Baby’s Diet: Ensuring that the child receives proper nutrition is of the highest significance, especially during its infancy. Considering how the baby is absolutely new in the world and is yet to develop a metabolism and digestive process. It can be complicated as to what to feed the infant when there are multiple restrictions.
Ideally, a newborn infant should be fed breastmilk while the mother must ensure she does everything to produce healthy breast milk. This should be done exclusively for the first 6 months after birth. Although, it is possible that sometimes breast milk is not accessible for multiple reasons. In those cases, the baby can be fed fresh goat or cow milk diluted with one-third parts of water. Some babies can’t digest the milk or just don’t want to take it, so smearing some sugar on the surface of take can help with digestion.
In six month’s time, the child’s metabolism is improved and is ready to digest semi-solid foods. This is when the child can be introduced to fruits (phalaprashana). Obviously, fruits in its original form would be hard for the baby to eat since it has no teeth. Therefore, it can be given in pulp or juice form. Cooking/mashing bananas and drizzle a little ghee on it is good for baby’s digestion in the initial stages. Using banana flour in porridge for the baby can act as a superfood.
At this stage, the baby can also be introduced to lentils and millets. Boiling mung daal into a soup and adding pink salt and crush cumin to that can prove beneficial. Raggi porridge is proved to be extremely nutritious and helps in developing the muscle and bones of the baby. It is important to remember that the infant is just learning to eat, so the mother should feed the baby gently and with patience. If the baby doesn’t get all the required nutrients, it can lead to malnutrition.
The baby’s stomach is very small, so when it is fed only liquids and thin foods, it is possible that the stomach may be full, but the necessary nutrients haven’t reached the body. So keeping in mind the right consistency is important. Slightly thick in consistency just means a decent amount of food containing a decent amount of nutrients for the baby. There is a trick to know whether the food is of the right consistency, just see if it stays on the spoon. If it does, you’re doing it right.
The initial food fed to a baby must be very soft, free of any hard particles, and bland. When the baby starts accepting these foods, you can work on taste and consistency. In the case of gas and bloating of the baby, boiled cumin water can be given regularly.
