It is understood as supplementary feeding that offered to babies at a certain age in order to, as its name suggests, complement the main food that is none other than milk, whether maternal or artificial.
WHO and UNICEF point out that the period in which children begin to take these foods and up to 3 years is especially sensitive in terms of physical, intellectual and emotional development and the development of the immune system.
In other words, although the period between birth and 3 years is very short (only 3 years of the 70-80 who will live), the food offered to them in these 3 years is practically as important as the You will receive for the rest of your life.
Keep in mind that in those 2-3 years the brain doubles in size, the body almost also, since they go from measuring about 50 cm to about 95 at three years and the weight is quadrupled, going from about 3-4 kgs at 13-15 weighing a 3 year old child (kilo more, kilo less).
This growth so exaggerated externally and a similar maturation of all systems (immune, digestive, renal, ...) will never happen again in life and that is why Feeding in this period serves to lay a foundation and allow for proper development.
You could say that it is like making the main structure of a building. The better it is made and the better the materials used, the more capacity it will have to sustain what comes next and better endure the storms and the passing of the years.
That is why in Babies and more we start a series of entries on the supplementary feeding where we will talk about some recommendations, somewhat flexible, given that in the subject of complementary feeding there is too much norm and too little evidence to support it (considering that flexible does not mean insane).
The conversation between mothers who do not understand how one at the pediatrician's (or nurse's) consultation has been told that after 4 months she has to start giving her gluten-free fruit and cereals and another has been told that until six Months do not start.
One has been told to make porridge with vegetables and chicken and another has been told that one week a vegetable and then add the chicken.
In short, that Hojitas like those delivered by pediatricians must be hundreds or thousands throughout Spain and all of them different.
We are not going to say that some are wrong and others are good, we just have to take into account that there are very few studies related to the ideal time to offer a food or another and therefore most of the dates offered are simple recommendations resulting from hypotheses in around food and babies.
This is not a criticism of the pediatrician's recommendation sheets, far from it. The problem is not that they exist, but that they are delivered as if they were commandments written in stone and that many mothers end up executing them to the letter and often entering into conflict with the baby, who is not eating for A or B what the pediatrician has told him to eat.
If we look at the scientific literature that talks about complementary feeding (what WHO / UNICEF says, AAP, ESPGHAN, AEPED, etc.) we conclude that, The more we read, the more we try to cover the further we have come to reach a conclusion about the best time to offer this or that food.
The majority of guides and recommendations are intended to avoid intolerances and allergies and to propose an age-appropriate food supply so as not to overload the immature functioning of the digestive and renal systems of babies.
The intestine of babies is very permeable and allows the passage of molecules of a certain size. As the months pass the permeability decreases and certain molecules that at an age could be absorbed, cannot be later.
This means that many foods have a more or less recommended time to be offered to a baby, since if done early it can cause intolerances or allergies when absorbed improperly (pass molecules that should not pass).
Each culture, each population and each family has its own customs that differ from those of others. This means that what in Spain may be the most logical, in another country it can be tremendously criticized and vice versa.
From Babies and more, we will talk about these recommendations and explain in the most detailed way possible each of them so that each family chooses what they consider best.
Photos | Flickr (S0MEBODY 3LSE), Flickr (Fimb)
In Babies and more | News about complementary feeding, Feeding for babies and children
