Baby Meals

The kinds of foods that a baby consumes at that tender age will play a huge role in the kind of body they develop as well as the kind of activities they have the energy to perform. Getting the baby ready for a meal can generally be quite a task as the child is unlikely to be interested unless really hungry. As a result, it is important to make sure that you get the child set in some kind of routines in order to make sure that they get hungry at certain times. However, since there is no way to make sure with babies, you always have to expect the regular deviation from routine.  While baby meals in their early months to years are made primarily of mother's milk, most first time parents will usually find themselves in uncharted territory about the kinds of foods to give the child after he or she has stopped drinking milk. A number of parents are very unsure about how early to start the child on solid foods and what kinds of foods are good for the child's digestion.

Switching A Baby From Breast Feeding To Solid Meals & Precautions

When switching over from breast feeding to providing the child with solid meals, a number of experts suggest that you also make it a point to ensure your baby sits at the table, in his or her high chair, in order to feel like part of the family. Although it might be very tempting to feed your baby at a different time to that of the family meal – even if only to ensure that you can eat your meal in peace, a number of experts suggest that allowing the baby to eat with the family will develop better eating habits.

Something that you need to be very careful about when your baby switches over to solid food is hygiene. All this time your baby has been on breast milk – which is the safest form of nutrition. However, they are now exposed to a number of dangers when it comes to food and their weak and underdeveloped immune systems may have a very hard time coping with any viruses or bacterium. As a result, it is important to make sure that any food fed to the baby is prepared at home, under the most hygienic conditions. Make sure to wash your hands before you start to prepare any kind of food for the baby and ensure that you get any other household members to do the same. Always make it a point to use either filtered or bottled water when making baby foods as water is known to be the most common cause of infections and diseases in children. Wash the baby's utensils separately and with boiled water before any meal in order to sterilize the instruments. In the event that you have been cooking and handling raw meat or fish, make it a point to wash the instruments used in order to prevent any chance of cross contamination. In case of baby foods that are being prepared in advance, you should cool them quickly and store them in the fridge. Experts suggest that anything that is not going to be consumed by the baby within 24 hours should be frozen immediately. Frequent power cuts are known to be a real danger when it comes to storing baby food as the lack of low temperature will allow for cross contamination between the baby's food and other foods stored in the fridge or freezer. One mistake that a number of mother tend to make is reheating baby food regularly. Studies have shown that baby food should not be heated more than once because of the fact that reheating tends to kill nutrients in the food and also increases chances of contamination. In the event you choose to purchase readymade baby foods from your local supermarket, make it a point to read all manufacturing details carefully before preparing it for your child. Also look up the nutrition charts and make sure that it has a lot of nutrients, vitamins, minerals and carbohydrates as these are effectively what you are replacing when you choose manufactured baby foods over what you prepare at home.