an utmost priority must be given to their diet that has to be adequate, safe, timely and befitting. For their better physiological needs, infants must receive exclusive breast feeding for the first semester of his/her life. With the progression of life, substantial and considerable modifications take place in infant's physique and mentality so additional foods must be given with breast feeding to meet the altered caloric and nutrients requirement. Complementary feeding should be started within 4-6 months depending on the baby's developmental and readiness criteria. This can be traced from the following gestures:
Turning head left and right.
Get excited to see foodstuffs
Start fisting their hand in mouth.
Their eyes follow spoon and open their mouth to accept food
A proper pattern is to be followed while weaning babies. The below mention pattern for introducing solid foods needs to be followed
Rice, Oats, Barley (for 6-7 month)
Fruits and vegetable (7-8 months)
Wheat (8-10 month)
Meat cheese (10-12 month)
Egg, milk (12 month)
At First, food with single ingredient must be given. The consistency of foods must be kept light. Moreover, semi-solid lactose based diet must also be encouraged. With the passage of time add some other foods one by one and keenly observe the ill-effects of introducing those foods. If some adverse effects are there, discard the corresponding food content. Fortified flour with iron, polyunsaturated oils with vitamin A, zinc and iodine based foods is highly recommended for optimal physical and mental nourishment.
Infants have relatively poor immunity as compared to other age groups. They are likely to be victims of infections, disorders and allergies if no due attention is paid to their health. In order to minimize, eradicate or exterminate the potential risks for allergies, the below mentioned points must be kept in mind:
Continue breast feeding with weaning up to 2 years or 4 semesters. Breast milk has anti-infective and anti-allergen factors that can help to wipe out any probability of being caught by an allergy in the future. Besides that, the method of sucking milk provides a natural mean for enhancing immunity of both the child and his mother.
Avoid smoking in the proximity of the baby that can trigger pulmonary allergies.
Give highly hydrolyzed casein formula as alternative for mother milk.
Avoid contaminated foods to reduce the risk of food borne diseases.
Appropriate temperature of the content of food. This will inhibit the microbes and prevent the aggravation of their toxins.
Ensure the following considerations while nursing and feeding your baby to reduce the risk of food allergies.
A.Stress free environment
B.Proper standards of hygiene should be implemented
C.Increase use of colored utensils that fascinates him/her.
D.Allocate sufficient time for …
