As soon the baby is born, the mother’s body adapts itself to produce nutritious breast milk that is vital for the child’s health and growth. While breast milk is important during a child’s initial days, as time progresses, children will need to move to nutritional solid food. The process of moving the child from consuming breast milk to consuming solid food is termed as weaning. Now, questions may arise about when is a baby ready to be weaned and what is the importance of weaning. Before diving into the topic, make sure you have an online doctor consultation and have an app that can help you to order medicines online.
Weaning is usually carried out in the first year that the child is born in. Parents should not force feed a child solid food but make sure that the child gradually accepts the solid food with time. The ideal way of making the transition is to mix the child’s diet with breast milk, formulated milk and solid food from time to time. The importance of weaning isn’t limited to nutritional foods. The process allows that baby’s tongue to explore lip, jaw and tongue movements. Weaning allows the baby to learn chewing and swallowing before the end of their first year. Another advantage of weaning is that the child is independent to eat in a social setting faster which aids in developing cognitive and social abilities.
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The Benefits of Weaning are:
The Baby Becomes more Self Dependent:
Weaning enables hand and mouth coordination and allows babies to pick up the food they want and eat it without creating a mess. Their taste buds react to the food they eat and allows them to make judgements on the food they want to eat or not.
Maintaining a Balanced Diet:
Introduction of a whole new diet boosts their intake of wholesome nutrients that aid in growth and development. Essentials such as iron, vitamins and minerals are taken in specific quantities.
Building Developmental Skills:
In the process of eating solid food, babies develop a sense of coordination among their tongue, lips and jaws. This coordination is crucial in developing speech and language. Babies also learn to chew and swallow that reduces gag reflexes. In the process of picking up and eating food, babies develop hand eye coordination that is essential in sports and while handling motor vehicles.
