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Feeding children from 4 months

Medical expert of the article

Pediatrician
, medical expert
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024

Feeding children from 4 months - this is a burning issue, which is actively interested in the mothers of toddlers who have reached four months of age. It is during this period that the child requires additional substances, trace elements, which are not found in breast milk. Such innovations in the baby's diet should be carefully prepared and thought out, it is better if the lure of children from 4 months - his menu, mode and dosage will be picked up by the attending pediatrician, not an omniscient neighbor or a caring grandmother. Classical variants of complementary food are mashed cereals and mashed potatoes from boiled vegetables. In addition to supplementing nutrition with useful vitamins and calories, such supplements help to form a chewing skill in the child, which should shortly supplant the sucking reflex.

The beginning of complementary feeding, as a rule, fits between the fourth and sixth month of the child's life. Early lure is undesirable, since up to 4 months the internal organs and systems of the baby are not yet formed to take such food, the later period - after half a year is also not argued, as mother's milk can not replace the whole range of nutritional value of complementary foods. Also, the introduction of late complementary foods is fraught with the rejection of unusually dense food, because the baby for six months already gets used to the liquid substance of milk and is difficult to adapt to a new diet. Feeding children from 4 months is not a strict recommendation, supplements can be administered from 4.5 months, and from 5 months, it all depends on the individual characteristics of the development of the baby and the state of his health. The optimal terms are as follows: 

  • Artificial feeding - introduction of complementary foods from 4 or 4.5 months; 
  • Breastfeeding - the introduction of complementary foods with 5 or 5.5 months of life.

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