Should the baby be stimulated to eat?

This is an automatically translated article.

The article is professionally consulted by Master, Doctor Dang Huy Toan - Pediatrician - Neonatologist - Department of Pediatrics - Neonatology - Vinmec Nha Trang International General Hospital
Children love to use a variety of senses to explore and learn about food. It is an important part of a child's development. However, every child can develop a certain period of anorexia due to medical or physiological reasons. This is the time when parents wonder whether to stimulate eating for their baby as well as how to help them get enough nutrition?

1. Should you stimulate your baby to eat?

Pressure on children's physical development goals, TV ads about junk food, or periods of anorexia can cause children to become picky eaters. At this point, how to make children eat delicious and full of nutrients becomes an uphill struggle. Accordingly, a healthy diet always plays an important role in children's health, helping them to develop and reach a reasonable age according to their age, mental development, understanding ability, and perfecting skills. necessary as well as avoid many health problems.
An important thing to remember is that children's eating habits are completely determined by adults. Because babies aren't born to like chips and pizza just as much as they don't like broccoli and carrots. This happens over time as children are exposed to more and more unhealthy food choices. However, parents can still completely reprogram their child's eating preferences, stimulating them to eat healthier foods.
Thus, the sooner parents stimulate their baby's eating by introducing healthy, nutritious options into their child's diet, the easier it is for children to develop healthy relationships with these foods and healthy habits. such can last a lifetime, until the child is an adult and is completely independent in terms of his own nutrition. This is a solid development foundation for children that parents can build, stimulates children to eat in a scientific way and is the best opportunity to orient children to become healthy adults. , symmetrical.

2. Measures to stimulate anorexia children like?

2.1 Eating a variety of foods during pregnancy It is true that an infant's sense of taste is awakened before the baby is born, that is, starting about three months after pregnancy. By the time the baby is four months old, the fetus can completely distinguish different tastes such as sweet, salty, sour and bitter. Whatever a woman eats during pregnancy, the fetus can taste it through sucking and swallowing amniotic fluid.
Therefore, to stimulate eating for children right from the fetal stage, the mother needs a nutritious diet with a variety of different flavors. Even more, the more foods a mother consumes during pregnancy, the less picky her baby will be.
2.2 Breastfeeding is recommended Unlike formula milk, the taste of breast milk changes from one food to another, completely depending on the mother's diet. So if a nursing woman eats a healthy diet full of different flavors like oily fish, spicy curries, citrus fruits, vegetables and herbs, etc., the baby will have You can taste them in breast milk.
This is the theoretical foundation, helping the mother to be more open to different tastes for her baby during the self-directed weaning period, stimulating the child's eating with a variety of nutritious foods.
2.3 Start persistence simply Breast milk is sweet so babies naturally like MSG. However, the stimulation of eating for the baby needs to remember to get used to the baby eating vegetables from an early age.
Don't be too worried if your baby doesn't eat more than a few spoonfuls when starting solids but need to be patient because it's all about taste in the first place. Instead, try mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes mixed with carrots, broccoli or squash, ripe bananas, and mashed pears.
2.4 Early introduction of spices Spices are an indispensable ingredient in the culinary culture of all peoples. The role of spices is to arouse attractive flavors, stimulate more appetite and eat more.
However, many parents do not want to feed their children, especially spicy, curry or coriander dishes because they mistakenly believe that they will affect the health of the child. Meanwhile, in some countries, it is completely normal for babies to eat spicy foods as early as 7 or 8 months old. Also, giving children spices like cumin and coriander in small amounts can actually stimulate their taste buds, hopefully encouraging them to explore more foods later in life. In addition, some spices such as ginger, turmeric or onion, garlic also have great health benefits.
There are only two types of spices that are limited to the maximum amount of salt and refined sugar. Adding salt to baby food too early can affect the child's kidneys as well as potential cardiovascular diseases later on. In addition, the early habit of eating sugary foods like sweets can lead to tooth decay as well as other serious health problems including diabetes and obesity.
2.5 Encourage your child to explore a variety of foods If you see your child devouring a mashed sweet potato the first time they are offered it, this does not mean that you should only give it to your baby. Instead, give your child the chance to try avocado and mashed bananas.
Thus, variety is the key to stimulating anorexic children. Therefore, try to offer a variety of flavors and textures in each meal as this can also help your baby enjoy exploring to enjoy a wider variety of foods.

2.6 Allowing children to play with food Children may mess up, spill or stain their plates, but learning to feed themselves is an important part of a child's development, helping to fine-tune a sense of coordination. hands and eyes as well as handling food into the mouth.
Accordingly, playing with food like real toys, sucking on carrot sticks or breaking soft biscuits on the tongue is an extremely satisfying experience, contributing to the building of the child's reflexes to stimulate eating. . Cleaning and sanitizing for kids can be tough but it's all part of the learning process and it's completely safe as long as parents are present to supervise and help children experience their meals. .
2.7 Experiment with different textures of food The texture of what you put in your baby's mouth is just as important as its taste or color. At the same time, babies absolutely do not need teeth to be able to eat solid foods. Therefore, parents do not need to delay giving their babies solid textured foods until they have baby teeth.
In addition, food texture is also very important for the development of facial muscles, mouth muscles, contributing to helping children speak faster. Being exposed to many different types of food textures, such as liquid, paste, sticks, pellets, strings, twists, will help children look forward to meals and stimulate anorexia.
2.8 Be a role model for every new food Children are masters of imitation. So, if a child sees a parent disliking a food or never sees a parent eating a fruit or vegetable, the child will also have a reflex of not wanting to try it.
Therefore, when it comes to stimulating eating with different foods, the first thing parents need to do is show interest in that food, for example by rubbing their belly and saying 'Mmm yummy'. This will encourage your baby to try new foods with the desire to imitate adults.
In short, stimulating eating for children can be a difficult task but also as fun as a game. To do this effectively, parents need to have patience, there's no rush to introduce everything at once or force a child to eat when he's uncooperative. At the same time, it is necessary to introduce children to healthy and nutritious foods before they know attractive but unsafe dishes for health, creating a foundation for the formation of scientific eating habits for children. children in the long run.
Parents should supplement their children with supporting products containing lysine, essential micro-minerals and vitamins such as zinc, chromium, selenium, B vitamins to help fully meet the nutritional needs of children. At the same time, these essential vitamins also support digestion, enhance nutrient absorption, help improve anorexia, and help children eat well. Parents can simultaneously apply dietary supplements and functional foods derived from nature for easy absorption. The most important thing is that improving your baby's symptoms often takes a long time. Combining many types of functional foods at the same time or changing many types in a short time can make the baby's digestive system unable to adapt and completely not good. Therefore, parents must be really patient with their children and regularly visit the website vimec.com to update useful baby care information.
Reference source: bounty.com