It is quite clear that the nutrition of the infant is the basis of its harmonious development and growth. Food is the main source of energy, it contains all the necessary substances for the growth of the child's body. Therefore, her choice must be approached especially carefully.
In the first year of life, an intensive growth of the child is observed : in the fourth month, body weight doubles, and in a year - triples. In this case , the digestive organs of the baby are in the developmental stage and have certain characteristics. That is why the nutrition of infants should be strictly balanced according to all medical recommendations.
Why can't we feed the babies with what we eat ourselves? The fact is that until the fourth month the salivary glands produce insufficient saliva, and the activity of food enzymes is low, and its strengthening is possible only over the years. Bile is also characterized by certain features, and intestinal motility in the baby is unstable. All this makes digestion difficult. The baby has a huge need for essential nutrients, but he does not have the ability to digest them.
Therefore, the best nutrition for an infant is mother's milk. It has no natural or artificial analogues, because it is one hundred percent adapted to the needs of a particular child and contains the amount of nutrients that a baby needs. It is it that is absorbed as much as possible by the children's body.
It contains a huge number of protective factors and nutrients for the baby (hormones, enzymes, white blood cells, immunoglobulins). Experts have proved that if nutrition for children under one year of age is focused on the use of breast milk, then this favorably affects the intestinal microflora.
Note that it also contains antibodies that help create an immune barrier for the child (especially in the first three months of life) and protect against the most common infections. Note that among the advantages also note its complete sterility and optimal temperature, corresponding to the norm.
However, there comes a time when the baby is already lacking those nutrients that are contained in mother's milk. There is a time when the nutrition of the infant must be enriched with other foods.
It should be remembered that, while eating breast milk, the baby should receive it in sufficient quantities. How to determine this? The baby after feeding looks healthy, calm, there is frequent emptying of the bladder (about 15-16 times a day). The stool of a healthy child is observed twice a day, the mass increases, the skin has a pinkish tint and elastic structure.
If the weight is not added, or this happens in insufficient quantities, and the baby is uneasy and constantly requires milk, several weighings should be carried out to determine the amount of food he receives.
In order to determine how much milk a one-month-old baby receives in one day, you need to divide your body weight by 5. Then, the resulting amount should be divided by the number of feedings. Thus, you will receive the amount of food that enters the baby’s body in one feeding. In general, the amount of milk received by a child at one month of age should be approximately 150 g.
A nursing woman should strictly monitor what is in her diet: everything she eats is also the nutrition of an infant, only in an adapted form. Breastfeeding is the psychological and physiological need of the baby, he feels safe and calm near his mother’s breast. However, one should not forget that gradually, starting from 5-6 months, you need to start introducing complementary foods, the rules of which the pediatrician will tell you, having analyzed the baby’s health status.