BABY FOOD - The Advantages of Breast-Feeding
Proper healthy nutrition is
important. The eating patterns established in infancy determine how
well a baby grows and also influence lifelong food habits and attitudes.
New parents probably worry more about feeding their baby than any other aspect of early child care. What if I can't breastfeed? how do i know if the baby is getting enough? too much? should i give the baby vitamins? when do I start solid food? Parents quickly learn that almost everyone is eager to answer such questions -grandparents, neighbors-even strangers in the supermarket. As might be expected, however, much of the advice is conflicting and adds to a parent's feeling of confusion and uncertainty. So let's begin with a few anxiety busters:
1. Get to know your baby. No two infants are alike. Some enter the world ravenously hungry and demand to be fed every hour or two. Others seem to prefer sleeping, and may even need to be awakened to eat.
2. Try to relax. It's natural for new parents to feel nervous and apprehensive, but raising a baby should be a joyful experience.
3. Trust your own judgement and common sense. If a baby is growing and developing at a normal pace, he's getting enough to eat.
4. Keep food in its proper perspective. It provides the essential energy and nourishment infants need to grow and develop. But food should not be a substitute for a reassuring hug or used as bribe or reward for good behaviour. Even an infant quickly learns how to use food as a manipulative tool, which can set the stage for later eating problems.
In the beginning, they are what you eat. Good infant nutrition actually begins before birth, because what the mother eats during pregnancy goes a long way toward determining her baby's initial nutritional health. A well nourished mother provides plenty of nutrients her baby can use for proper growth and development in the uterus, as well as to store for later use. Skimping on food to avoid gaining excessive weight while pregnant can produce a low-birth weight baby who has special nutritional needs or serious medical problems. An anemic woman is likely to have a baby with low iron reserves. A woman who does not consume adequate folate may have a baby with serious neurological problems. High doses of vitamin A before and during early pregnancy can cause birth defects. All pregnant women are strongly advised to have regular prenatal checkups and to eat a varied and balanced diet.
Breast milk - babies' first food.
Physicians are in agreement that breast milk provides the best and most complete food to achieve optimal health, growth, and development for full-term infants. In fact, the recommendation of the WHO is that a full-term, healthy infant should be exclusively breast-fed up to 6 month of age (premature and low-birth-weight babies may need specialized formula and breast milk).
The advantages of breast-feeding:
1. Nursing stimulates uterine contractions that helps prevent hemorrhaging and return the uterus to its normal size.
2. Breast milk is convenient and economical; it is sterile, portable, and always the right temperature.
3. Nursing promotes a special kind of mother-infant bonding.
4. Breast-fed babies have fewer infections. The benefits extent beyond childhood; studies show that people who were breast-fed have a reduced incidence of obesity, diabetes, asthma, heart disease, and some type of cancer.
5. Breast milk may protect infants with a strong family history of allergy from developing one.
6. Women who breast-feed have a reduced risk a premenopausal breast cancer and postmenopausal osteoporosis (loss of bone mass)
New parents probably worry more about feeding their baby than any other aspect of early child care. What if I can't breastfeed? how do i know if the baby is getting enough? too much? should i give the baby vitamins? when do I start solid food? Parents quickly learn that almost everyone is eager to answer such questions -grandparents, neighbors-even strangers in the supermarket. As might be expected, however, much of the advice is conflicting and adds to a parent's feeling of confusion and uncertainty. So let's begin with a few anxiety busters:
1. Get to know your baby. No two infants are alike. Some enter the world ravenously hungry and demand to be fed every hour or two. Others seem to prefer sleeping, and may even need to be awakened to eat.
2. Try to relax. It's natural for new parents to feel nervous and apprehensive, but raising a baby should be a joyful experience.
3. Trust your own judgement and common sense. If a baby is growing and developing at a normal pace, he's getting enough to eat.
4. Keep food in its proper perspective. It provides the essential energy and nourishment infants need to grow and develop. But food should not be a substitute for a reassuring hug or used as bribe or reward for good behaviour. Even an infant quickly learns how to use food as a manipulative tool, which can set the stage for later eating problems.
In the beginning, they are what you eat. Good infant nutrition actually begins before birth, because what the mother eats during pregnancy goes a long way toward determining her baby's initial nutritional health. A well nourished mother provides plenty of nutrients her baby can use for proper growth and development in the uterus, as well as to store for later use. Skimping on food to avoid gaining excessive weight while pregnant can produce a low-birth weight baby who has special nutritional needs or serious medical problems. An anemic woman is likely to have a baby with low iron reserves. A woman who does not consume adequate folate may have a baby with serious neurological problems. High doses of vitamin A before and during early pregnancy can cause birth defects. All pregnant women are strongly advised to have regular prenatal checkups and to eat a varied and balanced diet.
Breast milk - babies' first food.
Physicians are in agreement that breast milk provides the best and most complete food to achieve optimal health, growth, and development for full-term infants. In fact, the recommendation of the WHO is that a full-term, healthy infant should be exclusively breast-fed up to 6 month of age (premature and low-birth-weight babies may need specialized formula and breast milk).
The advantages of breast-feeding:
1. Nursing stimulates uterine contractions that helps prevent hemorrhaging and return the uterus to its normal size.
2. Breast milk is convenient and economical; it is sterile, portable, and always the right temperature.
3. Nursing promotes a special kind of mother-infant bonding.
4. Breast-fed babies have fewer infections. The benefits extent beyond childhood; studies show that people who were breast-fed have a reduced incidence of obesity, diabetes, asthma, heart disease, and some type of cancer.
5. Breast milk may protect infants with a strong family history of allergy from developing one.
6. Women who breast-feed have a reduced risk a premenopausal breast cancer and postmenopausal osteoporosis (loss of bone mass)
Ulasan
Catat Ulasan