Mothers who are on mixed feeding - how to start mixed feeding - a post by user Ekaterina (florens) in the Newborn Nutrition community in the category Correct INTRODUCTION of complementary feeding

The introduction of complementary foods is a long-awaited moment for young parents. Every pregnant woman, passing by shelves with baby products, imagined that the day would come when she would buy her child the most fashionable jars and boxes of food. However, by the time complementary feeding is introduced, more and more women are abandoning factory-made purees and cereals, preferring home-cooked ones.

Lure

What is mixed feeding

Mixed feeding, based on the name itself, implies a combination of some products for the baby. In fact, this is true: mixed feeding is a type of infant feeding in which there is not enough mother’s milk, and the baby has to be supplemented:

donor milk,
adapted milk formula,
milk from livestock (cows or goats).

When choosing from possible options, WHO recommends giving preference to adapted infant formula. Supplementing a baby with donor or cow's milk implies its mandatory boiling, which means the destruction of most vitamins and microelements.

When mixed feeding is carried out correctly, a woman should first offer both breasts to the baby in turn and, if he is not full, supplement him with formula from a bottle.

Attention! Mixed feeding with cow or goat milk can be carried out only if, based on the financial situation of the family, it is easier and more profitable for parents to have livestock milk in the house every day than an expensive formula.

Determining the child’s readiness for complementary feeding

It is necessary to introduce new products, focusing not only on the baby’s age, but also on other signs of the child’s immediate desire to try something other than the mixture.

If the first attempt to give your baby juice, puree or porridge from a spoon ended with him grimacing, coughing or spitting it out, then you started acting early. Try again in a couple of weeks.

Signs your baby wants to diversify his diet:

The child does not eat 1 liter of formula per day and requires more frequent feedings;
The baby already has his first teeth, he makes chewing movements with his mouth if you give him something to try;
When presenting a spoon, the baby opens his mouth and looks intently at its contents;
He is interested in his parents’ food, reaches for the plate, tries to try everything;
The baby takes various objects and purposefully pulls them into his mouth;
The child sits well, controls the body, turns his head;
The baby's tongue thrust reflex has faded somewhat. If you give him a drink from a spoon, its contents will not flow down his chin;
The baby's weight has doubled since birth;
The child is ready to eat on his own if given the opportunity: he takes food with his hands, brings it to his mouth, tastes it, swallows or spits it out.

If you observe at least 5 of these signs every day, then you can safely begin introducing complementary foods.

Timing of introduction of complementary foods during supplementary feeding

When to introduce potatoes into complementary foods when breastfeeding a newborn

Today, every woman has the opportunity to find on the Internet a huge number of blogs dedicated to raising and raising children, where information about the timing of introducing new products is very different: some recommend supplementary feeding from one month of age, others at 4-5 months.

Nutrition for a nursing mother

The most important thing for a woman to think about is how to enrich her own diet so that breast milk brings as many health benefits as possible to the baby. It is much safer and healthier for a nursing mother to eat a varied diet until the baby is six months old than to experiment with foods and their effect on the baby’s condition.

WHO recommendations

According to open data from the official website of the World Health Organization, until the age of six months, a baby does not biologically need any food products other than mother’s milk or an adapted milk formula. The first complementary feeding with mixed feeding is no different in terms of timing from complementary feeding for children on breast milk, provided that the child is supplemented with an adapted milk formula, and the baby was born on time. Premature babies are fed according to an individual scheme.

According to a pediatrician, a doctor of the highest category, E.O. Komarovsky, if a family cannot afford to purchase high-quality formula and is forced to boil cow’s or goat’s milk for the child, one can think about complementary feeding earlier, since such a child does not receive enough vitamins and minerals due to thermal processing portions of supplementary feeding. In this case, the risk of intestinal pain, stool disorders and the development of allergic reactions significantly increases.

Summary

Although, ideally, an infant should receive the first complementary feeding no earlier than six months, sometimes it is necessary to resort to it as early as four months. The specific timing and products required for this must be agreed upon with your local pediatrician. In some cases it is better to start with various porridges, in others it is advisable to switch to vegetable purees.

Vegetables should be chosen with few allergens, and cereals should be made from gluten-free grains.

A new product should be given carefully so that the baby’s body gradually adapts to it. Parents constantly need to monitor the baby’s reaction and stop complementary feeding at the slightest adverse effects (pain, rash)

Basic rules for introducing complementary foods

Complementary foods during mixed or breastfeeding should be introduced gradually, in small doses. It is very important not to mix several components at once, because if allergic reactions occur, it will be impossible to unambiguously determine the product that needs to be temporarily abandoned.

Child development for starting complementary feeding

First complementary foods while breastfeeding

Observing hundreds of children every year, pediatricians can note that it is at the age of six months that the child begins to change, preparing for adult life and nutrition:

first teeth appear;
some babies try to sit with support;
the makings of the skill of holding a spoon and putting it in the mouth appear.

Need to know! Prolonged (more than a minute) sitting of an infant up to 7-8 months with support can negatively affect the health of the spine in adulthood. Therefore, there is no need to rush to place your baby in a high chair.

Safe half-sitting position

Feeding technique

Any product should be administered 2-3 teaspoons 1 time on the first day of introducing complementary foods. It makes more sense to do this in the first half of the day, for example, during second breakfast. Doctors explain this by saying that in case of a negative reaction from the gastrointestinal tract, there is enough time to take a set of measures to normalize digestion. If you feed your baby a new product before bed, there is a risk of a sleepless night due to the child's abdominal pain.

