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Introduction of complementary food for the baby after six months
In this video we have discussed about introduction of complementary food
during first 10 to 12 days after the baby is six months,
which is an important phase of first 1000 days.
Sasmita Bej.
Prithiviraj Bej.
Suryamani Bej.
Bishnupriya Bej. (Anganwadi Worker)
Children at Anganwadi centre of Malliposi village singing song -
Tuan and Tuin, sisters and brothers, brought rice flour, made gram flour and prepared cake,
Tuan opened the door and said - tiger uncle, please come,
eat cake, sugar and pickle and sit on the chair. The chair made noise, the tiger uncle got afraid.
Manama, come. It is now 8.30 am and time to eat.
Is the food for the children, rice and dal ready?
Yes.
Serve the food to the children. Please see that they wash their hands, sit calmly and eat the food.
Sasmita’s family is going to do annaprasan (first rice) today, so I am going to visit their house.
The children are eating and after they finish, you lock the door and go home.
Today is annaprasan of Sasmita’s baby. I am going to her home.
Okay didi, you can go.
Hey Sasmita.
Yes didi, Namaskar.
Is everything good?
Yes.
Sasmita, how is your health?
Good.
How is the health of your baby?
Good.
What food are you giving to the baby?
As you had suggested, I am giving only mother's milk.
Hope you are giving only mother's milk.
Yes.
Are you giving any other things secretly?
Not even water, only mother’s milk.
Your baby has completed six months, now we will do annaprasan.
Till six months the energy requirements of the baby are fulfilled by mother’s milk.
After six months the baby will crawl, walk etc.
The energy required for these activities cannot be fulfilled from mother’s milk alone.
Therefore, we should start giving him complementary food.
But do not stop giving mother’s milk once you start complementary food.
Continue breastfeeding for a minimum of 2 years.
Question: What food should be given to the baby after completing six months?
Answer: The baby should be given complementary food along with breast milk after completion of six months.
Didi, I was thinking as the baby is small, therefore, we should have started complementary food after 2 to 3 months.
No, he has completed six months, so it’s the right time to introduce complementary food.
If we give him complementary food during this time, it will help him in crawling and walking.
Mother’s milk does not have that much energy, complementary food will provide him the extra energy.
Development processes like crawling, walking etc. will happen early.
Okay then, today we will start his annaprasan.
Yes, we will start from today.
Didi, Jhumi’s baby was very healthy and strong during birth, but since last 6 - 7 months, he has not grown well. Why?
At that time mother’s milk was sufficient for the baby, therefore, the weight was increasing properly.
At 7 months, we should start giving complementary food.
I tried to make them understand but they did not give complementary food. Therefore, the baby could not grow well.
Your baby has turned 7 months and if we don’t give complementary foods,
then the weight of the baby will not increase.
After completing 6 months, the Government is providing Chhatua through Anganwadi Centers,
healthy babies are getting 4 kgs of Chhatua per month, while malnourished babies are getting 6 kgs per month.
The Chhatua provided by the Government through Anganwadi Centres contains grounded pulses, grounded wheat,
and grounded groundnut seeds added with sugar.
We can give this food to the babies to eat.
This food can be given 2 to 3 times per day and 2 to 3 spoons per feed.
Until how many years of age, the babies are entitled to get this Chatua?
Government is providing this food from 7 months of age onwards till the baby becomes 3 years.
What else other than Chhatua can be given to my grandson to eat?
Yes Mausi, you can give Chhatua, grounded chuda (rice flakes), grounded rice, sooji.
You can add milk, sugar and iodized salt to make porridges out of these ingredients and feed to the child.
This food can be given during the first 10 to 12 days.
Home cooked food should be given to the child.
You can also give -
boiled potato,
boiled papaya,
carrot,
rice,
dal,
green leafy vegetables etc. can be smashed properly and given to the baby.
The annaprasan that we are doing in the 7th month is called food tasting.
We will prepare one food item, like Chhatua porridge and give for 2 to 3 days,
2 to 3 times per day and 2 to 3 spoons per feed.
We observe during this period whether the baby is liking it or not,
then again we will change it to Sooji porridge for 4 days,
then again change to rice porridge for 3 to 4 days, we will see which food the baby likes to eat and eats more.
The baby will be eating more of the foods he likes.
If we continue food tasting for 10 to 15 days and make it a habit, then gradually we can introduce other foods.
Question: After completing six months, how much should the baby be fed, per day during the first 10 to 12 days?
Answer: After six months during the first 10 to 12 days,
the baby should be fed with complementary food, 2 to 3 times per day and 2 to 3 spoons per feed.
