Early Life Nutrition and Lifelong Health - Derbyshire Local Medical ...

BMA Board of ScienceWorld Health Organisation 159Do not force: Feed slowly and patiently;encourage but do not force. If children refusefoods, experiment with different foods, tastes,textures and methods of encouragement.Minimise distractions during meals. Feedingtimes are periods of learning and love – talk tochildren during feeding, with eye to eye contact.Food safety: Practice good hygiene. Washhands before food preparation. Store foodssafely. Serving immediately after preparation,using clean utensils and serving dishes. Avoidusing feeding bottles, which are difficult tokeep clean.To be avoided: No specific guidelinesUK Food Standards Agency 118Do not force: Go at the baby’s pace. Allowplenty of time for feeding and to allow thebaby to learn to swallow solids. Don’t rush or‘force feed’. Most babies know when they’vehad enough to eat. Offer a wide variety offoods to avoid choosiness later on.Food safety: Heat only what the baby willwant. Do not reheat previously warmed food.Heat food thoroughly and allow it to cool.Do not refreeze food that’s been warmed orpreviously frozen. Everything for feeding thebaby needs to be really clean.To be avoided: Added salt: Babies under a yearshould have less than 1g salt per day. Don’t addsalt to cooked foods. Limit high-salt foods(cheese, bacon, sausages, processed foods, pastasauces, breakfast cereal).Avoid sugar and honey: Sweeten stewed sourfruit like rhubarb with mashed banana, breast orformula milk. Don’t use honey until after oneyear as it may contain harmful bacteria. Somefoods can cause allergic reactions in some babies.If a family history of coeliac disease, consult adoctor before using wheat, rye or barley-basedfoods. Nuts and seeds – including peanuts,peanut butter and other nut spreads. Don’t givewhole peanuts to children under five years oldbecause they can cause choking.Vitamin-mineral supplements: Use fortifiedcomplementary foods or vitamin-mineralsupplements as needed.Starting ordinary cow’s milk: No specificguidelines.Vitamin-mineral supplements: No specificguidelines. See DH guidelines in text.Starting ordinary cow’s milk: Full-fat cow’smilk not suitable as a drink until one year.Semi-skimmed milk not suitable as a drinkuntil two years. Skimmed milk not suitableuntil five years.Early life nutrition and lifelong health 73