Changes in mode and feeding
When to miss feeding at 10pm. The time of refusal from the evening( at 10 or 11 pm) feeding depends on the degree of the child's readiness. It is necessary to take into account two circumstances. First, whether the child is ready to sleep through the night. You can not be sure of this just because every night you have to wake up at ten or eleven. If you do not wake him, he can wake up at midnight. It is better to wait a few weeks, during which you will have to wake him up. Then check if he sleeps all night. If at night he wakes up from hunger, feed him and feed him in the evenings for a few more weeks. Of course, if a child weighs less, or slowly gaining weight, or has trouble With digestion, it is best to feed him in the evenings even if he agrees to sleep without dinner.
Secondly, pay attention to how much it sucks your fingers. If a lot, then he does not have enough sucking from the chest or nipples. If you now cancel the evening feeding, then give him even less opportunity to suck. However, if he continues to suck his fingers in spite of all your efforts, do not leave evening feeding for long. He can, by becoming older, generally refuse to wake up or fall asleep as soon as he eats a little. By this time I would have stopped feeding him in the evening, even if he sucks his fingers.
In general, refuse the evening feeding, when the child can sleep without him all night and if he and without him gets enough opportunities for sucking. It will happen, probably between the ages of three and six months. If he sucks his fingers and eats well in the evening, wait to cancel until five or six months.
Most children themselves refuse to eat in the evening, when they are ready for it. But some can eat at night to any age, especially if the mother rushes to them at the first stirring. If your child wakes up for such feeding at seven or eight months, I would advise him to wean him out of this habit. At this age, he no longer needs feeding at night, if he eats well during the day and normally arrives in weight. Let him sigh for 20-30 minutes;Do not go near him, check if he falls asleep again.
When you miss the evening feeding, distribute the mixture between the remaining four. It will be approximately 230-250 grams of milk at a time. But if a child eats only his usual 180-200 grams, do not make him eat more.750-800 grams per day is enough.
If the child loses appetite between the ages of three and nine months. For the first few months, a child may eat solid food willingly, and then suddenly lose an appetite. One reason is that during this period, he begins to gain weight more slowly. In the first three months he arrives almost a kilogram per month. But by the half-year the monthly increase is half a kilogram. Otherwise it will become too complete. In addition, the child may be troubled by teeth. One child in this case refuses solid food, the other - from milk.
If your child has lost his appetite, do not force him to eat. You can try to do two things. First, gradually remove the sugar from its mixture( see paragraph 216).Sugar in the early months is given mainly to provide enough calories while the baby is fed on a dilute mixture. And if he eats three meals a day enough food, he does not need additional calories. Sugar can generally deprive him of his appetite.
Secondly, you can switch from four-day feeding( 6 and 10 am, 2 days and 6 pm) to three meals a day( about 7 am, at noon and at 5 pm), regardless of whether evening feeding is maintained or not.
If these two measures do not restore the child's appetite, you need to show it to the doctor to make sure that in other ways he is healthy.
When to remove sugar from the milk mixture. Begin to remove the sugar from the mixture gradually, when your child is four to nine months old. Time depends on his appetite. If through the phase of poor appetite it passes at 4, 5 or 6 months, this is the right time to eliminate sugar. If, on the other hand, the child seems never to get enough food and always looks hungry before the time of feeding, leave the sugar to 7-8 months.
Take the sugar away gradually so that the child does not notice a change in taste. You can clean a day a quarter teaspoon, until there is no sugar left.
When to transfer the child to three meals a day. This depends on the readiness of your child and can occur at any time between the ages of four and ten months. If by the end of the four-hour break your child cries from hunger, he is not yet ready for a three-hour treatment, no matter how many months he is. If the first time it is necessary to feed it at 6 am, it makes no sense to talk about three meals a day.
On the other hand, at a certain age the child can clearly show that he is ready to switch to three meals a day. Mother says: "He eats well only once. If everyone eats at six in the morning, th will eat badly at 10, well at two o'clock in the afternoon - bad at 6 pm ".Children who behave this way need to be transferred to three meals a day, so that they get hungry for the next feeding. Otherwise, there may be a power problem.
If the child sucks his fingers and is ready to eat everything with four meals a day, you need to wait with switching to three meals a day.
It happens that the child no longer wants to eat four times a day, but wakes up, as if on an alarm clock, to the evening ten-hour feeding. There is no problem here. Try to adjust to the requirements of the child, translate it for three meals a day, as usual, but keep the feed at ten pm until he spills it.
Sometimes there is another problem. The child seems to have overgrown four meals a day. Before some feeding, he is not hungry. However, he still wakes up at six in the morning and cries of hunger. How to transfer it to three meals a day and at the same time continue to feed at six in the morning? The easiest way is to give him milk from a breast or a bottle in the morning, as soon as he asks, and later give porridge or porridge and fruit as soon as it is convenient( for example, between seven and eight o'clock in the morning).Next time he will eat around noon. Of course, if a child wakes up early hungry, and the whole family has breakfast at about six in the morning, no problems arise. Some early waking up children for the time being completely satisfied with a bottle of orange juice. Later they receive milk together with the rest of their breakfast.
Feeding time should be comfortable for the mother. Suppose she needs to prepare food for older children, and the baby is able to withstand more than four hours between feedings, although it can eat more often. Naturally, the mother wants the baby to eat three times a day with other children, and there is no reason why this should not be arranged, especially if he does not suck his fingers. But some mothers, especially with the first child, are more comfortable four times a day than three meals a day. Children can stay on four meals a day, if they manage to get hungry for each feeding. In other words, there are no strict rules for the transition. It is necessary to decide decently, with the help of common sense. Make sure that the child is ready, and act so that you feel comfortable.
