The ‘Hefty-Twenty’ Checklist While Feeding your Baby

Children Enjoy All the Attention during Feeding

Feeding an infant or a toddler requires plentiful ground work and knowledge to ensure a positive experience from day one. Read further for the basics on baby feeding. Which of these methods do you follow (or you have followed earlier) while feeding your infant or guiding a new parent? Give a simple yes or no answer for each of these aspects below:

1. Take a count of the wet diapers (six or more every 24 hours) you throw away to ensure that your breast- or formula-fed infant is consuming to his/her stomach full.
2. Make sure that you feed your baby with breast milk or formula milk and not cow’s milk up to 12 months of age.
3. Choose iron-fortified formula for bottle-fed babies unless advised against it by your doctor.
4. Make it a point to discard the unused expressed breast milk or infant formula after each bottle feed.
5. Start on solids after consulting your pediatrician. Resort to exclusively breast feeding your baby until at least 6 months.
6. Keep your hands germ-free by always washing them before every feed.
7. Boil all the baby-feeding equipments regularly with hot, soapy water and rinse well.
8. Abstain from putting your baby to bed with a bottle.
9. Choose iron-fortified infant cereals while feeding your little ones.
10. Make it a policy to introduce one new food at a time.
11. Keep checking your baby’s response to a new food for any allergic reactions, if any.
12. Never restrict the quantity of food you give your baby just for the sake of fat or calories.
13. Always check the temperature of bottles or food before feeding to ensure that they are warm, but not hot.
14. Try new foods several times before giving up due to allergies or other problems.
15. Let your baby — not you — set the feeding pace.
16. Babies love independence and would try to feed themselves at one point or the other. Be patient and give them ample time to learn from their mistakes.
17. Feed your baby with smooth food until your little one is ready for mashed or finely chopped foods. Mashed or chopped foods can be any healthy and nutritious food such as vegetables, fruits or pulses.
18. Remain next to your baby while he/she is feeding.
19. Always dispose of the unused food after a feed.
20. Use these feeding sessions to nurture a special bond between you and your baby — these days don’t last forever!

20 On 20?
You are the perfect parent and child duo if you said “yes” to all the above mentioned 20 checklist items. If your answer is a “no” to any of the items, check out the website www.firsteatright.com for more information. Follow what you learn as your baby’s health is entirely dependent on it!