Foods Your Baby Should Avoid in the First Year

September 26th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments
Foods Your Baby Should Avoid in the First Year

During the first year of your baby’s life, there are some baby foods that you should be careful to avoid for several reasons. Your baby’s digestive system is not yet able to handle some foods, while others may pose a risk of a serious illness. Other foods should be avoided simply because your baby is not yet able to chew them and the risk of choking is high. While most foods are safe enough for your baby in the first year, keep this list handy to avoid problems.

Baby’s Digestive System Isn’t Ready!

There are some foods your baby’s digestive system just isn’t ready to handle for various reasons. For the first six months, your baby’s tummy can really only handle breast milk or formula, but once solids are started there are still some choices that can cause digestive problems.

Among other reasons, cow’s milk should be avoided in the first year because your baby’s body can’t digest the proteins easily, leading to gastrointestinal distress. Cow’s milk also blocks the absorption of iron, which can cause your baby to become anemic.

The same goes for wheat, which can be hard for young babies to digest and could lead to celiac disease, or gluten intolerance. While there are differing opinions on how soon babies should have wheat, it can’t hurt to wait out the first year to be safe.

Choking Hazards

Some foods are unsafe for babies under a year old because they are difficult to chew or are just the right shape and size to pose a threat of choking. While some of the top choking hazards such as grapes can be cut up to minimize the risk, there are other foods that should be avoided altogether. Don’t give your baby nuts – they are very easy to choke on and your baby won’t be able to chew them until molars appear. Nuts were once off the list due to allergies, but the new stance on allergenic foods only means nut butters are now alright for baby (unless there is a history of allergies). Whole nuts are still a poor choice under one year old, and often well into the second year.

Another major choking hazard is raisins, which can become very gummy, stick together and get caught in baby’s throat. Wait until after a year old to introduce them, and watch your baby for signs of readiness for such chewy foods.

Foods that Can Make Baby Sick

Babies under a year old should never be fed honey, as it can contain botulism spores. In a baby’s undeveloped digestive system, this can quickly form a toxin that leads to infant botulism, a serious illness.

Extra salt should never be added to baby’s food. Excess sodium upsets the balance of fluids in the body, and it can also damage your baby’s kidneys which are not yet able to process salt effectively. There is no reason to season your baby’s food with salt, and any food containing high levels of sodium should be avoided during the first year. Even into the second year, use caution with salt.

A Word on Allergies

If allergies run in your family, especially in the immediate family, you will need to strike a few more foods off the list in baby’s first year. Babies with a family history of allergies should avoid highly allergenic foods such as eggs, nuts, strawberries, and seafood for the first year and in some cases beyond. Discuss the introduction on allergenic foods with your baby’s doctor.

Introducing Baby to Yogurt

September 25th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments
Introducing Baby to Yogurt

Yogurt is a delicious, healthy snack for all ages, and makes a great early baby food. Learn what to look for in a yogurt to serve to your baby and how to introduce it.

The Benefits of Yogurt

Yogurt is full of vitamins and minerals that are an important part of a healthy diet. On top of being a great source of protein and calcium, among other nutrients, yogurt also provides probiotics. These are the good bacteria that help to keep the digestive system running smoothly and provide immune support to keep your baby healthy. Probiotics have been linked with fewer digestive problems such as gas, constipation and diarrhea in babies. They are also known to help fight yeast infections and shorten the duration of gastrointestinal illness.

Choosing a Yogurt for Your Baby

When selecting a yogurt for your baby, avoid those labeled low fat or fat free. Your baby needs the fat for brain and eye development, so look for a yogurt made with whole milk. You should start your baby with plain, whole milk yogurt, to which you can add fruit purees that you have already served and are sure baby can tolerate.

There are yogurts on the market that are intended for consumption by babies, but they usually carry a hefty price tag. You can get all the same benefits by purchasing a large tub of whole milk yogurt and mixing in your own fruits for flavor while avoiding the added sugar many of these yogurts contain. As your baby progresses, you can also add vanilla yogurt for a different flavor.

When to Introduce Yogurt

Although you may have heard the “no dairy before one year” rule, this doesn’t apply to dairy products such as cheese and yogurt. Doctors recommend against cow’s milk as a beverage before one year old because it can replace breast milk or formula and deprive baby of needed nutrients. Too much can also cause anemia. There is no risk of this with yogurt, however, as it won’t replace breast or bottle feedings.