The hours in which the child eats at three meals a day depend primarily on the order of the family, and sometimes on the child's desire. Breakfast is usually between 7 and 8, but you can have breakfast later if the child agrees. He gets porridge and fruit( then the or is different if he has a bad appetite), milk and, probably, an egg. Later, he will need something to endure until dinner. Orange juice is the best - 60 grams. If he does not drink orange juice, you can give pineapple, plum or tomato. If the child is very hungry before dinner, add a biscuit, toast or unsweetened cracker.
Lunch is around noon. Some children eat at 11.30.Lunch can consist of green or yellow vegetables, meat, potatoes and milk. Potatoes are usually added when switching to three meals a day, so that the baby has enough calories to wait for dinner. You do not need to give it if your child has a bad appetite or if it becomes too full. For dinner, you can give fruit and pudding, if it is convenient for you and if the child is difficult to feed. The child should receive fruit once or twice a day, but there is no harm if he will eat them three times a day( under condition of normal digestion).
In the middle of the day, if the child again needs a snack, again give him 60 g of orange or other fruit juice. Sometimes the mother says that in the first months after switching to a normal breakfast - lunch - dinner regime, it is good for a child to give a breast or a bottle with a mixture at three o'clock in the afternoon. Of course, this means that the child still eats four times, even if at 3 pm and at six o'clock in the evening he drinks only half a bottle. A bottle or half a bottle in the middle of the day should be given only if the mother wants to delay dinner, and the child has a good appetite. Usually, milk is not given between the feedings, because it remains in the stomach for 3-4 hours and deprives the appetite of the next feeding.
Dinner is usually given between five and six hours if the child switches to three meals a day. Most children can not stand up to five if the dinner was at 12, and they have to be fed earlier. For dinner, they usually give porridge, fruit and milk.
When a child receives milk three times a day, he probably drinks it a little less than before, because it's enough of the usual old portion in 180-240. Do not worry about it. Do not try to pour in it a little more milk in between to maintain the previous daily amount of 900 g. Most children have enough 720 grams of milk per day. On the other hand, if your child is not like others and wants at least 300 grams of milk each time, give it to him.
When it is possible to stop sterilizing the mixture and bottles of ( if you can not consult a doctor).The answer to this question depends on many different circumstances that you should discuss with your doctor, even if you rarely meet with Him. But for those who do not even can, mention some of the most important factors.
There are four reasons why you need to sterilize the mixture and dishes, if you are preparing the mixture for a day: 1) hazardous microorganisms may be present in the water( especially if the source is unreliable);2) bacteria can be introduced during the preparation;3) bacteria multiply in milk in a few hours, especially if it is not cooled;4) infants easily develop indigestion( this tendency disappears only in the second year of life, and even then gradually).
So, as long as you prepare the mixture for 24 hours, you must sterilize it and the dishes.
If the child has switched to pasteurized milk. If, for example, at 9 months of age the child has switched to pasteurized milk in a bottle( or cup), the doctor,
, may say that it is safe to stop sterilizing milk if the mother pours it into a clean bottle of beforehand. There should be no dangerous bacteria in pasteurized milk, and water is not added to it. If a child often suffers from diarrhea, the doctor may refrain from such advice, especially in hot weather, or if there is no good refrigerator in which you can constantly keep milk. Raw milk( unpasteurized) should always be boiled.
If the child has switched to concentrated milk. Things are different if the child switches to a mixture on concentrated milk. When they open the jar, the milk is sterile. If an open jar is kept in the refrigerator, it can be safely consumed within 24 hours. There are doubts about the quality of water. Sometimes it is not safe to use raw tap water or from a well, and the doctor recommends boiling it for a one-year-old child and older. And still there is a risk that, under special circumstances, bacteria will appear in any water. Water for the mixture with concentrated milk should be sterilized until the doctor allows to stop. However, this does not represent any difficulty. A stock of water per day can be boiled in five minutes and kept in a vessel for use throughout the day. Before each feeding, the mother mixes the same amounts of concentrated milk and boiled water and gives the baby in a bottle or cup. As explained in the previous paragraph, it is enough to wash the bottle and the cup with soap and water, because the milk will be in them only for a few minutes.(Of course, you can decide that you can easily boil the mixture and utensils all 24 hours a day.)
When to switch from concentrated milk to pasteurized. The most reasonable answer is never. Concentrated milk is sterile, cheap, easy to store, easy to digest, less likely to cause allergies. It's not much harder to cook. You just need to mix equal amounts of concentrated milk and boiled water. If the doctor allows you not to boil water for the baby, mix in a cup or bottle of concentrated milk with tap water.
If concentrated milk has such benefits, why do most children switch to pasteurized milk? The doctor rarely insists on this. Usually this is the desire of the mother. I think she has two reasons. The mother is proud of the development of her child, and for some mothers the transition to pasteurized milk seems to be as important as the ability to walk, use a pot or go to school. In addition, mothers who do not like the taste of concentrated milk, it seems that it will not appeal to children when they grow up. And as soon as the child accidentally eats less mixture, they decide that such a moment has come. I do not think that there is evidence that children prefer pasteurized milk, but I have rarely been able to convince mothers. In any case, there is no medical reason for such a transition, so keep the baby on concentrated milk as much as you like.