A New Diet For a Baby

A New Diet For a Baby
by: Yana Mikheeva
It seems nothing else can be invented in this eternal sphere of baby’s nutrition. Juices, fruits, semolina… However, science moves forward. Unfortunately, ecology too. There’re more and more babies today, who cannot bear protein food that we think is so necessary for a growing organism. But, alas, almost all babies don’t “accept” cow's milk now, and many of them even “refuse” from the most hypoallergic one – soy milk. Now even formulas for premature babies are prepared with minimum protein.
It is proved that great protein load while the first year of life leads to adiposity, cardio-sclerosis, nephritic pathologies and hypertension in future. We have quite opposite attitude to classic babies’ paps now. Substances, damaging a baby’s alimentary canal were found in them.
So, scientists have to re-invent a baby formula again and again. These changes touched not only modern adapted milk formulas, but also supplementary feeding – the first “adult” food in a baby’s ration. So, alas, we have to refuse from old approved methods and meet new ones.
First of all, let’s talk about changes in a routine of feeding. It’s not a secret today that inner biological clock of a human organism is highly individual. And as all people are divided into “larks” and “owls” according to a routine of sleep, as every one of us has own periods of highest intellectual and physical activity and slackness, pain resistance etc. These external displays are conditioned by work of internals: nervous, locomotive, immune systems, and, of course, digestion system. We, adult people, eat not according to a routine, but when we want, not thinking about all these difficulties. And, as it turns out, it’s right.
However, we’ve been refusing our babies in this right for a long time. We nursed them according to a strict schedule, in spite of the fact that a baby had just fallen asleep and just didn’t want to eat. Of course, such training can teach to a routine. But whether this forced regulation of bio-clock according to a formal schedule will be good for a baby? And the damage is clear: a baby eats unwillingly and little, and in “untimely” hours he feels hunger and problems with digestion begin…
Now it is considered that free feeding is better. This doesn’t mean that the routine will change from day to day to a baby’s liking. A baby will just determine his hours of feeding by himself for some certain period of time, and will keep to them, believe it. Probably, these hours will slightly differ from those that were imposed on him. The only difficulty is that a mother will have to learn to distinguish a hungry cry of a baby from any other.
Traditionally, pediatrists recommended giving juices to babies since they are 3 weeks old. But recent researches showed that this is of little benefit - allergic reactions are too frequent, alimentary canal is not ready for such food yet, and juices can hardly fill up lack of vitamins in a baby’s organism. It will be better for mother to eat more fruits and drink natural juices – then a baby will receive all vitamins with mother’s milk. Now we recommend acquainting a baby with fruit juices only when he is 4 months old, beginning from several drops. On no account give some “exotic” juice to a baby as his first juice, moreover super-allergenic – citrus. (This concerns first fruits too). Apple is least allergenic and contains gentle pectic substances.
Now some words about paps. Now pediatrists reject hard many usual paps: a substance called glyodine was found in them. This is mucopolysaccharide, which is situated in some herbs’ shells (rye, oats, wheat, barley) and causes necrosis (gangrene) of bowels fibers, due to which absorption of nutritive materials occurs. Modern science rehabilitated only rice, buckwheat and corn paps. And classic semolina turned out to be the most harmful.
A baby, which “sits” only on usual semolina, will suffer from chronic gastritis, colitis and have susceptibility to oncological diseases of intestines, as experts consider. There’s another big minus of semolina: it is rich in phytin. Phytin changes a baby’s intestines medium the way that calcium and vitamin D, which come to a baby’s organism with food, are not absorbed, passing along a baby’s organism as a useless transit. And this is a straight road to rachitis. Doctors also see harm from notorious semolina in deterioration of iron absorption. That’s why rachitis is often accompanied by anemia.
Of course, this doesn’t mean semolina is prohibited for ever. You can include it into a baby’s ration when he reaches 1 year old, when normal work of intestines is regulated already and its fermentative system its mature enough. But you shouldn’t start a baby’s supplementary feeding from cereal paps – this is one of new concepts of baby’s nutrition.
Read more about baby nutrition at http://www.womanspassions.com

About The Author

Yana Mikheeva, http://www.womanspassions.com

This article was posted on March 05, 2006

Browse Baby Boy Names By First Letter
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z