Yogurt also does not carry the risk of a reaction to lactose, because the process by which it is made breaks down the lactose and makes it easier to digest. The same culturing process makes the protein in yogurt easy on your baby’s stomach. It is safe to introduce yogurt as one of baby’s first foods, although 7-8 months old is usually the recommended age.

Start with small amounts of yogurt, plain at first, and then start adding different combinations of fruits and even vegetables to the mix. You can also blend in some infant cereal along with the fruit for a complete, balanced meal in one. Fruits that go great with plain yogurt include applesauce, peaches, pears, blueberries and bananas. Although it seems strange to an adult palate, babies may enjoy a vegetable mixed with yogurt as well! Try sweet potatoes or pumpkin.

Plain yogurt provides a healthy base for creating all kinds of flavorful combinations for your baby to enjoy. As your baby grows, you can add chunkier fruits and even create smoothies from yogurt and fruit for baby to enjoy from a sippy cup and eventually a straw cup. Yogurt is a versatile baby food full of nutrients and other healthy components, and is a great early addition to baby’s diet.

Baby’s First Solid Foods

September 24th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments
Baby’s First Solid Foods

Although it is referred to as a solid food, your baby’s first foray beyond the breast or bottle will be anything but. Thin infant cereals and pureed fruits and vegetables are not really solid, but they are the best place for your baby to get started with food.

Does It Have to be Cereal?

Although most people do start baby on an infant cereal as his first baby food, there is no real reason why it has to be the only choice. The benefit of choosing cereal, usually rice, as baby’s first food is that it is unlikely to be allergenic and is also easy on baby’s digestive system. Other foods fit the same description as well, and in many cultures it is more common to start babies on fruits such as bananas than on grains.

You may have heard that starting baby on fruits will cause him to develop a taste for sweet and result in refusal of vegetables later in life. The truth is that babies are born with a taste for the sweet already, as breast milk is sweet. Giving fruit as a first food will encourage baby to try it, as it tastes familiar. There is no reason to think that it will affect his willingness to eat vegetables later.

Home Made or From a Jar?

The decision to make your own baby food or to buy it in a jar is purely a personal one. For some moms, home made is the way to go. It is cost-effective, wholesome, and provides the freshest possible food for your baby. Making baby food can be time consuming, however, and not every mom can fit it into her busy schedule. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing, however. You can choose a mixture of home made and purchased foods to match your time and budget.

Some foods just make the most sense to provide fresh at home. Bananas are a great first food, and they don’t need to be cooked before serving, unlike most fruits and vegetables. Choose a very ripe banana, mash some with a fork, and serve. The downside is that banana turns brown fairly quickly when exposed to oxygen, so you might want to consume the rest yourself! Avocadoes are another option that doesn’t require cooking. Some other fairly easy foods to puree for baby (these do need to be cooked) are apples, pears, and sweet potatoes.

Foods like peas might be a good choice to purchase as they are very time consuming to make at home. For baby’s first peas, you will need to strain them to remove the shells, which takes a good deal of time and effort. Other foods that can be difficult to make a very smooth puree of at home include green beans and carrots.

When making food at home, try to make a large batch and freeze it for later use. Ice cube trays are a great way to freeze small servings that can be thawed as needed. Simply spoon the puree into a tray, freeze, and then dump the frozen cubes into a zip-top bag and label with the contents and the date.

Whatever you choose as baby’s first food, be sure to introduce new foods slowly, allowing several days in between each addition to watch for any signs of an allergic reaction. If you add more than one food at a time, it may be difficult to know which one is causing the problem. Also, remember that a baby may take many tastes of a food to decide she likes it, so if she refuses at first, don’t give up on the food. Keep offering it, and you might find she changes her mind.

Starting Your Baby on Meat

September 23rd, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments
Starting Your Baby on Meat

Although most parents wait to introduce meat to baby, there is really no reason to put it off. Your baby can try pureed meat as one of his earliest baby foods if you like, as there is no scientific evidence to show that introducing foods in a certain order matters one way or the other.

Meat is a wonderful source of iron, a vital mineral to your baby’s growth and development. Many babies are at risk for anemia, a condition that develops due to a deficiency of iron, and adding meat to your baby’s diet can help to prevent this. Although your baby does get iron from breast milk or formula, the additional iron in meat can fill in the gaps, and provide iron in a much more absorbable form for the body that that found in formula.

Which Meat to Start With?

