Finger food for babies

a copy n paste from homemade baby food recipes

All babies are different. Some like lumpy food, some don’t. Some will try to grab the food from your plate, some will appear totally disinterested! Anxiety starts creeping in when we try to compare one child to another, or try to stick rigidly to a feeding schedule.

Instead, it’s useful to trust your instincts and watch your baby for signs of readiness … with a little guidance, of course!

Generally, babies become interested in finger foods anywhere from 6 to 9 months of age, although most babies tend to start at around 8 months.

By this stage, your baby is usually developing the “pincer grip” – i.e. grasping objects between the thumb and index finger. Finger feeding actually encourages this development and helps with hand-to-mouth co-ordination – after all, a tasty morsel of food is a great incentive!

Your little one will probably be sitting well, without support – it’s not a good idea to offer your baby finger foods before he can sit unsupported as there is a higher risk of choking.

My baby seems ready for finger foods, but he doesn’t have any teeth …

Contrary to what many parents are led to believe, he doesn’t need them and can manage certain foods very nicely by mashing them between his gums. In fact, babies’ gums are pretty hard, as any breast-feeding mother can confirm! Baby finger foods should, therefore, be soft enough to break into small pieces, be swallowed easily, or simply melt in the mouth.

Baby finger foods – handy hints and tips

• Introduce finger foods one at a time and slowly add new ones. Offer a variety of colours and textures.
• Your baby will want to touch, smell, taste and play with his food … stay relaxed about the mess and let him experiment.
• To keep mess to a minimum, only give your baby two or three pieces of food at a time – any more will probably end up on the floor! Put the food in a suction-type bowl that will stick to the table, or straight on to the high chair table itself.
• Coat slippery foods, like banana or avocado, in finely crushed cereal powder or nutritious wheat germ – it makes them easier to pick up.
• If your baby doesn’t like a certain type of food, try it again a few weeks later – babies tastes change all the time. If he refuses all finger foods, be patient and keep trying – you’re sure to offer him something to catch his interest eventually!
• Baby finger foods make perfect snacks between meals, to “tide your baby over”. But be careful not to allow your baby more snacks than he really needs, as he may become less interested at meal times.
• If your baby is teething, offer him cold finger foods to soothe his gums – try freezing pieces of melon or banana for the ultimate in gum relief!
• Pack some healthy finger food for baby wherever you go – it will keep him occupied and makes life a lot easier, particularly if you go out for a meal.
• ALWAYS supervise your baby and NEVER leave him to feed himself alone.

Enjoy watching your little one come to grips with these healthy baby finger foods …

By feeding himself, your baby has gained a little independence and you can feel confident that he is enjoying a safe and nutritious menu.

Learning to walk

 

~ Interesting article from parenting.com ~

When will my baby walk?

Most babies take their first steps around their first birthday, but the age range varies from 9 to 18 months. Don’t worry if your baby takes a few detours along the way. Some kids never crawl — they go straight from standing to walking — and that’s perfectly normal. What’s important at this stage is that your child is using arms and legs together to become mobile. If your child is doing any of the following, walking is not far behind:

• Rolling around
• Crab walking
• Scooting
• Climbing stairs using his hands

Look at your child’s progress. Is he doing more this month than last month? Is he getting a little bit more of his body off the ground? If so, you’ve got nothing to worry about. If by the end of his first year he doesn’t make any effort to get around somehow, talk to your doctor.
How to encourage walking

It takes most babies about 1,000 hours of practice from the time they pull themselves upright to the time they can walk alone. To help prepare your child for taking those first few steps:

From birth:
The single most important requirement for walking: strong back muscles, which babies develop by lifting their heads while lying on their tummies. So make sure yours gets plenty of tummy time while awake. Place interesting toys and objects just out of reach for motivation.

