Hidden hunger is a condition where your child is deprived of essential nutrients like vitamins and minerals. One way to tackle this condition is through food fortification. This process helps fill the nutritional gap in your baby’s diet with sufficient amount of nutrients. Here are some nutrient-rich food fortification recipes you can prepare as a part of your child’s diet plan.
Nutrients for Food Fortification
Iron
Iron is an essential nutrient for the body. It is a component of haemoglobin in red blood cells, which distributes oxygen to the various parts of the body. Food items like meat, fish, and eggs, leafy vegetables like spinach, dried apricots, raisins and iron-fortified baby cereals can be added to your child’s diet plan to include this nutrient. You can prepare these food items by boiling and mincing meat, boiling vegetables like spinach, kale and making a puree, mincing fruits into tiny pieces, or boiling eggs, and brown rice.
Vitamins
Fruits and vegetables are a rich source of vitamins. Fruits like watermelons, papaya, citrus fruits and strawberries can be chopped and fed to your baby. You can also make a puree out of these fruits, which makes it easier to consume. Vegetables like spinach, carrots, sweet potatoes, kale should be a part of your child’s meal plan. These food items are rich in Vitamin A and can be boiled or cooked into puree form to make it easy for your child to eat. Vitamin B rich foods like meat, poultry and fish, eggs and milk should be a part of the meal plan. Make sure all solid foods are either minced to small pieces or made into a puree.
Fortified Baby Cereals
Brown rice is a whole grain loaded with Vitamin B, iron, fibre and magnesium. At 6 months, your baby can digest rice (made into a paste) and absorb these vitamins and dietary minerals. Use a blender to turn 1 cup of rice into powder. This powder can be stored in the fridge for a period of one month. Every time you want to prepare baby cereal, use ¼ cup of rice cereal and 1 cup of water. Boil the water then gradually add the cereal and use a whisk to combine. Simmer the rice cereal while you stir frequently for about 10 minutes until the rice is no longer chunky. Your porridge is now ready to consume. You can also add banana, apple sauce or sweet potato to your porridge to add more nutrients while you provide a variety of taste for your baby.
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