Adding solid food to the diet

There is no specific age when you need to add solid foods. 50 years ago, solid food was beginning to be added when the child was a year old. But then the doctors began to conduct experiments, during which they gave solid food earlier and earlier, and found that the children eagerly eat it. There are two advantages of introducing solid foods in the first half of the first year. First, children are more easily accustomed to it: the older they are, the more stubborn they can be. Secondly, a variety of additives to milk compensate for missing elements in it, especially iron.

Nowadays doctors usually recommend the first solid food given between the ages of one and four months. Too early start does not give any advantages. In the first two to three months, the child receives all the necessary milk from milk. Its imperfect digestive system does not benefit from starch;most of it comes with feces.

If a family member has a predisposition for allergies, the doctor may advise you not to rush into solid food, because the later the child receives new food, the less likely it is that he is allergic.

The time to enter solid food depends on the state of the digestive system and the feeling of hunger experienced by the child. A baby b months old who does not get enough milk and remains hungry may well start taking solid foods to avoid artificial feeding. On the other hand, if a child has a liquid stool for artificial feeding, the doctor may advise you to refrain from solid food, so as not to aggravate the digestive conditions. A harmful factor may be the mother's desire not to fall behind a neighbor's child for a day. Such mothers exert strong pressure on doctors.

Solid food: before or after milk? Most children who are not accustomed to solid food wait for milk and prefer to start with milk. If they are first offered a spoonful of something solid, they get angry. Therefore, start with breast milk or with a milk formula. A month or two later, when the child learns that hard poverty also saves from hunger, as liquid, you can try to move solid food to the middle or even to the beginning of the feeding. Gradually, almost all children get used to eating solid food at the beginning, and finish with milk, as do many adults.

What should be a spoon? The teaspoon is too wide for the child's mouth, and most spoons are too deep for him. Better a small coffee spoon, especially with a small depression. Some mothers prefer wooden sticks - such as doctors use when they are examined. They can be bought at a pharmacy.