When tasting the first 2-3 spoons is successful, you can consider the ingredient safe and gradually increase the portion, each time multiplying the previous volume by 2. Thus, one feeding is gradually replaced with complementary foods. The rest of the meals remain the same: with mixed feeding, this is mother's milk from the left and right breasts, supplemented with formula or an analogue.

One feeding replacement should be maintained for up to 8 months. During this time, it will be possible to test all available products for tolerance by the child’s body, select a safe dosage and understand the infant’s taste preferences. From 8 months of age, you can begin to replace two feedings with complementary foods. Now that the dangerous ingredients are known, you can decide what your baby will eat at night.

On a note. A nourishing last feeding will ensure long and sound sleep for the baby and his parents.

In what cases is it impossible

Pediatricians do not recommend introducing new foods into the infant’s diet:

when the general condition of the child is impaired due to illness;
3 days before scheduled vaccination and during the first 3 days after it;
if the child refuses complementary feeding, preferring only mother's breast and supplementary feeding.

Preventive vaccinations are given to children with an unimpaired general condition, because the development of immunity should take place when the body is not subjected to any other stress. Often the immune system reacts to the introduction of a vaccine with an allergic reaction on the skin. If, in addition to vaccination, the body receives a load in the form of a food allergen, it will be difficult for doctors to understand the true cause of the reaction, which means they will not be able to properly help the body and predict possible reactions to subsequent vaccinations.

Rules

If you decide to start introducing new foods to your baby’s menu, follow the basic rules of complementary feeding for children, which will make their introduction to adult food as safe as possible for their health.

At the time of complementary feeding, a bottle-fed baby must be absolutely healthy. Otherwise, the procedure should be postponed until recovery.
The consistency of dishes on the adult menu should be uniform. These rules especially apply to the moment when the first complementary foods are introduced. Start with a liquid state of the dish, gradually allowing small lumps to remain in the food.
Products should be added to the menu one at a time. If you are introducing buckwheat porridge to your children, give it at least a week, gradually increasing the dosage.
The first time the child should be given no more than 1 tsp. new product. Little by little, the volume of food should be increased to 150-180 ml. The complementary feeding dosage diagram is given on the website.
Complementary foods should be given before formula feeding, otherwise the child may refuse it.
If your baby has been vaccinated, there is no need to introduce a new product in the coming days before and after it.
If you have an allergy, temporarily remove this type of food from the menu.
Gradually, 1 formula feeding is replaced with complementary foods. This can be done within 3 weeks after the first acquaintance with the new product.
You can replace 2 feedings with complementary foods at 7 months.
Children under 8 months should not be given fermented milk products, much less mixed with porridge. This rule is dictated by the baby feeding scheme and table developed by doctors.

So, parents are given the choice of which complementary foods to use for their children. If you follow all the rules, complementary feeding will go well and the child will be healthy.

First feeding scheme

Which formula to choose for a newborn with mixed feeding

Weekly complementary feeding table

Based on the recommendations of pediatricians, it is easy to create a table for introducing complementary foods for a 6-month-old baby.

Complementary feeding scheme

1 day	Day 2	Day 3	4 day	5 day	Day 6	Day 7
1 Week	2-3 tsp. kefir	3-6 tsp. kefir	30 ml kefir	60 ml kefir	80 ml kefir	100 ml kefir	120 ml kefir
2 week	1 tsp cottage cheese mixed with 100 ml kefir	2 tsp cottage cheese mixed with 100 ml kefir	3 tsp cottage cheese with 100 ml kefir	4 tsp cottage cheese with 100 ml kefir	5 tsp cottage cheese with 100 ml kefir	6 tsp cottage cheese and 100 ml kefir	7 tsp cottage cheese and 100 ml kefir
3.4 week	No more than 30 g of cottage cheese and 150 ml of kefir	No more than 30 g of cottage cheese and 150 ml of kefir	No more than 30 g of cottage cheese and 150 ml of kefir	No more than 30 g of cottage cheese and 150 ml of kefir	No more than 30 g of cottage cheese and 150 ml of kefir	No more than 30 g of cottage cheese and 150 ml of kefir	No more than 30 g of cottage cheese and 150 ml of kefir

Using the same scheme, after 7 months you can introduce vegetable purees, starting with 2-3 teaspoons, without mixing with anything. Use milk as a supplement. When the baby turns 8 months old, you can introduce cereal porridges, replacing another feeding. By one year, the baby will be able to completely switch to alternative nutrition.

Feeding with pleasure

If you don’t rush and competently respond to any negative reactions by canceling the product, you will be able to introduce a variety of dishes into the diet without harming the child’s health. If allergic reactions occur, do not be upset; just put off the provoking product for a couple of months, after which you can try again. A child can outgrow most early allergies due to the development of his liver.

Which complementary foods to choose: homemade or store-bought?

You can prepare complementary foods yourself: the products are boiled or steamed, after which they need to be crushed to a homogeneous puree.
Food left over from the previous feeding should not be stored or re-given. Commercially prepared baby food can also be used as complementary foods. During factory production, careful control is carried out over the selection of raw materials, preparation technologies that allow preserving all vitamins, microelements and other nutrients, and the sterility and tightness of the packaging. Ready-made food allows you to significantly diversify your baby’s feeding, is in no way inferior to self-prepared food, and in some cases surpasses it in vitamin content, and, most importantly, saves the mother’s time to communicate with her baby. You may be interested in an e-book about child development in the first year of life. It's all about science, but in simple words. The most important things in just 60 pages.