Archive for the ‘Infant and Toddler Health’ Category

The Department of Health issued Guidelines in 1998 suggesting that infants should now be weaned from six months onwards rather than the traditional ‘four month’ milestone that many Health Visitors previously suggested.

So when is it right to begin weaning your infant? The Department of Health suggest that the following signs are a useful way in which to identify when your infant is ready to begin weaning.

1. Your infant shows interest in chewing, whether its their hands or on objects
2. Your infant is able to grab and reach things with accuracy
3. Your infant is sitting upright unaided.

The NHS ‘ Start 4 Life’ campaign recently introduced ‘The Banana Test’ which is said to be an efficient method to identify whether your infant is ready to begin weaning. According to the NHS, if your infant is able to grab a piece of banana and put it into their mouths and eat it, then they are ready to begin eating solids.

With current guidelines suggesting that we should withhold weaning until six months of age, it does seem odd that many of the infant foods on supermarket shelves suggest that they are suitable from ‘four months upwards’. According to the Government Guidelines, these foods are not following recent research and therefore the age guidelines printed on infant foods are outdated and incorrect.

Weaning before your child is ready can increase the chances of your child contracting infections and allergies. Until six months of age, your child’s digestive system is still developing.

Although parents are now warned that they should be in “No rush to mush”, it is hard when your infant who has been sleeping through for the past three or four months begins to wake in the middle of the night. The Governments current guidelines state that infants under six months who wake in the middle of the night are not hungry for solids and should be quenched with either breast milk or formula.

However, if it were completely wrong to begin weaning at four months of age, as has previously been suggested (until 1998 when the Guidelines suddenly changed) then surely the companies selling baby foods advertising from four months onwards would have a fair share of legal battles to pursue. Upon reading more into the Government Documentation upon weaning it actually states “Solids should never be introduced before four months.”

It is important that your child is ready to begin weaning when you make the decision to introduce solids but this should be BABY LED not Government led! Each child is different and each child will achieve different milestones at different times in their lives, this includes when they are ready to be introduced to solids. You, as a parent will most likely know when your little one is ready for food, as they become interested in watching you eat and start to reach out to try foods around them.

Here are some basics for what to do first when you and your baby are ready to begin weaning.

1. Ensure that the equipment you use (feeding spoons, bowls, etc) is clean. It is advisable before six months to sterilise all feeding equipment. After six months, putting items used into the dishwasher should suffice.

2. Sit your child in a high chair so that they are upright and comfortable. Many high chairs now on the market can be used from birth onwards. You may want to use your high chair before your child is four months and able to try solids, perhaps as somewhere safe to place your child for a moment or simply to allow your child to become comfortable in their eating place for the future.

3. Ensure that you have a muslin cloth/ wipes close to hand and have protected your child’s cloths with a bib, Long sleeved bibs tend to be very handy during weaning!

4. Start by offering your child one to two teaspoons of baby rice mixed with their milk (breast of formula milk) during the first week of weaning.

5. Slowly introduce new fruits and vegetables which have been cooked and processed into a mush. (pear, apple, sweet potato, and carrots are excellent foods which can easily be mashed up). These foods can be offered along with baby rice, so that your infant is offered something they are familiar with.

6. Increase the amount of food according to your babies needs. If your baby would like more then offer more! From around nine months onwards you should offer 3-4 servings of food per day as well as the milk feeds. A routine such as Breakfast and milk, snack , dinner, snack and milk , tea, supper milk will soon fall into place.

7. Let babies try finger foods as soon as they show interest. Try to offer a wide range of foods and textures.

8. Rather than plumping for what seems to be the easier option and purchasing bottled foods and tinned baby foods, TRY COOKING YOUR OWN. Not only is it fun but its more nutritious for the child and is far more satisfying watching your child eat the food you prepared by hand.

9. Try to sit down to eat as a family, start as you mean to go on.

10. Remember to encourage foods that you yourself may dislike! Just because you aren’t keen on your greens doesn’t mean that your little one should miss out.

