Baby Care

Archive for the ‘Baby Feeding’ Category

Both babies and mothers gain many benefits from breastfeeding. Breast milk is easy to digest and contains antibodies that can protect infants from bacterial and viral infections. Research indicates that women who breastfeed may have lower rates of certain breast and ovarian cancers.

Breastfeeding is an important woman’s issue, human rights issue, health issue and feminist issue. Breastfeeding empowers women. Women who wish to breastfeed their babies but do not, because of inadequate support from family or health workers, constraints in the workplace, or misinformation, often feel guilty because of this failure at something they wanted to do.

Human breast milk is the most healthful form of milk for human babies. There are a few exceptions, such as when the mother is taking certain drugs or is infected with tuberculosis or HIV. Breastfeeding promotes health, helps to prevent disease and reduces health care and feeding costs. In both developing and developed countries, artificial feeding is associated with more deaths from diarrhea in infants. Experts agree that breastfeeding is beneficial, but may disagree about the length of breastfeeding that is most beneficial, and about the risks of using artificial formulas.

Feed your baby as often as he or she wants to be fed. This may be 8 to 12 times a day or more. How often your baby wants to feed may change over time as he or she goes through growth spurts. Growth spurts occur at about 2 and 6 weeks of age and again at about 3 and 6 months of age.

Let your baby nurse until he or she is satisfied. This may be for about 15 to 20 minutes at each breast. Try to have your baby nurse from both breasts at each feeding. The box below lists the signs to watch for so you’ll know your baby is getting enough milk. If you’re nursing fewer than 8 times a day, be especially aware of these signs.

Signs that your baby is getting enough milk

Acts satisfied after each feeding.

Gains weight constantly after the first 3 to 7 days after birth. Your baby may lose a little weight during the first week after being born.

Has about 6 to 8 wet diapers a day.

Has about 2 to 5 or more stools a day at first and then may have 2 or less a day. Stools will be runny at first.

Chocolate is made from plants, which means it contains many of the health benefits of dark vegetables. These benefits are from flavonoids, which act as antioxidants. Antioxidants protect the body from aging caused by free radicals, which can cause damage that leads to heart disease. Dark chocolate contains a large number of antioxidants (nearly 8 times the number found in strawberries). Flavonoids also help relax blood pressure through the production of nitric oxide, and balance certain hormones in the body.

• it tastes good

• it stimulates endorphin production, which gives a feeling of pleasure

• it contains serotonin, which acts as an anti-depressant

• it contains theobromine, caffeine and other substances which are stimulants

It has carbohydrates, which is an important source of energy. Children are moving a lot and waste much energy, that’s why it must be quickly filled, and from this point of view of sweets are useful to children. Carbohydrates are also involved in the construction of cellular membranes, proteins of blood hormones.

Moreover, sweet is a source of pleasure, joy, and this is important. So sweets and mainly chocolate are included by the Institute of Nutrition in the child’s daily diet. However, the rules recommended by the medical community, are significantly different from the number of sweets that children eat in their lives.

According to experts, for the full development of the child needs to consume 30-40 g «sweet carbohydrates» a day.

Dark chocolate contains flavanoids called procyanidins and epicatechins; these are specific kinds of antioxidants known as polyphenols that are found in red wine, tea, and many fruits and vegetables.  It also increases the blood flow in the arteries and helps reduce the risk of blood clots.  If you have mildly high blood pressure, dark chocolate may help reduce it.  The serotonin found in it can boost your mood and increase feelings of pleasure, also triggering a rise in endorphins.  Nutritionally speaking, calcium, magnesium and potassium are another benefit of consuming dark chocolate on a regular basis.

All parents want their children to grow up healthy and strong, physically and intellectually developed. Food is the source for growth and development of all essential trace elements, nutrients and vitamins, so the topic of good nutrition is essential. Especially useful for children’s digestive tract is the first dish soups.

The first dish has remarkable impact on the entire digestive tract, as it warms the walls of the stomach, improves the allocation of gastric and intestinal juices, and stabilizes bowel peristalsis. Soup quickly absorbs in the stomach, improves the water-salt metabolism in the body, quickly replenishes energy reserves, as well as prepares the stomach to further adoption of a second meal. Also it is particularly worth noting the correct balance between the first and second courses, it allows you to maximize the number of products offered to the child for one meal. If the soup is welded on the basis of vegetables, the second may be submitted cereals porridge, but if the soup is welded to the grains, then the second one may contain vegetable.

Dairy Soups

If the basis for soup is milk, it mildly enshrouds stomach and salutary influences on its walls. Milk is rich in protein, it contains about 20 amino acids, 25 fatty acids, 30 minerals and 20 different vitamins that are rapidly assimilated in the body. Dairy soups are especially useful for children in their early years. They are processed in a small body, and allow to significantly expand the diet of the child. Milk soups can be cooked by all kinds of cereals, as well as to be combined with vegetables and fruits.

Soups based on broth
Soups cooked in a broth are equally useful for the child’s organism. When preparing these dishes you can use all types of meat: chicken, beef, pork, etc. Fish is also an excellent base for the broth, which is well adopted by child’s stomach.

To ensure that the broth preserves all the useful substances you should not boil it for a long time. Boil on a weak low heat helps to move nutrients of the meat into liquid.

Broth is very useful for the frail body and is particularly recommend for children during illness. Due to the content of the enzyme they contribute to healing, while they assimilate quickly and do not load the body.

Soups based on vegetable broth

Vegetable soups are very useful for children, as they are replenishing stocks of minerals and vitamins in the child’s body. Roots are particularly useful and you should always add such roots as celery, parsley, etc. They heighten the aroma and taste, and also increase the nutritional value. Cooked in the soup vegetables retain a lot more vitamins than in roasting and stewing. Beans and peas added to the soup increase the amount of protein contained in the soup several times.

In winter, you can cook the soup on the basis of frozen vegetables, as the rapid freezing of vegetables, preserves more nutrients than simple possession. Therefore, you can safely buy pellets of frozen vegetable mixes and prepare soups for your child. But do not eat frozen vegetables without heat treatment.

During the first few hours after the birth the child has a strong starvation and receives energy from its own cells. This is the conclusion of Japanese researchers from the Tokyo Institute of Medical Research.

The characteristics of metabolism of newborn my shat, the scientists found that in the first few hours after birth – when a newborn baby has not received food through the placenta and umbilical cord, but still does not drink milk – the rate of decay in the reactions of his organism increases in several times. Researchers failed to prove that this is due to activation of so-called autofagotsitoza – acquisitions of their own cells. During this process, cellular components break down into elements, especially simple carbohydrates and amino acids, which are spent on construction of new proteins and lipids, must be in the “unusual” conditions of the newborn.

“From what we observed in mice immediately after birth the newborn is in a position similar to strongest hunger – described in an interview” Air Force “Dr. Noboru Mizushima, the head of the study. – This state lasts from a few tens of minutes to several hours . We do not yet know whether the same thing with a newborn child, although it can be assumed that a phase autophagia occur all mammals. “

It should be noted that the results obtained by researchers are not only academic but also some practical value. It is possible that sooner or later, doctors learn to control the duration of the stage autophagia children (unless, of course, they have it) and thus, for example, reduce the chance of developing neonatal metabolic disorders.