You can start baby on whichever meat you prefer, although many parents choose poultry such as chicken or turkey. Beef is an acceptable choice as well. Make sure the meat is cooked thoroughly and pureed as smoothly as possible. Making a meat puree at home that is smooth enough for a very young baby to handle can be a bit challenging, so you might want to start with pureed meat in jars. This commercial baby food has been processed with much more powerful machines than your home food processor and will be a lot smoother.

Getting Baby to Try Meat

Meat is not usually a taste that attracts babies at first, so try mixing it with a fruit or vegetable baby has already had. In fact, this is one of the reasons to wait a bit on meat, at least until your baby has safely managed a few fruits and vegetables you can use to make the taste of the meat a bit more appealing.

It isn’t unusual for babies to reject meat altogether. Don’t worry if your baby isn’t interested in trying it. Meat has a very different texture and taste from fruits and vegetables, even when they are mixed together. It might be a while before your baby really starts to warm up to meat. Don’t push it too hard. Your baby is getting all the required nutrition from breast milk or formula, so meat isn’t a must any time soon – or ever really. If your baby continues to dislike meat even long past the puree stage, there are plenty of other foods that provide the protein and iron usually added to the diet from meats.

Past Purees

When your baby is ready to chew food and eat things a little bit closer to table foods, you might find a renewed interest in meat. Pureed meat is not the most appetizing thing in the world, so when your baby is old enough to try small pieces that can be chewed you might see a different reaction.

Make sure to cut very small pieces of meat to avoid choking, and start with more tender meats that have been cooked well, such as dark meat chicken. A slow cooker is a great way to prepare juicy, tender meat for baby that will be easy to break down.

As your baby develops a more sophisticated palate, you can season the meat to make it taste much better and improve the chances your baby will be willing to give it more than a passing glance.

Get Smart About Juice

September 22nd, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments
Get Smart About Juice

Fruit juices can contain a lot of healthy vitamins and minerals that are beneficial to your child’s growth. Unfortunately, many of them also contain a lot of sugar that isn’t good for your little one. Looking for the right juices and using them wisely is the best way to make smart juice choices.

Read the Label

The label on a container of juice will tell you everything you need to know to decide whether or not it’s a smart choice for your child. Look for juices that are 100% juice. Most of these feature this information prominently on the front, if in fact they are 100% juice. The top of every juice nutrition label will give you a percentage, if it isn’t right on the front.

You should also check for added sugar, which may appear in the form of high fructose corn syrup or other versions of sugar used to sweeten commercial products. Choose a juice that has no added sweeteners. Artificial sweeteners aren’t a good choice for kids, so skip anything that is labeled as “diet” or “light”. Be wary of juices that say “no sugar added” as well, check to the label to ensure they haven’t replaced sugar with an artificial sweetener such as aspartame or sucralose.

Anything that is labeled as a “juice beverage” or “juice drink” probably doesn’t contain much juice. No matter how much nutrition these drinks are fortified with, they simply aren’t a healthy choice, so avoid them altogether. 100% juice products that have been fortified with extra nutrients such as calcium and vitamin D are a smarter choice.

Some new juices on the market provide a blend of fruit and vegetable juices, which can up the nutritional value of the juice by quite a bit. As with fruit juices though, make sure you choose one that is 100% juice and doesn’t contain and added sweeteners.

Making Your Own Juice

With many powerful and affordable juicers on the market today, making your own juice at home is a healthier alternative to purchasing juice in a jug at the store. It allows you to add your own blend of nutritious fruits and vegetables, and to know exactly what goes into your juice. This is an especially popular option if you prefer to serve organic juice, as it is much cheaper to juice your own organic fruits and vegetables than to buy organic juices.

It can be a bit time consuming and some vegetables that don’t contain a great deal of juice might be required in bulk to make it worthwhile, but if you do plan to make juice a part of your baby’s diet, you simply can’t beat homemade for nutritional value and freshness.

Whether you choose to use store bought juice or make your own, keep in mind that juice should not replace eating fresh, whole fruits and vegetables as a source of nutrition in your baby’s diet. Even homemade juice can’t provide everything your baby needs, and too much juice can wreak havoc on a baby’s digestive system. Pick juices wisely, and make sure your baby isn’t replacing other important foods and beverages – particularly if your baby is still nursing or taking formula – with juices. If your baby develops diarrhea, back off on the juice and discuss it with your pediatrician before offering juice again.

