A baby's first 2 years see rapid growth in life
In the first 2 years, your baby grows more than the entire remainder of their life. In the first year alone, your baby’s weight triples and height increases by 50%. What’s more, a staggering 80% of their brain and cognitive development is complete by their second birthday, with their brain size tripling from birth to two years; Babies are born with immature immune systems and it takes up to 2 years to strengthen it.
With a pace like that, it is no surprise that the food they eat shapes how your baby grows and develops in the first 2 years. Your baby needs two kinds of nutrients: macro nutrients and micro nutrients. Macro nutrients are responsible for providing energy and aid in physical growth and development. For example, proteins, carbohydrates and fats. Essentially, this is development we can see with our eyes. What you can’t see developing within the baby are the brain & immunity. These are fueled by the micronutrients which your baby needs & are very important during this phase. Vitamins and minerals are the essential micronutrients. Iron, zinc, vitamin A for example, aid in brain development, and immunity.
Small Tummy and High Nutritional Needs
In the first six months, breastmilk is the gold standard & is sufficient to meet your baby’s needs. But after 6 months, breast milk alone can't meet a baby's increased nutritional needs. To support these increased needs, complementary foods should be added in the diet of infants. An ideal complementary feed should meet 98% of Iron, 72% of zinc, 43% of Vitamin C, and 29% of Vitamin A needs of a 6-8 month old baby.
When starting off on solid foods, your baby can’t take in more than a few spoonful of food. This, as you know, is because your baby’s stomach is incredibly small. It is the size of their tiny fist, which is only 20% of the size of an adult’s stomach. The surprising part, though, is that while their stomach size is so much smaller, they actually need more nutrition than adults to support their incredible growth rate. Babies need 5 times more nutrition than adults at this stage*.
Usually, a baby’s first solid foods are dal soups or the cereals her family eats. These traditional foods are good for energy and protein but might not be good enough to meet her micronutrient needs.
You need to give your baby small quantities of food that are packed with more nutrients than your regular food, in short, foods that are nutrient dense.
Did you know? You need to give 7 bowls** (170g) of spinach daily to meet your baby's everyday requirements
**1 bowl = 25g spinach
Common home-made foods may lack required quantity of iron which could lead to Iron deficiency anemia (IDA), which is among the most common micronutrient deficiencies. It can affect a baby’s immunity, learning ability, memory, and lower IQ by 5-10 points.
Nutrient Dense Foods
Nutrient dense foods or complete foods that are fortified with minerals, & vitamins like iron, zinc etc. so that your baby can get all they need in the amount of food that they can actually eat. The answer to balanced nutrition is nutrient dense foods.
*Basis per kg body RDA requirement of an adult and child
0 reviews