The Baby Weaning & Feeding Guide The Sleep Nanny
An Introduction to Baby Weaning & Toddler Feeding What our children eat, or won t eat, is considered today a huge hot potato. The subject is highly emotive and can affect many aspects of a Childs life. Sleep, behaviour, teeth, concentration, immune system, and energy levels can all be affected by diet. While most parents really care about their child s dietary requirements, many are juggling the huge demands of family life and a career. Because I ve been listening to parent's for over 27 years and providing practical solutions to weaning and feeding issues, I fully understands the problems and the pressure that parent s face today. Teaching your child or toddler to enjoy healthy and nutritious food need not be a battle or a huge time commitment. By the time you child reaches 5 years old, her tastes for food will be well established. She may be stuck in her ways or stuck in a rut. She may be craving sugary foods while refusing all the healthy stuff. She may be a victim of her fluctuating blood sugar levels and even labeled as a 'naughty' or 'disruptive' child as a result. Or Your child will have a healthy relationship with food, eating good home cooked meals with a variety of fruit and veg. The most effective way to teach your children to love and enjoy really tasty and healthy food is to introduce it at the very beginning. Instead of relying on pre-made and processed baby food at the start of weaning, just give your baby home prepared food. Even from the very first taste. During the early months of your baby s life, breast or formula milk will be her only need in terms of food. At around 5 or 6 months, she will be ready to try real food and this is when the fun begins For some parents this can be a bit nerve wracking as they begin to wonder what exactly their baby should be eating. With supermarket shelves loaded with jars and packets of ready made or powdered baby food all claiming to be the 'perfect' first taste for your baby. It is a little confusing for first time parents to say the least! It certainly does not need be like this.
Babies do not need special food! Firstly, remember that your baby is not an alien full of mystery, but a smaller version of you. Believe it or not your baby can eat normal food right from the beginning as young as 5 or 6 months (or 4 months under the direction of a paediatrician) We have put together a step by step guide for you to follow. By showing how your baby s dietary requirements can change as she goes from month to month during the first year. Our weaning guide is simple to follow, while allowing you to go at your own pace. The additional recipe download will take you through every step of development from 6 month to 5 years and beyond, with easy to follow instructions on how to prepare, cook, and store delicious and nutritious meals. Practical info and strategies to help your baby learn to eat and learn to enjoy eating.
CONTENTS New to Baby Weaning Commercial or home made baby food? Gastric oesophageal reflux disorder Early weaning and reflux Introducing solids to a reflux baby Oversensitive gag reflux Baby Weaning - First Tastes What to aim for Suitable foods for first tastes Baby Weaning - 6 to 7 months Is your baby ready for weaning on to solids? What time of day? Puree v's baby led weaning Storage & hygiene Unsuitable foods Suitable foods Water Baby Feeding - 7 to 8 months Food textures Foods to avoid Suitable foods Water Baby Feeding - 8 to 9 months Suitable foods Finger foods
Breast & Formula Milk Baby Feeding - 9 to 10 months Introduction Additional foods Milk & Water Baby Feeding - 10 to 18 months Aims & Objectives Foods to avoid Snacks Toddler Feeding - 18 to 24 months Milk, Water & Fruit juice Sitting at the Table Problems, food intolerances, Diet Toddler Feeding - 3 to 5 years Introduction School Lunches Packed Lunches Toddler - selective and fussy eaters Selective eaters Food phobia Therapy games for selective eaters
HOME MADE VERSUS COMMERCIAL BABY FOOD The baby food industry is booming. Baby food companies have worked out that mums and dads are busy people and have directed their marketing pitch at you. Clever packaging that has pictures of beautiful babies on the box. All designed to make you part with your money. Commercial baby food comes in handy individual portions and leak proof containers. Most don t need to be chilled in order to stay fresh. Don t need defrosting and can be eaten warm or cold. You will find a huge choice of flavours, textures and portion sizes to suit your baby at every stage of development. Purees for beginners, Small lumps for those just learning about texture. Larger lumps, for the more experienced eater. Jars containing ready made breakfast, Lunches, consisting of traditional recipes like cottage pie, fish pie, chicken casserole, vegetable risotto and rice pudding Then you have the powdered baby meals. They come in a handy cardboard box. Once again, a huge range to choose from, organic, non organic, savoury, sweet, breakfast, lunch and dinner, All you have to do is boil the kettle and pour on some boiling water, add a little expressed breast milk or a few fluid ounces of baby formula. Not only do these baby food products come with added vitamins and minerals they are also fortified with iron. Sounds good? You can t go wrong? So, you are about to feed your baby, the most important person in your life some food that has been made by a complete stranger! You are going to put your trust in someone that you have never met? If that s not enough to make you think, let s have a look from another angle. Shall we take baby rice as an example? When refining white rice to produce baby cereals, over 80% of the minerals can be destroyed. Refined foods such as baby and infant cereals must contain a certain level of iron and other vitamins and minerals like calcium to fulfill the food standards labeling law. What this means, if a product does not contain a certain level of vitamins, minerals and iron, it cannot be called food! These vitamins and minerals would normally be present in the raw ingredients. Iron and the other minerals that have been destroyed during the harsh processing will be added artificially. You may see a baby food product marketed as fortified with iron. Very clever labeling that first makes you think it s better than home made, as you could not possibly know about how to fortify your home cooking. You are almost guaranteed to reach for the baby food product.
