Infant feeding/nutrition Flashcards
What are the different milestones of infant feeding?
0-6 months = breast/formula feeds exclusively
6 months = weaning to pureed /liquid foods
7-9 months = finger foods
9-12 months = 3 meals a day with family
>1 year = cow’s milk - full fat (not recommended before then)
What are the advantages of breast feeding for the baby?
- health: reduces risk of diarrhoea and vomiting, sudden infant death syndrome, childhood leukaemia, obesity, CVS disease, diabetes
- immune protection (IgA): reduced risk of infection and allergic
- little risk of contamination or error in preparation/temperature
What are the advantages of breast feeding for the mother?
cheap and less room for error health benefits: reduces risk of breast and ovarian cancer bonding weight loss contraceptive effect
What are the disadvantages of breast feeding?
transmission of drugs and medications for mother to baby
often takes longer than bottle feeding
dependent on mother (disruption of other activities/returning to work)
father left out (can be solved by breast pumps)
mastitis pain
When does weaning start?
around 6 months old signs they are ready: - chewing their fists - waking in the night when they were previously sleeping through - wanting extra milk feeds
What are the first foods they could try?
mashed or soft cooked fruit and veg e.g. parsnip, potato, yam, sweet potato, carrot, apple, pear
What are examples of finger foods?
soft ripe banana
avocado
rice cakes
What are the next types of foods?
chicken, mashed fish, pasta, noodles, toast, lentils, rice, yoghurt
What foods should be avoided?
salt, honey, whole nuts, low fat foods
What is human breast milk classified as?
colostrum = milk produced in the first week of the baby’s life and then there’s mature milk
colostrum is much higher in protein and lower in fat than mature milk
therefore normal for babies to lose up to 10% of their birth weight in first 2 weeks of life
What neurohumoral mechanisms are involved in pregnancy in terms of the breasts?
human placental lactogen, oestrogens and progesterone prepare the breasts for lactation
What neurohumoral mechanisms are involved in milk production?
suckling stimulates the release of prolactin from the anterior pituitary gland
prolactin is important in initiating milk secretion and in maintaining milk production after birth
prolactin levels are high at night, so night feeding is important for maintaining milk supply
What neurohumoral mechanisms are involved in milk ejection?
suckling stimulates the release of oxytocin from the posterior pituitary gland
oxytocin is responsible for the ejection (let down) of the milk by acting on the myeloepithelial cells that surrounds the alveoli and ductules
Why breast feed?
breast milk provides babies with a complete source of nutrition needed for the first 6 months of life which includes fats, carbs, proteins, vitamins, minerals, as well as bioactive factors which provide short term and long term health and development benefits to the infant’s immature immune system
What are the benefits of secretory IgA and lactoferrin?
IgA = barrier in the baby’s gut to protect against invading bacteria
Lactoferrin = serves to deprive any invading bacteria or iron and peroxidases and lysozymes both have an antibacterial action
