Kiddipedia
With over 15 years of local and international experience, Paediatric Dietitian Miriam Raleigh has a good idea of what is best when it comes to infant nutrition. And today, along with infant nutrition brand Nutura Organic, she is revealing what parents should look for in infant nutrition.
Getting through the first 12 months as a parent often feels like an epic achievement. Amongst all of the things infants learn to do in the first 12 months of life, exploring food and learning how to manage a range of tastes and textures is one of the biggest. Introducing solids can be straightforward for some families, and quite a battle for others.
Learning to eat and explore new foods is a journey that looks different for every child. It is hard not to compare what your infant is doing in comparison to others in your social network, but the most important thing to remember is that if you provide your infant with lots of positive opportunities to explore food, they are more likely to have a more diverse diet moving into their toddler years and beyond.
I always recommend that parents think about food groups (vegetables, breads and cereals, meat/meat alternatives, fruit and dairy/dairy alternative foods) when introducing foods to their infants. Each food group offers a unique set of different nutrients which is why having a range of foods from each food group is a good way to know that your infant is getting what they need to grow.
Each meal should include some protein (meat, fish, chicken, eggs, nuts (ground as whole nuts are a choking risk), seeds, legumes, tofu etc), carbohydrate (pasta, rice, noodles, potato, sweet potato, corn, bread, wraps etc) and some colour (fruit and vegetables).
Parents should continue to challenge their infants with respect to texture and make sure that they are progressing away from smooth purees.
Until about 10 month of age, most nutrition is still coming from a child’s breast milk, or infant formula so time should be taken to let your infant explore and enjoy the experience of eating without worrying about how much they are taking in.
If after 12 months, you feel that there are big holes in the balance of food groups in your infant’s diet, a Toddler Milk, such as Nutura Organic Toddler Milk Drink, might be a good idea to give your toddler more time to continue to learn about eating, with the reassurance that they are also taking in important nutrients such as iron.