 

Here are some NO NO’s for weaning…

• Never force weaning, One piece of advice that the Department of Health give which SHOULD be followed is “Enjoy it, Encourage it, Don’t force it”.
• Do not use refined sugar or salt in any of your infants foods.
• Do not offer your infant nuts, honey, low-fat foods (those created specifically with lower amounts of fat such as low-fat butter)

If you do decide to wean your child before six months then also avoid the following foods:

• wheat based foods such as bread, rusks etc which include gluten
• eggs
• fish
• shell fish
• nuts
• seeds
• soft unpasteurised cheeses

Upon weaning your child, you will often find that they drop their intake of milk. Before twelve months infants should have between 500-600ml (about one pint) of milk per day. Also, remember that cows milk is unsuitable until your child reaches the age of one year. When introducing cows milk, ensure that it is full fat and pasteurised.

There are many infant and child nutritionists out there who have written and produced a wide range of popular publications upon weaning. These can be very helpful in finding suitable recipes for your little one. Two of the best known child nutritional authors are currently Gina Ford and Annabel Karmel, both of which have a range of books published upon weaning and feeding infants. Although, it is wise to bare in mind that there is some debate as to whether some of the routines and weaning techniques suggested in differing books are correct. As always with parenting, it is down to the parent and the baby to decide what is best for them!

During the past few years there has been great debate over the effect that Television has upon youngsters. Numerous studies and research projects have been carried out which have found that television does indeed have some rather worrying effects upon our infants and children.

Parents need to be aware of the dangers that Television can pose:

• TV is a distraction from reality for babies, infants and children. Whilst the TV set it on children from birth upwards are less able to concentrate upon the voices and faces that are around them everyday.
• TV puts a stop of communication, ‘Talking’ is reduced dramatically when the Television is switched on. Not only are youngsters far more likely to become absorbed in watching the television but adults too. Be honest, even if a program which may be of little interest is on, do you find yourself watching it anyway? This is exactly the problem for parents, often enough they watch more of the children’s based programs than the children themselves!
• Television can damage eyes, especially when viewed from a young age.
• TV can become addictive. Introducing a Television set to your child can be a fatal mistake, you are providing your child with a consistent background noise and flicker which can become a comfort to children over time. This is yet another reason why children should NEVER have a Television in their room. It is far easier to say relax the rules later on in your child’s life than have to fight a Telly Addict.
• Youngsters who view violence upon the Television are far more likely to display aggressive behaviour later in life. This is ultimately the reason why children should NEVER have a television set in their room, parents are unable to ‘vet’ what their children are watching and have no control over what their child sees.
• A recent study was carried out into Television and how it affects academic achievement. Three groups were setup, The first being parents who offered children unlimited amounts of Television, The second group offered children moderate amounts of television viewing time (some of which were supervised by parents) and finally, the third group were offered no Television whatsoever. The highest scoring academic achievers were found to be those children who were simply not offered any Television.

Getting the Timing Right

It’s all very well promising ourselves that we will ‘ban’ the Television but in reality it is far more difficult to carry out. Worryingly, many adults are indeed ‘addicted to the box’ and may find cutting down Television viewing time and ‘switching off’ harder than expected. If this is the case, try using Music as background company. Why not use some classical Mozart or Nursery Rhyme’s to sing along to with your infant?

Here are some guidelines on viewing times for infants and children.

• Children of two year and over should only be allowed to view up to sixty minutes of Television per day, this should preferably be split into four sets of fifteen minute chunks.
• Children under the age of two should only view up to twenty minutes of Television per day. Some American Studies suggest that children under the age of two should not be offered the chance to view Television at all.

 

MBM’s Top Television Tips

• Never use the Television as a ‘Babysitter’
• Try to link the subject of the viewing to real life where possible.
• Encourage your child to talk about what they are viewing
• Join in with activities such as dancing and singing. Also try to use children’s viewing time as a stimulus for further activities such as drawing, taking part in puzzles, acting, trips out etc. Make viewing time engaging and interactive!
• Try to prevent the viewing of commercials when possible.
• Ensure that you give your child a ‘two minute transition’ warning before turning off the Television in order to prevent your child from becoming upset or being unaware of what is going to happen next.
• Try to select calm, quiet programs.
• Limit viewing time.

