In the face of a sick baby, inexperienced young parents are often anxious and irritable and lose sight of one thing or another. Some parents are aware of the importance of their baby’s diet but do not know what to do and blindly take supplements for babies with poor appetite. For example, if you pay attention to the diet during your baby’s cough, you can get twice the result with half the effort. Pay special attention to the two “more” – drink more water and avoid eating more.
Don’t eat your baby’s cough
Diet plan for your baby’s cough
Drink plenty of warm water to help dilute the phlegm.
In addition to meeting the body’s need for water, sufficient water can help dilute phlegm and make it easier to cough it up, as well as increase the amount of urine and promote the excretion of harmful substances. Don’t give your baby water when he is coughing, or he will easily choke. During illness, it is fine for your baby to drink 2 to 3 times more water per day than when it is normal. The best type of water is warm boiled water, at least room temperature plain water.
2. Light food, with food mainly steamed and boiled.
The number of times a day and the amount of meals for a baby with a cough is similar to when it is normal, or you can let your baby eat a little less if he or she has a poor appetite. During the cough period the baby’s food is mainly fresh vegetables and appropriate soy products. The amount of meat and vegetables should be reduced and a small amount of lean meat or poultry or egg food can be eaten. Food should be mainly steamed. Fruits can be eaten such as pears, apples and oranges, but the amount should not be too much, one serving per day is enough.
Dietary contraindications during coughing
1. Avoid cold, sour and spicy foods.
Frozen and spicy foods will stimulate the throat and aggravate the cough. Therefore, it is not suitable to eat cold drinks or frozen drinks when you have a cough, and it is best to warm the milk from the refrigerator before drinking it. Babies with an “allergic cough” should not drink carbonated drinks as they may trigger a cough attack. Acid food often has the effect of astringent phlegm, so that phlegm is not easily coughed out, thus aggravating the cough.
2. Avoid peanuts, melon seeds, chocolate, etc.
Foods containing more oil and grease tend to breed phlegm.
3, avoid fish, shrimp and crab.
Many coughing babies have coughs that worsen after eating fish and shrimp foods, which is related to the fishy taste that stimulates the respiratory tract and allergy to the protein of fish and shrimp foods. Allergic babies with coughs should not eat these foods.
4. Avoid tonic products.
Some babies with a weak constitution have been taking supplements, but if they develop a cough, they should suspend the supplements until the cough is well, so that the supplements do not stay evil and make the cough worse.
5. Less salt and less sugar.
Eating too much salt can easily induce a cough or make it worse. Babies should eat a light diet when coughing and should not eat heavy salt foods such as salted fish and salted meat. As for sweets such as candy, eating more can help generate heat and phlegm, so you should also eat less.
6. Do not eat or eat less fried food.
When a baby has a cough, the gastrointestinal function is weak, and fried foods can add to the gastrointestinal burden, and they can help with moisture and heat, breeding phlegm and prolonging the baby’s cough.
Effective dietary remedies for cough
Pear + rock sugar + Chuanbei: cut the pear crosswise by the handle, dig out the middle core and put 2~3 rock sugar, 5~6 Chuanbei (Chuanbei should be cracked into the end), put the pear into a bowl, steam it on the pot for about 30 minutes, and give it to the baby twice. It has the effect of moistening the lungs, relieving cough and resolving phlegm.
In addition, for babies who are in the complementary feeding period, the diet during illness should adopt the principle of regression, that is, from soft rice back to rice flour, from rice flour back to breast milk or formula, and do not add new complementary foods at this time. These are to ease the burden on the baby’s gut during illness. Also, babies who eat complementary foods will prefer to eat breast milk or formula during their illness. When your baby’s illness is gone, gradually add the complementary foods back in the same way during the recovery period.