Ready made baby cereals have a very high glycaemic load. What does this mean? All baby cereal is a type of carbohydrate. All carbohydrate is broken down by the body and converted into glucose. The glycaemic load of a food basically indicates how quickly a food is converted into glucose in the blood and the effect it has on blood sugar levels. If the glycaemic load of a food is high, it s broken down by the body and converted to glucose very fast. When we feed refined and processed baby food products like baby rice, the baby eats a small amount, feels full and happy. The rice is converted to glucose very fast giving a glucose rush leaving baby hungry again, about 45 minutes later and a bit miserable. Babies fed on baby rice are often (in my many years of experience) much more hungry and more prone to wake for night feeds. Possibly due to an erratic blood sugar level. Having said all of that, there a few artisan baby food products, which do have integrity. They make a great stand by and prove very handy for emergencies, holidays etc Is home made baby food better for your baby? In our opinion it is far superior. Hand prepared using fresh ingredients in small batches. Made by Mum (or Dad) with a huge serving of love and affection! How can a baby ready meal compare? It can t. If you are hesitant because you are not a confident or accomplished cook there is no need to worry. Your baby is not expecting cordon bleu! She will only require simple home cooking. I know lots of Mums and Dads who began cooking for baby only to discover they had a real flair for it. By following our step by step recipes, in the additional download, you will not only be equipped to produce delicious food for baby to satisfy her at every stage of her development but able to do so with confidence and a pride that you are giving her the very best. This food goes way beyond marketing.
GASTRO-Oesophageal REFLUX DISEASE and how this disorder may affect how and when your baby begins to eat. Babies who are difficult to settle, reluctant to feed, bring back large amounts of undigested milk or are generally fractious and unsettle are often diagnosed with reflux. Reflux is a common problem among young babies. It occurs when the sphincter muscle, located in the oesophagus between the mouth and the stomach is loose, floppy or immature. This muscle prevents the gastric contents from coming back into the mouth. When a baby is suffering from reflux it means that the muscle is not doing its job properly, therefore allowing the stomach contents to jump back up into the mouth and throat. If a baby is vomiting most of her feed back, fractious after a feed or generally unsettled she may be suffering from gastric reflux. Some reflux babies however do not bring back any of their milk feed. Instead they regurgitate stomach acid. This can cause intense pain and discomfort as the stomach acid burns the baby s oesophagus and throat. COWS MILK PROTIEN INTOLERSENCE AND REFLUX Many paediatricians now believe that almost half of reflux seen by a doctor could actually caused by a cow s milk protein intolerance or CMPI. If your doctor believes your baby is uncomfortable, in pain or failing to thrive and is presenting with reflux symptoms, he may suggest alternative formula milk. Specialised baby milks are expensive but available on prescription. Firstly, for mild reflux you might be offered thickened formula milk. The thinking behind these is that heavier milk can defy gravity, and remain in the stomach. Your doctor might offer you SMA Staydown, or Enfamil. He might just offer something for you to thicken the formula yourself like Carobel. He may offer you a cows milk based formula, but with the casein or protein hydrolysed or pre-digested. The formula could be called Nutramagen, Peptijunior or Pregestimil. These types of baby milk are very bitter and some babies find them unpalatable. You could also notice your baby becomes a little constipated when she transfers to a hydrolysed formula for babies who can t tolerate any cow s milk at all, vegetable oil/amino acid based milk could be the answer. Neocate and Neocate Advance do not contain any dairy products at all. However, Neocate is not suitable for vegetarians as it contains amino acids derived from animals. They are much more palatable than pre digested cow milk formulas, although they have high levels of glucose syrup. Neocate can make a huge difference, and you will see your baby more comfortable fed and settled with in a couple of days.
When feeding these plant based formulas to your baby, you may find she is a little hungrier than on her pervious diet. So, what do you do if you think your baby might be suffering from reflux? Firstly, get her to your family doctor or GP to get her checked over. If the doc thinks reflux is to blame she may prescribe some medication to ease the symptoms. This will either be an acid neutralising preparation or, in severe cased an acid inhibitor. The medication can either be mixed in with a formula feed in a bottle or mixed with a little breast or formula milk in a sterile container and fed directly into the baby s mouth by an oral syringe followed by her milk feed (breast or formula) Many reflux medications do thicken formula milk slightly making the feed more difficult to deliver through the hole of the teat. If you already have a reluctant feeder due to pain associated with feeding, it would be easier to give the medication through an oral syringe directly into the baby s mouth before the feed begins. As reflux medicines are often slightly bitter and unpalatable when administered in this way it s a good idea to have the milk feed ready to feed immediately to prevent it being spat out or rejected. Most of these medications need to be given on an empty stomach Some baby experts advise holding the baby upright directly after a feed. The theory being that gravity will prevent the stomach contents from sloshing back past the sphincter muscle.