After 10 to 12 days of food tasting, the quantity of complementary food for the baby will increase slowly.
I will let you know about this later.
Didi, then what will we prepared today?
We will do annaprasan today. I have brought Chhatua. I will demonstrate how to prepare Chhatua for feeding the baby.
Okay, lets go.
I will explain to you the importance of hygiene.
Before preparing food and feeding the baby, hygiene should be maintained.
If we do not maintain hygiene, then the baby will suffer from diarrhea, vomiting and fever.
If these things happen, then the baby will become weak,
even if we feed nutritious food the health of the baby will not be good.
Therefore, along with giving nutritious food, we should maintain hygiene.
Didi, just now you explained about hygiene, so what are the things we should keep clean?
We should use clean water, wash our hands with soap before preparing food,
take a clean vessel to prepare food.
The utensils used to feed the baby also needs to be clean.
As the baby has completed 6 months, we can also give clean and boiled water to the baby.
Question: What things should be taken care of before preparing complementary food for the baby?
Answer: Hands should be washed with soap and clean water, clean utensils, bowl and spoon should be used and boiled milk or water should be used.
When we are going to prepare food for the baby, we should first clean our hands properly with soap.
After washing hands, we will boil the milk in a clean pot.
We will fry the Chhatua, as it contains little bit of raw things, the baby may have stomach problems.
Then, boiled milk is added to it. In absence of boiled milk, boiled water can be added.
Then iodized salt is added to the porridge which helps in mental growth of the baby.
Sugar should not be added as Chhatua already contains sugar in it.
But while preparing Chuda, Sooji or Rice porridge, sugar should be added to feed the baby.
We will serve the prepared Chhatua in a clean bowl.
Today, we will do annaprasan of the baby.
During this annaprasan, we will serve the baby with the prepared porridge in a new utensil.
Therefore, we have got a banana leaf and will serve the Chhatua porridge on it.
Smear little vermillion on forehead of the baby.
Then a little betel nut and rice grains can be sprinkled on him.
Washing hands before feeding the baby.
See, my grandson is so happy after eating.
Didi, I have one question. Can we not make the porridge more watery?
No need to make the food watery.
If we make it watery, then the proportion of food material will be less and the proportion of water will be more.
Then he will eat more water and less of the food material.
Therefore, we gave thick food today, where the proportion of water is less and food material is more.
This will help in weight gain of the baby. Therefore, we should give thick complementary food to the baby.
Watery
Thick
Question: Should the complementary food for the baby be watery or thick?
Answer: The complementary food for the baby should be thick.
Sasmita, I forgot to tell you one thing.
Today, we did annaprasan, we started feeding the baby with Chhatua in addition to breast milk.
Earlier he was only having milk from you so the stool was of one type.
Now we have changed his food, so his stool will be different from now onwards.
It will have little odor and thick. So don’t get scared when you observe this kind of changes.
As we changed the food, the stool will also be different.
Thanks Didi for this piece of information or else I would have scared to see this kind of change.
Feeding the baby is not so easy.
While feeding the baby you should tell stories, sing songs, roam around and feed the baby.
If you force feed the baby they won't eat. You should make them understand and then feed them.
If the mother will not be able to feed, then you should try to feed the baby.
Try to roam around and feed the baby.
If the baby does not eat then do not get angry and do not stop feeding.
One more thing, your daughter-in-law has become weak. Take care of her diet.
She should eat green leafy vegetables, meat, fish, egg at least 2 to 3 times per week.
If milk is available then give it to her because she is breastfeeding and
giving life to her baby, therefore she needs more energy.
You should increase the amount of food.
As her mother-in-law, you should encourage her to eat more food.
After eating ask her to take a rest, she has become very weak.
Help her in taking rest and share her workload.
Didi, I did not know regarding the complementary food to be given to my son.
Thank you for sharing the information.You did a good thing. Namaskar.
Okay, I am going now, I will come again after 10 to 15 days.
Okay.
Today we discussed about the introduction of complementary food to a baby after six months.
Until six months mother’s milk is sufficient for the baby,
but after six months the baby needs more energy,
therefore, we need to start introducing complementary food.
If we do not start complementary feeding after six months then the baby will suffer from malnutrition,
weight and height according to its age will not increase.
The complementary food should be thick and
while preparing food and feeding the baby, cleanliness should be maintained.
After six months, we will feed the baby 2 to 3 times a day, 2 to 3 spoons per feed for the first 10 to 12 days.
I request the family members to extend their help to a mother while feeding.
Thanks.