How to Teach Healthy Eating Habits

September 21st, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments
How to Teach Healthy Eating Habits

Just putting healthy foods in front of your child isn’t necessarily enough to really instill healthy eating habits for a lifetime. One of the biggest problems in teaching your child how to eat right for good health is that we as parents don’t always practice what we preach. The best way to teach healthy eating habits is to demonstrate them.

Kids are Watching

You may think that your older baby or toddler doesn’t notice what you eat, but you are very wrong. From the time your baby becomes aware of what is going on at the table and wants to be a part of it, you are the example being set for everything from how to use a fork to how to chew with your mouth closed.

As your baby grows, he will notice more and more what you are eating and how it differs from what he is being served. If you have ever had a baby reach for what was on your plate while ignoring the food on his own, then you know that babies just want to try what everyone else is having. It should be obvious, therefore, that your baby will notice if there are no greens on your plate or if you are not eating your carrots.

Do as I say, Not as I do

Many parents believe that it should be enough to simply tell a child that they need to eat what is put in front of them. While it’s a good goal to expect your children to respect your wishes, with food, it’s unlikely to work.

Children learn early on that one of the few things they can control in their world is food. They can refuse to eat it, and there is very little you can do about it. You can’t order a baby or toddler to eat something they really don’t want to. And if you aren’t eating it either, that’s another strike against the disliked food.

Passing Down Good Habits

Even if you do eat your veggies, your baby might be slow to decide she wants to give it a try. But even if it takes time, seeing you eat a healthy baby food diet every day will give her the impression that this is the way everyone eats. The rules aren’t just for her, but for the entire family. Starting this habit from day one with your oldest child will help it to trickle down to the rest of the children to follow. Your baby will be modeling not only your behavior, but that of any older siblings. If you have successfully instilled good eating habits in the older children, it will make it easier to convince the next child.

The best way for your baby to always see that you are eating the same healthy diet you are offering her is to make sure that the family sits down to eat a meal together regularly. This will allow baby to feel that her meals are a part of everyone else’s meals. Family dinners are also a great opportunity to spend time together as a family, and when sitting down to eat together becomes a pleasant habit, so will eating healthy foods together.

Teaching healthy eating habits doesn’t happen overnight. Every child will go through picky eating phases, but the best thing you can do is to hold firm and ride it out. As long as your child sees that you are eating right, eventually some of the lesson will sink in.

Starting Your Baby on Solid Foods

September 20th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments
Starting Your Baby on Solid Foods

Are you ready to start your baby on solid baby foods? Is your baby ready? Then gear up for a whole new adventure is feeding your baby! It will be a little messy – sometimes really messy – but you are setting your baby on a path to discovering new tastes, new textures and a whole new world of food. Start out on the right foot with the right foods and the right techniques.

Choosing Baby Spoons

Although lovely silver spoons are a very pretty baby gift, they aren’t the most practical for feeding your baby. A baby’s gums are sensitive, so look for spoons with a softer texture, such as those with a rubber tip. Plastic will work well too, but the rubbers ones are just a bit softer when starting out. Spoons should have a long enough handle so that you can manipulate them easily. Most baby spoons aren’t designed to hold much food, which is ok, because your baby won’t take much food at a time.

Which Food to Start With

Traditionally, baby cereal has been the first choice for solid feeding, but there is no real reason you can’t start with a fruit such as very well mashed bananas. When choosing a baby cereal, most new parents start with rice because it is bland and unlikely to cause an allergic reaction. Mix baby’s first cereal very, very thin, and use either breast milk or formula so that it tastes familiar.

Although you may have heard that you should start vegetables first before moving on to fruit to prevent baby from developing a sweet tooth and preferring fruits to veggies, there is no reason to follow this advice. Babies are already born with a preference for sweeter foods. Breast milk is sweet, and your baby has a natural tendency towards liking sweet foods. For this reason, starting with a sweet fruit like bananas may actually ease the transition, as baby is more likely to find the flavor pleasing. If your baby is formula fed, the sweet tooth may not be so pronounced, since formula is much blander than breast milk. Formula fed babies may do better on cereal mixed with formula as a first food.

Feeding Baby for the First Time

Don’t be surprised if your baby shows little interest or even makes a face the first time you try to feed solids! It’s best to start by dipping a clean finger into the food and letting baby taste it that way. The spoon is a foreign implement, and your baby may not be too interested in opening up for it just yet.

