Importance of Iron for Babies

Roseous.com - Importance of Iron for Babies. When stepping on the age of 6 months, babies are encouraged to begin to be introduced with additional food other than breast milk. However, breast milk will remain the most important part of baby food. When feeding, remember the frequency, amount, concentration, variety, active / responsive feeding, and hygiene.

WHO Global Strategy for Feeding Infant and Young Children in 2003 recommended that the provision of MPASI meet four conditions, namely:

1. Timely means that MPASI should be given when exclusive breastfeeding is not able to meet the nutritional needs of infants
2. Adequate, meaning that MPASI has energy content, protein, and micronutrient that can meet the needs of baby macronutrients and micronutrients according to age.
3. Safe, meaning that MPASI is prepared and stored in a hygienic manner, given by hand and clean cutlery.
4. Given in a proper manner, it means that MPASI is given with regard to the signal of hunger and a child's fullness. Feeding frequency and feeding methods should encourage children to consume food actively in sufficient quantities using their hands, spoons, or feeding themselves (adjusted for the age and stage of a child's development).

Before starting MPASI, assess the readiness of the baby to receive MPASI, for example being able to sit with head upright, able to coordinate the eyes, hands and mouth to receive food, and able to swallow solid food. Naturally, this ability is achieved at 4-6 months of age. However, WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding until the age of 6 months and MPASI begins at 6 months of age.

Initially given solid food in the form of fine porridge at 6 months of age. Family food with a softer texture (modified family food) can be introduced before the age of 12 months. At 12 months of age children can be given the same food as the food eaten by other family members (family food).

In preparing the MPASI need to be considered also the taste of food MPASI because in a study found that salty taste preferences appear around the age of 4 months and settled until the age of 2 years. This indicates that the baby has known the taste from an early age so that the taste of food MPASI needs to be considered in order to be easily accepted by the baby. One type of flavor is salted so salt-giving in MPASI aids the development of taste recognition by paying attention to the needs and limits of salt intake in infants.

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The Institute of Medicine recommends maximum salt intake in infants (0-12 months) is <1 gram per day whereas in children 1-3 years is 2g per day (with a note of 1 teaspoon salt is about 5 g). Research in infants 6 to 12 months old suggests that excessive salt intake comes from processed foods, such as processed meat, pasta and bread that are not made specifically for infants. Therefore a wise approach is to provide sufficient salt on cooked MPASI itself or when providing packaging MPASI then have to choose a special MPASI produced for infants with BPOM license included.