Once she can sit:
Help her practice her balance and mobility by rolling a ball back and forth with her. Or hold a toy in front of her and move it from side to side, which will encourage her to lean this way and that. As she lunges forward or crawls, she’ll develop more strength in her neck, back, legs, and arms, as well as more control of her hips — enabling her to pull herself up to a standing position — and safely plop down again

Once she can stand:
Let her walk in front of you while you hold her hands — and periodically let go of one hand so she can experiment with balance. Or stand a few feet away from her and cheer her on when she’s standing on her own. Offer lots of encouragement and praise.

Once she can cruise:
After she has mastered standing, she may start to leave her handprints all over the house as she cruises from the wall to a chair to the coffee table. Help her by arranging sturdy furniture so she can make her way across the room. She may not yet be able to sit from a standing position, which she’ll want to learn to do before walking on her own. Be close by so you can help ease her butt down with your hand; then she’ll be able to sit without hurting her bottom.
Safety precautions

Your newly mobile baby can get around faster than you think! Step up your childproofing:

・Remove low tables with sharp corners that are hard to cover well enough to prevent injury. (Lacerations above or at the eyebrows are so common among kids learning to walk that in hospital emergency rooms they’re called coffee-table lacerations!)

・Put away furniture that topples easily.

・Scour your home for trailing cords or other items your child might trip on. Put away throw rugs, retack loose carpet, and have siblings pick up their toys.

・Install safety gates at the top and the bottom of the stairs, and supervise your baby whenever he’s on the stairs.

・Lock up all potentially harmful household substances.
Should I buy a walker?

The short answer: No! Canada has banned the sale of walkers, and the American Academy of Pediatrics supports a similar ban in the United States. Each year, thousands of children end up in the hospital due to injuries from using walkers, such as toppling down the stairs or reaching a hot stove.

Bouncers and elliptical seats aren’t good ideas, either. While they hold kids in an upright position, they don’t help them learn to walk any faster. In fact, these devices may even delay walking if they’re used too often. A child’s body is not aligned correctly when he sits in one of them. Your baby’s much better off on the floor or in a playpen.
Baby’s first shoes

When indoors, it’s best to let your child walk around barefoot. Her feet can grab slippery surfaces, like wood and tile floors, better. Outdoors, she’ll need a pair of shoes. For a perfect fit:

・Don’t shop for shoes first thing in the morning, since feet grow about 5 percent by the end of the day.

・Your child should be standing when you check for fit. You should be able to press the full width of your thumb between the tip of the shoe and the end of her toe, and there should be just enough room at the heel to squeeze your pinkie in.

・Let her toddle around the store in the shoes for five minutes, then take them off and look at her feet. If there are any irritated spots, nix those shoes — she won’t be able to break them in.

・Check the fit monthly, since feet grow rapidly at this stage. And be ready to make a trip to the shoe store every two to three months.

My story : My baby is now 8 months ++ and she is not walking on her own yet.She started the crab walking by holding on to the sofa and wall since 7 month,a week after she started to crawl n sit on her own. Fortunately she is a fast learner,because about after a week learning to stand while holding on to things,she can properly sit back.She spent the whole day practising them!She climbs anything she can now too.Hopefully i can see her walking soon!

Breast milk is the BEST !

~ A copy n paste from la leche league ~  

Selected Bibliography
May 2001

Supplementary regression analyses examining the strength of the relationship between duration of breastfeeding and cognitive development showed a small but significant relationship between duration of breastfeeding and scores on the Mental Development Index of the Bayley Scales at 1 and 2 years.
Morrow-Tlucak, M. et al. Breastfeeding and cognitive development in the first 2 years of life. Soc Sci Med 1988

In 771 low birthweight infants, babies whose mothers chose to provide breast milk had an 8 point advantage in mean Bayley Mental Developmental index over infants of mothers choosing not to do so.
Morley R. et al. Mother’s choice to provide breast milk and developmental outcome. Arch Dis Child 1988

Children who had consumed mother’s milk by tube in the early weeks of life had a significantly higher IQ at 7-1/2 to 8 years than did those who received no maternal milk, even after adjustment for differences between groups in mother’s education and social class.
Lucas, A. et al. Breast milk and subsequent intelligence quotient in children born preterm. Lancet 1992;339:261-62