When you can get the spoon into baby’s mouth, start with a very small amount and wait for a reaction. It’s very likely that the food will wind up pouring out and onto baby’s chin. Your baby just isn’t quite sure yet what to do with this strange new food! For your first feeding, don’t expect to get more than a tablespoon at most into your baby, and don’t worry if most of it is on the bib or on baby. The earliest feedings are more about practice than about nutrition. Your baby is still getting all the necessary calories and nutrients from breast milk or formula.

Start with one feeding a day, and choose a time when your baby is generally alert and likely to be feeling cooperative. As you go and baby learns how to push the food back and swallow rather than spitting it out, you can slowly increase the thickness and quantity of the feedings. Before you know it, your baby will figure it out!

Your Baby’s First Fruits and Vegetables

September 19th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments
Your Baby’s First Fruits and Vegetables

Fruits and vegetables will be among the first baby foods your baby will try, and will be an important part of a healthy baby diet from this point on. Introduce fruit and vegetable purees to your baby one at a time, and remember that he might not accept a new food right away. Keep offering rejected foods; it can take multiple attempts before your baby decides he likes it.

Where to Start

Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t necessary to start baby on vegetables before fruit. Starting with fruits won’t cause your baby to have a sweet tooth, mainly because he already does. Breast milk has a sweet taste; therefore babies will naturally be predisposed to liking sweeter flavors. This doesn’t mean your baby won’t enjoy vegetables, just that you might need to offer them several times before he decides to eat.

Great choices for first fruits and vegetables are easy to digest, nutrient rich choices that are not likely to cause an allergic reaction. Try fruits such as bananas, pears, apples and avocadoes. For first veggies, try carrots, peas and sweet potatoes. You will need to start with smooth and fairly thin purees. If you are purchasing baby food, start with stage one purees which are the smoothest and the thinnest. Alternatively, you can easily make your own fruit and vegetable purees at home.

Making Your Own Baby Food

Homemade fruit and vegetable purees are a simple and budget-friendly choice, as well as a very healthy one for your baby. You can make your own purees of just about any fruit or vegetable you can think of, quickly and easily at home. The first thing you will need is something to puree the food in; a regular food processor will work great, but there are also baby food makers available that are reasonably priced if you prefer to have a dedicated machine.

Most fruits and vegetables will need to be cooked prior to pureeing. The best way to cook them is via steaming; unlike boiling, steaming will leave the nutrients in the fruits and vegetables intact. You will need to cook everything until very tender to create a smooth puree, so it may require replacing the water a few times. A simple steamer basket that fits inside a regular pot is the most affordable method of steaming. After steaming, save whatever water was used in the cooking process. You can add it back into the puree to help thin it out. Blend until smooth, adding water as necessary to achieve the desired texture and consistency. You can then freeze your purees in ice cube trays for easy portioning later. After freezing, dump the trays into a sealed bag that you can label with the date and type of food.

Bananas and avocadoes make excellent first foods for your baby, and as a bonus, they don’t need to be cooked ahead of time. Simply mash them well and serve! Both are great sources of nutrition.

Adding New Foods

As you expand your baby’s diet to new fruits and vegetables, do so carefully to watch for an allergic reaction. You should add a new food no more than every 3-5 days. This slow pace with allow you to pinpoint which food caused any reaction your baby might have. Even though you are starting with the least allergenic choices available, there is always some risk that your baby could have an unusual reaction. Take it slow – this will also give your baby a chance to really experience the food and get used to the new flavor.

Timing of Solids with Bottle or Breastfeeding

September 18th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments
Timing of Solids with Bottle or Breastfeeding

Through the first year of your baby’s life, the number one source of nutrition is breast milk or formula. Although you can start solid baby foods around 6 months old, it will be a long time before your baby is able to get all of the necessary calories, vitamins, and minerals for growth and health from solids. Therefore breastfeeding or formula remain vital to your baby’s health.

Solids: Before or After?

When you first start out with solid foods, your baby will likely take so little that it won’t really matter when you do the feeding. The small amount consumed won’t have much impact on your baby’s appetite for the breast or bottle. As your baby progresses with solids, however, and starts to take larger amounts, you will need to pay attention to make sure that solid feedings do not replace breast milk or formula feedings.

