Mistakes to avoid when feeding babies

Video content is professionally consulted by Resident Doctor, Specialist I Dang Thi Ngoan - Department of Pediatrics - Neonatology - Vinmec Ha Long International Hospital

Feeding babies solid foods and training children's eating habits is something every parent goes through. In order for this journey to be "as less thorny as possible", each person needs to look at the mistakes of others to learn from their own experiences.

Here are the mistakes that parents often make when introducing solid foods:
Don't introduce solid foods too early or too late; Impatience when training children to eat solids; Food is not suitable. Parents need to avoid the following mistakes:
Feed your baby too much meat, fish, eggs... because you think that's enough. Let your child eat too few vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, radishes, kohlrabi... lack of nutritious dark green leafy vegetables such as water spinach, spinach, spinach... Only stewed or boiled vegetables to get water to cook flour (or porridge) for the child, discard the one. Do not give or feed your baby very little fat from grease leading to lack of energy. Cooking a pot of porridge and then reheating it for the baby to eat all day, reduces the quality and taste of the food. Feeding too much, reducing the amount of milk in babies under one year old without knowing that at this age milk is still the main source of nutrition and weaning is just a snack. Unprincipled weaning:
Many parents give their children wrong weaning without knowing it. Here are the principles of correct weaning - as recommended by the National Institute of Nutrition. Feed your baby from a little to a lot of solids: At first, parents should practice feeding the baby little by little. The first 1-3 meals can give the child 5 - 10ml of food. Increase the amount of food gradually so that the baby's stomach and digestive system have time to get used to and adapt to a new food other than breast milk. Feed your baby 1 meal/day. When children get used to it, they can increase to 2 meals/day and add snacks such as fruit, yogurt, whey... For babies from liquid to solid solids: It is recommended to give children a thin powder for the first 2-3 days. then gradually increase the consistency. Gradually increase the coarseness, from flour to sifted porridge, whole grain porridge, crushed rice... so that children can quickly eat foods like adults. Give your child foods that are soft, easy to chew and easy to swallow because at this time they have not yet developed teeth or have very few teeth. Processing baby food: It is necessary to ensure adequate nutrition, diverse micronutrients (zinc, iron, calcium, vitamins, ...) and hygienic. At first, children should only eat foods that are easy to digest such as porridge and vegetables, tubers and fruits. However, from 9 to 11 months, children need to eat all 4 food groups including: rice; meat, eggs; fish, shrimp, crab; vegetables, tubers and oil or fat... In addition, children should eat a lot of fruit to supplement the vitamins necessary for the body, help children grow faster, develop healthier. When giving a baby a new food, it is advisable to start slowly, little by little, to monitor the digestive system or the baby's body adapting to this food. Avoid giving the baby a large amount of food. new can lead to vomiting, bloating, indigestion, ... More serious are allergic manifestations: urticaria, diarrhea, ... Lasting meals for more than 30 minutes Want to give your children a lot of food, dad Mother often does not pay attention to the time of eating. There are many cases of weaning meals lasting more than 30 minutes and still not finished, but parents continue. According to nutrition experts, if this is prolonged or repeated, it will make children lose their appetite, anorexia, affect later meals, reduce food quality, and cause stress for parents. The prolongation of meals with children also causes consequences such as sucking food,... Letting children eat while watching TV, walking around children, enticing children to eat in any way The sight of both feeding and letting children watch TV, children go out to eat, let children play while eating, run after and feed children, entice children to eat with toys, ... are no longer new in daily life, causing stress for parents, creating habits bad for children. Although they know these are things that should not be done, their parents, because of their impatience, have ignored the principles of correct weaning. Once you have "spoiled" the child, it will be very difficult to re-train the child.
Feeding and taking care of children is a long journey that requires a lot of effort, effort and perseverance. Hopefully, the common mistakes in this video will provide useful information to help parents know and actively avoid, helping their children create good eating habits. Parents, therefore, will also enjoy the feeling of "leisure" when raising children.