Breastfeeding should be advocated for 1-month-old babies. Breastfeeding is generally irregular and variable, and the time interval between feedings should not be strictly regulated, as long as the baby wants to eat, his needs should be met, and the number of nursing sessions per day can be up to 8 – 10 or even more.
If the child eats milk with a continuous swallowing sound, falls asleep soon after eating, wakes up with a happy spirit and steadily increases in weight, it means that the amount of milk is sufficient; if the child does not want to leave the nipple after eating milk for 20 minutes, you should consider that the breast milk is insufficient; if you try various methods and do not see an increase in the amount of milk, you should consider adding formula to the child, and after the child is half a month old, you can supplement the child with cod liver oil to prevent Rickets.
Conditions in which breastfeeding is inappropriate.
Mothers suffering from serious diseases or infectious diseases, such as active tuberculosis, hepatitis, serious heart disease, mental illness, malignant tumor, kidney disease, etc., should be prohibited from breastfeeding. If a mother is suffering from mastitis, she should also interrupt direct breastfeeding and instead boil and sterilize the expressed milk before feeding.
A 2-month-old child should still continue to insist on breastfeeding, and mixed feeding can be adopted if breast milk is insufficient. There are 2 types of mixed feeding: one is half breast milk and half formula at each feeding; the other is alternating between breast milk and formula, i.e., one feeding breast milk and one feeding formula.
In manual feeding, a 2-month-old child is usually fed every 4 hours, 6 times a day, and a milk-fed child is fed about 120 ml of milk each time.
A 2-month-old child needs a vitamin C supplement. Fresh fruit juice is rich in vitamin C and can be supplemented promptly with 1 – 2 spoonfuls each time, 1 – 2 times a day. As children get older, their calcium needs increase, so calcium supplements should be added, and they should continue to take cod liver oil orally to promote calcium absorption.
During this period of rapid growth and development, breastfeeding is still the first choice. You should pay attention to the amount of milk, and after 3 months of age, breastfeeding should be regular, and the time interval between feedings should be kept between 2.5 – 3 hours, with a longer interval at night than during the day, to consciously lengthen the interval, so that the child slowly develops the habit of not breastfeeding at night!
Artificially fed babies should be fed 6 times a day with no more than 150 ml each time, and if fed 5 times a day, no more than 180 ml each time.
Babies within 3 months of age cannot add starchy foods because of the lack of amylase, so they should start adding fruit juices and vegetable water to supplement vitamins.
At this stage the baby’s demand for milk increases rapidly, if breast milk can not meet the needs can add formula, if breast milk is very short to take artificial feeding, 4 months old baby breastfeeding 6 times a day, each time about 150 ml. Some babies develop faster and eat more, once eating 200 ml is not enough, then you can add some supplementary food, supplementary food should be added from less to more, from thin to thick, from one to many, gradually add the principle.
Due to the increase in activity, the calorie demand of 5-month-old babies also increases. Exclusive breastfeeding can meet the needs of 4- and 6-month-old children’s growth and development, so breast milk should still be the main food for 5-month-old babies.
If artificial feeding is necessary, the 5-month-old child should still be fed mainly with dairy foods. 200 ml of milk can be eaten each time, and in addition to rice flour, egg yolk can be increased to 1. In the case of normal stools, porridge and vegetable puree can be increased a little, and fruit puree can be used instead of fruit juice. Teething babies can also eat some cookies to exercise their chewing ability and promote the development of teeth and jaws.
You can also add some lean meat puree and fish puree to the complementary diet. Fish is rich in phospholipids and proteins, and is tender and easy to digest, suitable for the nutritional needs of the baby’s development, but be sure to buy fresh fish.
Breast milk is still the main food for 6-month-old babies, if they are artificially fed, then they can be fed 3 – 4 times a day, 150 – 200 ml each time, once at 6:00 am, 12:00 noon, 17:00 pm, 22:00 pm, and once between 9:00 am – 10:00 am and 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm with complementary foods.
