Feeding
a newborn is fairly easy. Or
are breastfed or bottle-fed, so all you have to do is give them milk when they
are hungry, that is, on demand, without much regard for any schedule or
routine.
After
reading this first paragraph many mothers are thinking "well, and every 3
hours if you give a bottle", which as we said a while ago, is not entirely
correct recommendation, because although many children ask bottle every three
hours because it's time they
are hungry, many ask every two hours and four others do. It
makes no sense to starve first, and it makes sense to eat a baby not hungry
(although this would be less problematic).
The
doubts come when the baby is six months and the mother comes home with a sheet
that has given the pediatrician which explains what can start eating your baby
and what times babies are at mealtime.
"Do
I get to pick a routine with my baby"
Many
mothers begin to give their children supplementary feeding at six months and
realize how difficult it is to feed a baby as some schedules. When
you give food when you do not want and have not prepared it seems you are
hungry, eat a few days at 12 noon and the other does not want anything until
you give 15 o'clock.
So
in this lawlessness, the mother feels that something is wrong and doubts
appear: "Would you be giving a lot", "? We will be giving
little", "? What is the best time to eat," “Why today does not
want the first bite? ".
Food
demand, common sense and patience
When
we talk about babies the best remedy for almost all ills it is common sense. The
problem is that sometimes the questions are so large and the fear of getting it
wrong so powerful that we dare not ignore logic.
It
is very common that babies do not have schedules because, quite simply, do not
need them. Babies
suck on demand for one simple reason: they know best when they need to
breastfeed and how much they need to take. They
know better than their mothers and better than their pediatricians.
Similarly,
children 6 months know when to eat and how much to eat, and they know better
than their mothers and better than the slip of the pediatrician instructions
given to the mother, which is nothing more than a photocopy of a paper
delivery for all children 6 months as if they were all equal.
Well,
like the day I ate at a restaurant in Asturias and was told "but how
little they eat the Catalans!", Because I left a lot of food and could
not, not all babies have to eat the same amount.
Moreover,
as adults we tend to eat only what we like (I still do not know anyone who says
I'm going to eat this vegetable dish, which gives me a disgusted "that pa
what"), babies also tend to eat only what they like. And
at first, as know not only flavors, usually very little.
Therefore,
common sense, babies have to eat whatever they want and when they please, i.e.
demand.
It
called complementary feeding because it complements
I
know you will be thinking clearly, if they decide they will not eat anything,
and if you have those leaves will be because he has to eat. No,
the reality is that supplementary feeding is only the food that is given to the
baby to gradually start eating, but not because you need it urgently (the last
day of the sixth month of life only drank milk and
the next day it needs a lot of food).
In
other words, supplementary feeding is so named because it is a complement of
milk, which remains the main food for babies.
The
food will have to go giving babies from six months, but not impose. Little
by little, day by day (or every week), babies are eating more quantity and do
in the moment most want them to do (that they know it).
Schedules and
routines and will be coming. Probably
the day I sit down to eat with you at the table start to eat it according to
your schedule. Well,
that day will come, no rush or perhaps the women who lived in caves came
out to watch the sun's position to calculate if your baby had already eat?