There were statistically significant but small increases in scores among breastfed children at all time points from 2 years through 5 years.
Rogan, W. et al. Breastfeeding and cognitive development. Early Hum Dev 1993;31:181-93

Preterm children fed unsupplemented donor milk are substantially advantaged in their psychomotor and mental development at 18 months compared with those fed a standard term formula and were not disadvantaged compared with those fed a nutrient enriched preterm formula.
Lucas, A. et al. A randomised multicentre study of human milk versus formula and later development in preterm infants. Arch Dis Child 1994;70:F141-F146

Some aspects of intellectual attainment at five and ten years of age can be demonstrated to be superior among children who were exclusively breastfed for at least three months compared with their bottle-fed counter-parts.
Pollock, J.I. Long-term associations with infant feeding in a clinically advantaged population of babies. Dev Med Child Neurol 1994;36(5):429-40

After adjustment for obstetric, perinatal, neonatal neurological, and social differences, a small advantageous effect of exclusive breastfeeding for at least three weeks on neurological status at 9 years of age was found (odds ratio for neurological non-normality 0.54).
Lanting, C.I. et al. Neurological differences between 9-year-old children fed breast-milk or formula-milk as babies. Lancet 1994;344:1319-22

Children who breastfed for more than 9 months were at significantly less risk of specific language impairment than those breastfed less than 9 months.
Tomblin, J.B. et al. Epidemiology of specific language impairment: prenatal and perinatal risk factors. J Commun Disord 1997;30(4):325-44

Pervasive advantages among infants breastfed more than eight months were found in children who achieved higher IQs at eight and nine years, improved reading comprehension, mathematical, and scholastic ability from 10 to 13 years, and higher academic outcomes in high school.
Horwood, L.J., Breastfeeding and later cognitive and academic outcomes. Pediatrics 1998;101(1)e9

In preterm infants, small improvements in IQ and neurologic function could have a much greater effect.
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Dietary effects were most prominent for the development of language and most notably among males. Cognitive ability can be permanently impaired by suboptimal nutrition in infancy.
Lucas, A. et al. Randomized trial of early diet in preterm babies and later intelligence quotient. BMJ 1998;317(171):1481-87

Breastfeeding, in itself, improves the mother-child relationship and the infant’s stimulation, and provides optimum nutrition in an especially important and vulnerable phase of the infant’s intellectual development. Breastfeeding acts as a protective mechanism for the mother and child in an adverse environment.
Temboury MC et al. Influence of breast-feeding on the infant’s intellectual development. J Ped Gastro Nutr 94;18:32-36

In the analysis of 20 studies which compared cognitive development, it was determined that breastfeeding was associated with significantly higher scores than artificial feeding, and the benefit was strongest for children of low birth weight. The developmental achievements persist at least through adolescence.
Anderson, J.W. et al. Breast-feeding and cognitive development: A meta-analysis. Am J Clin Nutr 1999;70:525-35

Increasing duration of breast milk feeding was associated with increases in both verbal IQ (p<0.001) and performance IQ (p<0.05): children breast fed for eight months or longer had mean (SD) verbal IQ scores that were 10.2 (0.56) points higher and performance IQ scores that were 6.2 (0.35) points higher than children who did not receive breast milk. After controlling for confounding, there remained a significant association between duration of breast milk feeding and long term benefits for child cognitive development.
Horwood LJ et al. Breast milk feeding and cognitive ability at 7-8 years. Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed 2001;84:F23-F27

Controlling for environmental variables and maternal intelligence, initiation of breastfeeding predicted scores on intelligence tests at three. Breastfeeding was associated with 4.6 point higher mean in children’s intelligence.
Johnson DL et al. Breastfeeding and children’s intelligence. Psych Reports 1996;79:1179-85

Independent of a wide range of possible confounding factors, a significant positive association between duration of breastfeeding and intelligence was observed in 2 independent samples of young adults, assessed with 2 different intelligence tests (up to 6 points higher).
Mortensen EL et al. The association between duration of breastfeeding and adult intelligence. JAMA 02-5-8;287(18):2365-71