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Starting Solids
Advice from paediatrician,
Dr Koe regarding starting solids
can be found on this site. There is also some thoughts and tips written by
Lilian about baby food. Therefore,
on this page, we will present some of the challenges moms found regarding
starting solids and their suggestions. Also, read what Dr Cheang has to say
about problems with swallowing (scroll below, table marked in pink).
Thanks to Michelle
Sau for the photo. Above is the frozen food cubes made from pureed vegetables
like carrots, pumpkin and spinach. What to do? Boil vegetable till cooked.
Reserve the water. Blend the vegetables with some water and store the puree
in individual icecube maker and freeze in freezer.. Note : Do not store any
raw food in the same compartment. When frozen, remove and keep them in clean,
air-tight containers and label with date. Avoid keeping the food cubes for
more than 2 weeks. This cubes will come in very handy when preparing porridges.
When the porridge is cooked, drop one or two cubes and heat through (see that
it boils for a while). Otherwise, one can also serve just the food cubes.
Try steaming it to heat through.
| Have been
trying to get Joel (5.5 months) to take some solids for the last 2 weeks.
Started with rice cereal (Heinz), tried carrots and yesterday, apples
for the first time.
All met with face, don't swallow
the food, cries, turn head away..And all this with less than 2 teaspoons
of food. He will happily take an empty spoon though.
How ah ? Should I just wait some
more ? I think he is fine with the eating process, but he just doesn't
seem to like the food. Heck the cereal was bad, even I hated it, but
I thought all babies liked apples ?
_________________
Su-Yin
Joel E. Tjoa (19/09/03)'s number one fan
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| Did you try
mixing the cereal with your EBM? Try again, and if he still refuses, then
maybe wait for another 3 days, then try again? Sometimes baby will take
what they refused before after a few more days, dunno why.
And offer only very smooth texture cereal. I started
it with brown rice cereal.
Some other suggestions:
1) Let him watch other people eat, especially other
babies
2) Let him dip his hands in the food and suck on them
3) Have someone else feed him, so he won't be thinking of nursing.
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| Don't try
too many types of vege. at once. I started off with 30% rice cereals and
70% breast milk and then slowly increase the ratio till it was just rice
cereals and then slowly add the vege. and it was like the same rice:potatoes
= 70%:30% and this goes on for a week and then the next week carrots.
and so on and so forth. I covered most vege. and then went on to fruits
and now onto meat. I need to be slow in introducing new food cos I want
to monitor for allergic reaction as well. Min
Lynn dislike apples too. really funny but she loves papayas. I started
on solids at 4 months old. She was quite responsive and so far so good.
Now only having problems with fruits since she don't really like apples.
first time she tried bananas - she stuck her tongue out! good luck,,,,
in trying out what pattern fits joel.
_________________
Mei Shi - mum to min lynn (1/8/2003)
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| QUESTION
- When does one start to worry when baby has not learnt to eat solid food?
One member asked this question because her almost 8 months old child did
not take to solid food well. |
| REPLY
- The question was forwarded to paediatrician, Dr Cheang Hon Kit of
a private hospital in Penang. Below
is Dr Cheang's comments regarding difficulties in eating.
Yes, there is indeed a 'condition'
with difficulty with swallowing. It has something to do with the swallowing
mechanism that is immature/ defective. Muscles around the mouth, tongue
and throat have to be well coordinated to get the food to be swallowed.
Food especially solids, need to be formed into a lump in the oral cavity
and then being pushed to back of the throat. Muscles around the throat
(pharynx) then will push further down into the esophagus, the food passage
leading to the stomach. Along the esophagus, the muscles will propels
the food bolus slowly in a coordinated 'waves like movement down the
stomach. Do you know we can actually swallow even in an upside down
position? Ever thought of that?
So, the act of eating is much more
complicated than we could imagine. Many things can go wrong and you
will have someone having problem in eating/ swallowing. This also applies
to elderly persons with stroke, I'm sure you have seen some elderly
patients with stroke and saliva just keep drooling. They also have a
lot of difficulty with feeding. Back to your question, I think he is
probably one of those late starters, where the nerves involved in the
swallowing is not so matured yet. I do come across some of these very
difficult babies. If the baby is well otherwise and not showing any
other signs of neurological abnormalities, I usually advise the mum
to wait and try again. If the baby is not putting on weight properly
and having other developmental problem, I would strongly advise to have
the baby thoroughly assessed by the paeds neuro. Hope that answer your/
her question.
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