When your baby starts to take enough solids that it impacts appetite, you should be sure to feed solids after breast or bottle feeding rather than before. Wait a little while before offering the solids so that baby won’t be too full and will be interested in eating, but don’t wait too long. You want baby to have some room for solids, but not be on an empty tummy. If your baby is too hungry and fills up on solids, a missed formula or breast feeding may result. At this stage in your baby’s development, the nutrients from solid foods aren’t enough to make up for what would be missed by skipping a bottle or a nursing session. Furthermore, if you are nursing and baby starts to skip feedings, this will have an impact on your milk production. Milk supply will drop as the demand drops, so make sure baby is nursing often enough to keep your supply up.

When Solids Increase

When your baby increases solid feedings to twice and then three times a day, these meals (as long as they are healthy and balanced, and offer a wide variety of nutrition) will start to fill nutritional needs much better. This is the beginning of baby weaning from the breast or bottle, but make sure it doesn’t happen too fast! Continue to offer breast milk or formula prior to solid feedings. As your baby’s digestive system gets used to the solids, liquid sustenance won’t be quite as filling. It is likely that even after a whole bottle or regular nursing your baby will still have enough room for a solid meal.

As before, give a little time in between to make a bit more room, but don’t wait until baby is starving! As your baby’s first birthday approaches, solids will become more important and you will see a decrease in bottle and breast feedings. This is ok, as long as your baby is gaining weight appropriately and getting all the necessary nutrients for good health. This is also a good time to allow the less frequent feedings to slowly decrease milk production as you head towards weaning.

Remember, babies should continue to receive most of their nutrition from breast milk or formula until their first birthday, at which point you can switch to cow’s milk as long as your pediatrician approves. Up until this point, it’s best to follow the breast or formula first, solids second rule.

Help Your Baby Get More Iron

September 17th, 2010 by admin  |  No Comments
Help Your Baby Get More Iron

Iron is one of the most important minerals for health, growth and development in babies and toddlers. In recent years the incidence of iron-deficiency anemia in babies has gone down due to iron-fortified infant formulas and supplementation, but the risk is still very real. Especially in the second year of life, after your baby has been weaned from the breast or from formula feedings, getting the right amount of iron is of vital importance.

Why Does Baby Need Iron?

Iron helps the body to create new red blood cells, which contain hemoglobin. Hemoglobin carries oxygen throughout the body to keep organs and muscles growing and functioning. Without enough iron, your baby’s body can’t grow and develop normally. When iron stores are depleted, your baby isn’t getting enough oxygen in the bloodstream, which can result in fatigue, poor weight gain, poor appetite and changes in heart rate. There are long term effects as well to severe cases of anemia, which could even lead to hospitalization and blood transfusions.

What Baby Foods Provide Iron?

The best sources of iron in your baby’s diet are fortified infant cereals and meat. Continuing infant cereal into the second year of life can help to prevent iron deficiency anemia in your baby. Meat and poultry are also great sources of iron, but many babies and toddlers don’t eat much of these foods because they can be difficult to chew. You can mix meats with fruits or vegetables to make them more appealing, or try meat in a soup, where it has been cooked in broth and become very tender and easier to chew. If your baby isn’t interested in meat, try eggs, leafy green vegetables such as spinach, beans, peas, and whole grain bread. Choose fortified foods whenever you can to add extra iron.

One of the major causes of iron deficiency anemia in older babies is drinking too much milk. Make sure that your baby is not drinking more than 24 ounces of milk a day. Milk in large quantities can block the absorption of iron and also cause bleeding in the stomach lining, leading to iron loss. Milk is a healthy and important part of your older baby’s diet, but it is possible to drink too much and do damage to your baby’s body, so keep on eye on baby’s intake.

What About Iron Supplements?

Most multi-vitamins for children contain iron, but it is always a good idea to double check. The vitamin drops used for babies should clearly state on the label that they contain iron. Follow the manufacturer’s and your doctor’s instructions for dosage, and do not mix vitamin drops containing iron in with milk, as it blocks the absorption of iron. If you can’t get your baby to take it directly, which is not unusual as it has a strong smell and taste, mix it with a small amount of fruit juice, or add it to food. Just make sure when adding it to food that it is a portion you are certain your baby will finish eating, in order to get all of the supplements.

Children who have developed anemia may need a stronger iron supplement to recover the stores their bodies have lost. Your doctor will discuss this with you if it becomes necessary. Luckily, iron deficiency anemia is entirely avoidable in most cases, as long as you make sure to add extra iron to your baby’s diet early on.

Page 6 of 34« First...45678102030...Last »