When to start Weaning?

A friend recently adopted a baby girl. Her daughter is now 8 months old. She has started weaning but it seems that her baby is frequently falling sick. She was keen to get some tips from me on the food to feed her baby.

As my last baby is now an adult, I had to look up my Motherhood and Childcare magazines and other references to refresh my memory even though I could still remember how I used to prepare the baby food every weekend to be frozen in small jars and reheated as required by the maid during the week. I was adamant that my babies were fed the proper food as only with good nourishment, could they thrive. I would not rely on the maid because she would feed what is easiest for her, such as giving the 20 sen sweet buns which consisted only of carbohydrates.Moreover, the first year in a baby's life is very important as the body grows three times its birth weight and it is also the time when the brain develops at the fastest rate. Giving brain food is a priority because you need a good brain to excel.

Right from the start, my children were accustomed to eat balanced meals. I would alternate meat, fish and chicken as their source of protein; rice, potatoes and baby cereals as in Nestum for their carbohydrate; and different vegetables for the vitamins and minerals in their main meals. All these were mixed and steamed before being blended in milk or water and stored in sterile jars. The glass jars are also boiled to sterilize them.

For breakfast, baby could be given instant baby cereals with milk and for tea, a baby biscuit will teach them how to chew.

Sick babies could be due to two reasons: One, they have low immunity due to low quality food given or the food is not clean.

For me, FOOD MUST BE PREPARED IN A CLEAN ENVIRONMENT AND EVERYONE, NOT ONLY BABIES, MUST EAT BALANCED MEALS ALL THE TIME.

I also believed that they were babies only once, and as a mother, I must not shortchange them due to my laziness. I must do my best as their well being depended on me.

If you think your baby is always unwell due to low defence against diseases, then you should consider supplementing with multivitamin syrups when they are babies and graduate to maybe fortified Cod-Liver Oil when they are toddlers.

For breastfeeding mothers, they have to ensure that the milk they feed their babies are of good quality by eating balanced meals themselves. I remember I was the only mother who expressed her milk in the office surau and kept the milk in the fridge for my second daughter.

I would certainly recommend feeding human babies with human milk as it has been tailor made for them in the right proportions of fat, water and other nutrients. My youngest daughter thrived on breast milk for three years and she was one baby who never had to nurse from a bottle. When she was weaned from breast milk I supplemented her with DHA. I can proudly say that her academic performance beats all her other siblings. Being the last, she had the advantage of all my mothering experience put together.

Now, what is weaning? A baby is totally dependent on milk for the first 3-4 months of his life. Soon, milk alone does not provide all the nutrients needed for him to be healthy and active.Weaning is a gradual process and starts at 4-6 months depending on the baby's milestones of progress. Weaning is an important stage of emotional and behavioural development where Mum experiments and introduces baby to new tastes and textures. Baby learns that food does not only comes from a bottle and feeding is not only by sucking while reclining or lying on your back but one can eat by chewing in a sitting position.

At first semi-solids are introduced. Never feed semi-solid from a bottle with a big hole cut at the nipple. This would encourage baby to be lazy because he does not have to make much effort to be satiated and he will end up obese.

Giving baby semi-solids will help strengthen and develop his gums and jaws and teach him to chew before swallowing. Mum must be patient as all this are new to baby and he must enjoy the experience.

As the baby grows and begins to indulge in more physical movements such as rolling, moving forward, sitting and crawling, he will spend less time sleeping and need more nutrients. At this stage, weaning food will slowly begin to be the baby's primary nutrient source and milk should be the secondary source. Milk should not be stopped and baby has to be taught to drink from the cup. I believe that milk drinking should be from cradle to grave and children should not be fed with sweet condensed milk.

Weaning should not be too early at 2-3 months because the baby has not developed the ability to swallow properly, and feeding will not only be difficult but frustrating.

On the other hand, weaning should not start too late as baby will be undernourished and fail to achieve the right milestone. His social and physical development would be stunted and his lifelong eating habits will be affected.

One thing for sure, no seasoning (salt and sugar or their derivatives ; honey, syrup, condensed milk, soya sauce, ketchup, etc) should be added to food for babies below 12 months. Their kidneys are too immature to be burdened with salt and sugar. Babies should not be treated as adults by feeding them adult food too soon. They do not know the taste of sweetness and saltiness and would not miss them.