The best food for a newborn is mom's breast milk. And no nanotechnology and the latest advanced developments of modern science are able to make the mixture as close as possible to the composition of natural milk, which only a mother can give to a baby.
However, breastfeeding is not always possible. Unfortunately, there are reasons that prevent the baby from breastfeeding normally. It can be a serious illness of the mother, which requires treatment with strong antibiotics, anticancer drugs, and a banal lack of breast milk or its complete absence. When the prospect of artificial feeding becomes a reality, parents have many questions, which the authoritative doctor and favorite of millions of mothers Yevgeny Olegovich Komarovsky gladly answers.
Dr. Komarovsky will tell you more about artificial feeding in the next video.
Komarovsky about children - "artificial"
It is impossible to replace breast milk with any, even the most expensive "premium" formula. Its value is not only in vitamins and enzymes, but also in immunoglobulins. Mom's milk gives the child that very immune protection, thanks to which the baby is quite reliably protected from most viruses in the first six months of its life, until its own immunity begins to actively form.
This does not mean at all that artificial children are completely deprived of their mother's immunity. They still have innate immunity, which was formed during pregnancy, and with proper care, it can also protect the child, not as effectively as with breastfeeding, but something is better than nothing.
Evgeny Komarovsky notes that artificial feeding should be carried out only with the use of adapted milk formulas. They cannot be replaced with either cow or goat milk.
Even 30 years ago, the doctor says, artificial children had much more problems, because there was no alternative. Now, according to the doctor, choosing goat milk as food for a baby is barbaric and a sign of parental irresponsibility.
Evgeny Olegovich advises not to listen to grandmothers who remember how the great-grandmother fed “seven with cow's milk” and call the mixture “chemistry” and “poison”. Up to a year, the doctor generally does not recommend giving milk to children, up to three - do it with caution. The reason is that the amount of calcium and phosphorus in cow's milk is so high that baby's kidneys are unable to excrete such compounds. This is fraught with serious illness, allergy to cow protein and bone problems.
If the child eats mixtures, the mother needs to be more attentive to the quantity and quality of the crumbs eaten. Bottles and nipples must be clean, and the mixture must be diluted strictly in the proportions indicated on the package.
Complementary feeding and IV
If the baby is gaining weight well, and artificial people usually gain very well, then no additional food is needed until six months, Komarovsky believes. From six months you need to introduce additional nutrition, according to the complementary feeding schedule. The overwhelming majority of pediatricians advise mothers to start complementary foods with vegetable and fruit juices and purees, but Evgeny Komarovsky recommends starting with kefirs and cereals, and leaving the fruit, even in a puree state, until better times, when the child's first tooth erupts.
It is his appearance that Evgeny Olegovich calls a sure sign that a small organism is ready for solid food, which in nature is all fruits and vegetables.
Doctor Komarovsky will tell you how to make the first complementary foods and how to feed a child in the video below.
Problems
A common problem is excessive weight gain when feeding with formula. When breastfeeding, the baby is given food more difficult, he feels full faster and does not overeat. And sucking from the bottle is more fun, and therefore the crumb almost always eats 20-30 extra grams of the mixture. If the pediatrician sighs sadly at the next examination after weighing, looking at the chubby toddler, mom can reduce the concentration of the mixture by adding a little less dry matter to the water than is provided by the recipe and recommended by the manufacturers.
It is believed that children who eat formula are more likely to suffer from dermatitis and allergies. There is a grain of logic here, but it is impossible to assert that this is a regularity. If the child shows an inadequate reaction to a particular mixture, the mixture itself can be replaced... But Komarovsky does not recommend doing this too often and without the knowledge of the pediatrician.
Tips
Feed your baby from a nipple with a small hole so that he has to make an effort to saturate, then the chances are reduced that the little one will overeat, be overweight and other unpleasant consequences of excessive nutrition.
Select only mixtures marked with "Adapted", if the baby is prone to allergies, it is desirable to feed him with a hypoallergenic mixture. Of course, it costs more, but it is better to overpay for food than to spend several times large sums on treatment.
If a family has the opportunity to use the services of a wet nurse, then there is no reason to refuse such an opportunity, Komarovsky believes. The main thing is to make sure of the cleanliness of the female nurse, to know what products she eats, whether she smokes and does not use any medicines. At the same time, the doctor clearly distinguishes between the concepts of "donor milk" and "nurse".
Donated milk is rather difficult to transport in order to preserve all its beneficial properties. And if it was stored in a refrigerator, pasteurized, boiled or subjected to any other processing, nothing useful was definitely left in it.b, and there is no point in giving it, says Yevgeny Komarovsky.
It is ultimately the parents who decide when to stop formula feeding. However, Komarovsky's position here is similar to his position on the cessation of breastfeeding. After a year, the child, in principle, does not need formula or breast milk. His diet should be expanded and include meat, vegetables, fruits, grains, and the mixtures can no longer satisfy all the needs of the grown body.
It is not necessary to sterilize the dishes from which the baby eats. Komarovsky believes that this is a sure way to increase the risks of making the baby allergic. The doctor considers it sufficient to thoroughly wash the nipple and bottles.
Children who are bottle-fed should usually not be additionally given vitamin D to prevent rickets, since it is present in sufficient quantities in all infant formula. And an overdose of vitamin D is much worse than a lack of it.
Artificial people need more regular drinking water than babies. And therefore, parents should not forget to water the crumbs from a bottle in between feedings.
For artificial feeding, hourly feeding is preferred. The optimal period of time during which the baby is not hungry, according to Komarovsky, is 3-3.5 hours. There is no need to wake up for the next feeding. This can lead to overfeeding.