Mums Baby Magazine is always on the look out for top tips upon teething to tell our readers. Teething seems to be a constant bug bare for infants which parents consistently battle. Leeanne, from Australia explains why Hylands Teething Relief Tablets are now an essential within her household.

 

My eleven month old daughter is in the throws of teething right now and is cutting both top and bottom teeth all at once, so my once happy girl is now miserable due to teething.

My little girl once had a fantastic sleeping schedule but thanks to teething that is now all over the place.  My little girl is gnawing on anything and everything she can get hold of with gusto.

I’ve just recently been recommended  Hylands Teething Relief Tablets by friends. They are a natural homeopathic product and are suitable for infants and children, so there is no need to worry about putting too many chemical products onto your child’s gums.

They are very small dissolvable tablets and are very easy for babies to take. You can either dissolve them using water on a spoon, or as I do, just pop them into your little ones mouth. My daughter happily takes these tablets and as soon as she sees them she opens her mouth ready. The bottle contains 125 tablets and is inexpensive thus ideal for Mums on a budget.

I’ve been giving my daughter Hylands Teething Relief Tablets for one week and I believe that they have made a difference to my daughters teething troubles. The first day that my little girl used these tablets she was so grizzly and clingy and now, only seven days later this has eased. My daughter’s sleeping (particularly her daytime naps) are almost back to her normal sleeping patterns, her grumpiness has eased and she’s generally her happy self again. I only wish I’d found this product sooner. I will now keep a bottle of these on hand at all times.

Hylands Teething Relief Tablets and Teething Relief Gel are both available within the UK however aren’t readily found in shops. The UK equivalent of this product is ‘New Era’ Teething Tablets and is found in Holland Barratt stores retailed at £5.05 for 450 tablets.

Mums Baby Magazine would recommend that you discuss any medication used with your infants with a health advisor/ GP.

Originally made in 1961, The ‘Sophie the Giraffe Teething Toy; by Vulli (a company based in the French Alps) has been and still is one of the most popular teethers available in Europe for over forty years. The reason for its popularity isn’t due to media coverage but simply the fact that this product provides infants with a durable teether which is easy to grip, soft when chewed upon, has a range of textures according to which part of her body the baby decides to chew upon and finally squeaks for added entertainment.

Animal prints such as giraffe spots, zebra stripes, cow splodges and tiger stripes are all popular with infants as they are patterns without hard edges. Infants are fascinated by contrast differences which spots, stripes and splodges feature.

‘Sophie the Giraffe’ is made from natural rubber and painted with non-toxic paint. The ‘Sophie the Giraffe Toy’ is available from www.amazon.co.uk for only £11.95.

When babies start to roll it can be a worrying time, not just during the daytime but also throughout the night. When baby begins to start rolling, they may choose to sleep in differing positions just as us adults do. Whilst babies roll to get comfortable in their cot they can often bump/ bang their heads against the cot bars which can cause them to wake and become upset.

Although cot bumpers are hugely popular, often when babies are small in length/ height the cot bumpers do not physically reach babies head (whether placed around the bottom/ top of the cot) and so babies continue to catch their heads on the cot bars and continue to have nights with broken sleep. This is unhealthy for baby and disheartening as well as exhausting for parents.

Standard Cot bumpers are not designed to go right around the cot as they are thick and could cause a breathing/ choking hazard if babies were to snuggle into the bumper.

The Airwrap Mesh Cot Bumper is made from a padded, breathable mesh which has been tested for safety. The mesh allows for a maximum airflow which reduces the risk of overheating. Not only does the cot bumper keep your baby safe but it protects your infants limbs from getting between the cot bars. 

If baby was to roll into the bumper the padding cushions any bangs, reducing waking due to rolling. The Airwrap Mesh Cot Bumper fits both cots and cot beds as it uses a velcro fastening which can be adjusted to fit your cot perfectly. The Airwrap Mesh Cot Bumper is easily washable and is said to help reduce the risk of climbing. The bumper is easily height adjustable and moves freely with the drop side rail of a cot.

Available from www.babyenterprise.com for £19.99 the Airwrap Mesh Cot Bumper is a sleep saver for both babies and parents!