Noteworthy Wednesday!!
Parents these days seem in such a hurry to move their kids through the milestones of development.
But moving kids from formula to solid food is one change parents may want to take their time making. Trying solid food with formula-fed kids before they hit four months of age raises the odds they’ll be overweight as preschoolers, according to research findings just published online by the journal Pediatrics.
via Weighty Issue: Keep Junior Off Solid Food During His First 4 Months : Shots – Health News Blog : NPR.
Obesity in children is a serious problem and there seems to be many reasons for it. Good nutrition has always been important from day one of a baby’s life.
Whether formula or breastfeeding the information in this recent report indicates that there seems to be a connection between when babies are started on solids and their developing obesity.
Many parents are encouraged by others to feed solids to their baby at an early age with the hopes that the infant will in fact sleep better. This of course is fallacy.
I can remember being told by a well-meaning relative that my baby was hungry and I definitely needed to give her some rice cereal to quiet her down and have her sleep longer. I was anxious to do the right thing so I tried the cereal.
Oh…but when I watched my tiny darling struggling with it I soon abandoned the effort and low and behold my daughter slept through the night at 6 weeks just as the all the books predicted she would.
So…my feeling is stick to breast or formula feeding your infant. Do not be in a hurry to introduce solids into their diet. And when you do begin feeding solids make sure that they are nutritional ones. There are many wonderful infant food resources available. Please take advantage of them.
Do not be fooled by the advertisers of convenient baby food products that we have all grown up with. Many of them are not nutritionally sound and have large amounts of sodium in them despite what we know about too much sodium. So read, read, read and become an advocate for your families eating habits right from the start.