How to feed children during breastfeeding

Proper nutrition in the early years of life plays an important role in children's growth and development, reducing the risk of disease and death.

How to provide nutritional care for children to suit each stage of their development is a concern of many mothers with young children.

For babies under 6 months old who are breastfed, within one hour after birth, the mother should start breastfeeding early to stimulate milk secretion, the baby will receive colostrum to help prevent postpartum infections and defecate quickly, the baby will have less jaundice. Place the baby on the mother's breast and help the baby latch on well so that the baby gets enough milk.

Breastfeed on demand and allow one breast to drain completely before switching to the other so that the baby receives the fatty hindmilk. It is important to breastfeed exclusively for the first 6 months because breast milk meets all the needs for water and nutrients, without giving the baby any other food or drink (not even water).

Milk and dairy products are needed as snacks to supplement children's energy.

For children aged 6-24 months, breast milk is still an important source of food, meeting 70% of energy needs when children are 6-8 months old, 55% when children are 9-11 and 40% when children are 12-24 months old. Therefore, it is necessary to continue breastfeeding for up to 2 years along with complementary feeding.

Complementary feeding is feeding children other foods along with breast milk. Complementary foods make up for the lack of energy and nutrients (protein, iron, vitamin A...). The time to start complementary feeding is when the child is 6 months old (180 days or 26 weeks old) because at this age, the child shows interest in eating, teeth begin to grow, knows how to use the tongue to move food in the mouth and move the jaw to chew, and is able to digest solid foods.

Complementary feeding too early will cause the baby to breastfeed less, reducing milk secretion, affecting the maintenance of breastfeeding. Furthermore, in children under 6 months old, the digestive function is still weak, so they only accept liquid foods.

Liquid supplements are often low in nutrients, affecting the child's development, and lack immune factors from breast milk, making the child susceptible to infectious diseases, especially diarrhea and respiratory diseases. On the contrary, if supplementary foods are given too late, the child is also susceptible to malnutrition and micronutrient deficiencies (zinc, iron, vitamin A, B...).

Supplementary foods need to be diverse and meet the needs for physical, mental and intellectual development of children and be readily available in each locality, but must have all 4 food groups:

Starch from cereals and tubers is a food that takes up a lot of energy in the diet to compensate for the energy deficiency of children during this period.

Protein groups from animal protein sources and beans to compensate for the lack of protein, iron, vitamin A...

Fats from oils and fats are a source of energy and make food soft and easy to swallow, and are also solvents to dissolve fat-soluble vitamins (vitamins A, D, E, K).

Vitamins and minerals from dark green leafy vegetables and red and yellow fruits and vegetables help children prevent micronutrient deficiencies.

Energy from supplementary food is about 200-300 kcal/day for children from 6-8 months old, 300-400 kcal/day for children from 9-11 months old and 500-700 kcal/day for children from 12-24 months old.

The number of meals and the quantity of each meal should increase gradually with the child's age to suit the child's stomach capacity. For the child to receive enough nutrition, it is necessary to increase the energy density of the food by mixing the porridge thicker. You can replace part of the porridge cooking water with a quantity of fresh milk or 1 spoon of powdered milk in the porridge bowl or add bean sprouts (10g bean sprouts/10g of porridge) to hydrolyze the starch to make the porridge liquid without changing the volume, ensuring energy density.

Feed your child 2 additional meals/day, 100-150 ml each meal (10 g powder/100 ml) for children 6-8 months old; 3 meals/day, 200 ml each meal and 1 extra meal for children 9-11 months old; 3 meals/day, 250 ml each meal and 2 extra meals for children 12-24 months old.

Main meals are usually porridge, thick soup, and a variety of foods from all four food groups. Snacks provide additional nutrition such as fruits, milk, and dairy products. Foods high in sugar and low in nutrition such as carbonated soft drinks, candy, ice cream, etc. are not considered snacks. Snacks cannot replace main meals.

When supplementing food, children need to drink more water, an average of 100-150 ml/day including the amount of water in food. Therefore, it is important to give children more boiled water to drink, about 400-600 ml/day.

According to Zing