BEABA

• What is meant by dietary diversification?

  Dietary diversification is the stage that takes the child past the exclusively milk-based diet to the introduction of other foodstuffs. This has to be carried out gradually as recommended by your paediatrician. The seven food groups are gradually introduced during diversification. All these food items play a part in covering the baby’s requirements for water, proteins, fats and carbohydrates (for energy and the building blocks), and also vitamins, minerals and fibres.

• What is the right age to start dietary diversification?

  At around 4-6 months the infant’s gastro-intestinal system reaches maturity and the first milk teeth come through. Dietary diversification starts yet the nutritional intake of 2nd age dairy meals is continued to provide calcium and iron. It is the age at which vegetables, fish, meat and fruit should be introduced.

• Why start at 6 months ?

  One of the reasons is that your baby is now able to chew thicker food, he can also swallow and assimilate it, now that his digestive abilities are stronger.Up until 6 months of age formula ( or breast milk) fulfilled the baby’s needs, but baby grew up and it is no longer true. It is thus time to introduce into baby’s diet, elements necessary for his development.You might have heard of diversification starting at 4 months. This used to be applied, but, nowadays, pediatricians recommend to start at 6 months in order to avoid the dangers of food allergies, specially for chidren born in families prone to these allergies.

• How do we make Food Diversification work ?

  There isn’t one way to diversify a diet. It is all up to/it all depends on you an your baby. Don’t worry you will soon find out how to make it work. You just need to apply a few basic principles : > follow your baby’s pace/rythm. He can be eager to discover new tastes, but he can also show little enthusiasm for change.Each child has his own rythm and you need to respect it. > Respect his tastes and preferences, it is the best way to avoid being systematically opposed to your child. What if he refuses/ rejects a type of food ? Do not insist, but don’t give up either. Try again after a few days, using a different shape. Your baby might refuse to eat mashed carrots but adore/ long for carrot smoothies. > Be patient. Mooving from a liquid to a solid diet is not an easy achievement for your baby.You are upsetting the little habits he has acquired since birth.

• What is the difference between a first meal spoon and a training spoon?

  The materials used for the first meal spoon (food-grade silicone) enable babies to make the transition between the teat and the conventional spoon with the advantage of not irritating the gums. The long spoon handle is designed for an adult hand to reach right down to the bottom of baby food jars. The training spoon is designed to fit a baby’s hand, no matter whether the child is right- or left-handed, to give the best grip and thus help baby learn gustatory discrimination.