At the age of 5 months, children can add porridge, batter, egg yolk, vegetable puree, fruit puree, etc. At the age of 6 months, children can add rotten noodles, pork liver, tofu, lean minced meat, etc. You can eat porridge twice a day, half a bowl to a bowl each time, you can eat a small amount of rotten noodles, egg yolk should be guaranteed one per day, you should feed some vegetable puree, fish puree, liver puree, etc. every day, but from little to much, gradually add supplementary food.
At 6 months old, it is time to add some solid foods, such as baked bread, bread slices, cookies, etc. to practice chewing and grinding the dental bed to promote the growth of teeth.
At 7 months of age, breastfeeding should still be the main focus. At this time, the baby has incisors, the supplementary food needs to add solid food, but also to help train the baby chew, facilitate the development of teeth alveolar. Recommended supplementary foods include congee, noodles, tofu, lean minced meat, minced fish, animal blood, chopped vegetables, fruit puree, etc.
The 7-month-old baby grows rapidly and needs all the nutrients that would otherwise cause nutritional deficiency diseases (such as iron deficiency anemia, rickets, etc.). Infancy is a critical period for learning various tastes and eating various foods, and developing good habits can benefit children for a lifetime, so it is important to make recipes specifically for babies of all ages, and not just feed adult meals to a baby, so as not to cause indigestion, partial eating, picky eating bad habits and weaning difficulties.
From the age of 8 months, the amount of breast milk starts to decrease, and some mothers’ milk quantity has not decreased, but the quality has decreased. Therefore, supplementary foods must be added to the child to meet the needs of the child’s growth and development. Breastfed children are fed breast milk or about 750 ml of milk 3 times a day (morning, noon and evening) and a complementary meal is added in the morning and afternoon.
By the time the child is 8 months old, the gastric juices for digesting protein are in full effect, so it is appropriate to eat more protein-rich foods such as tofu, dairy products, fish, lean meat, etc. Children eat minced meat, must be fresh lean meat, can be chopped and steamed with spices to eat.
Breast milk is still a very important food for 9-month-old babies, breastfeeding 3 times a day. For artificial feeding, you can feed 160 – 200 ml of milk each time, and the remaining 2 times with complementary foods, and the amount of complementary foods should be increased to prepare for weaning. Complementary foods include porridge, soft noodles, minced meat, tofu, crackers, bread, soy milk, vegetables, fruits, shrimp, etc.
At 9 months old, you should add some potatoes, white potatoes and other root foods that contain more sugar, and some coarse fiber vegetables. 9 months old babies are already teething and can chew harder things.
The 10-month-old baby still takes milk as the main food, and breastfeeds as much as possible. 5 meals a day, including 3 meals of milk and 2 meals of complementary foods. Milk can be fed about 200 ml when fed artificially. Complementary foods are added at 9 am and 4 pm, including congee, noodles, soft rice, ravioli, dumplings, bread, cookies, vegetables, fruits, lean minced meat, liver puree, etc.
At 11 months of age, babies eat 3 milk and 2 complementary foods or 2 milk and 3 complementary foods per day. In this period, the main food is thin porridge and soft noodles, with egg custard, minced meat and vegetables in moderation. Give your child more fresh fruits, but peel and core them before eating. After birth, the child’s diet is based on dairy products, and after a period of time, the child should gradually switch to cereal-based food. Children who are almost 1 year old can eat soft rice, noodles, small buns, and dumplings. The complementary food should be varied every day to give the child an appetite.
At this stage, the child’s diet should gradually change to three meals a day, supplemented by milk in the morning and evening, and then slowly turn to complete weaning. Parents must pay attention to ensure the quality of the child’s supplementary food, such as meat, egg yolk, liver puree, tofu, etc. are rich in protein, which is essential for the child’s growth and development; and rice porridge, noodles and other staple foods are the child’s source of supplementary calories; vegetables can supplement vitamins, minerals and fiber, promote metabolism and facilitate digestion.
The daily meal for a week-old child can be roughly supplied as follows: about 100 grams of grain, 500 ml of milk powder (divided into two drinks in the morning and evening), 30 grams of lean meat, 20 grams of mashed pork liver, one egg, 5 grams of vegetable oil, 150 – 200 grams of vegetables, and 150 grams of fruit. Zhao Zhijuan, Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, Anyang Maternal and Child Health Hospital