Toddler and baby foods as suggested in various countries of the world

Hi,
I have a son of 16 months and so from time to time I looked at internet discussions on healthy diets for kids when lacking inspiration of what to cook for him. Some mums in my country are almost fanatical about a healthy diet and others may be considered too irresponsible. So i thought it would be interesting to see how the opinions vary over the world.

The doctor's suggestions here in the Czech Republic are generally this: breast feeding for as long as possible, after 6 months adding 1 portion of boiled and mixed vegetables (usually carrots), later potatoes, meat, alternating vegetables, later fruits, evening mush and so on. No salt, no extra sugar, no cow milk, eggs, fish, pork, curds, wheat. From 9 months adding wheat, yoghurt, egg yolks, some fish (depends on doctors, some say yes, some recommend from 1 yr). From 1 year adding curds, whole eggs, ham, cheese, little salt, full-fat milk as a cooking ingredient. Of course still no heavy spices (little caraway seed and herbs may be), no honey, no fried food. Well, many of us here use instant porridge, formula milk, baby food preserves. I use formula milk from my son's 12m, I still breast feed him once a day, but it is more of a habit than a nutricional addition.

Sometimes incredible discussions can be found on the suitability of certain foods, especially cow milk, meat, fish, eggs, tropical fruits.

I wonder what are your experiences, what do your pediatrists suggest?

[quote=helena77;423217 I use formula milk from my son's 12m, I still breast feed him once a day, but it is more of a habit than a nutricional addition.
[/quote]
Helena,
Dont want to say anything about the conventional (I refuse to use the word traditional) advice on introducing solids that I have received till now. Mum is the word.
Just wanted to say nursing even just once a day can help your child build up immune system, especially when he has an infection. If it is just a habit for you, then it is a very healthy habit. Not a lactivist, but I am little leary of hearing that breastmilk magically loses all nutritional value after the first year. And yes, that's one of the advices given to me.
I more or less followed what you'd written in your post. We still do not do milk/egg/soy because of allergies. No meats, but we do lots of legumes and pulses. In the place of porridge, we use sattu maavu (malted red millet + ground chickpea flour.)

thanks for your opinion :)

well, i wrote porridge for lack of the proper word. usually the evening food is made up of rice, corn, millet or other cereal powder, formula milk and fruit powder/extracts - the advantage of the availability of ready made baby food (the quality gets sometimes doubted, nut it is soooo easy to make).
The chickpea flour sounds interesting ( i noticed it in many Indian recipies) but don't know where to buy it in my country and I don't have the courage and time to try and make it myself.

I noticed another slight difference - here the suitability of pulses for children is often discussed (causing tummy ache), and so I was always wondering how do so many vegetarians in India manage to bring up healthy children when they all eat lots of legumes and pulses :)

and that is one of the reasons why I started this thread - to read about all the slight differences :)

Let me start with my DS2 - Ped says introduce formula milk and solid foods and I say no. Formula milk is going to be a NO forever. Solids will be introduced only after he completes 6 months.I am thinking of introducing him to some veggies, Raagi porridge, then rice, dal, etc., MY DH doesn't eat meat, so the kids will be like him on a no meat diet. Fruits will be introduced quite late - maybe after 1 year because we (in our home) are of the opinion that child will catch cold because of eating fruits.

DS1 - Ped told no formula milk, only BF till 6 months. After that start solids + BF beyond 2 years (Couldn't have asked for a better Ped). Followed whatever he told. When we did start solids, we started with Raagi porridge, Rice + dal + veggies, slowly introduced him to our Indian food. No meat - just lots of lentils. Chocolates, sodas, junk food are a big NO NO from me - but DH is bent upon giving them sometimes . So far so good.

I definitely don't go by what some food charts say that we have to give this much Vitamins, proteins, etc., What gets cooked at home is given to everybody including the LO. We cook fresh food daily and it is healthy food. That is my opinion.

Originally Posted by helena77

Hi,
Sometimes incredible discussions can be found on the suitability of certain foods, especially cow milk, meat, fish, eggs, tropical fruits.

I wonder what are your experiences, what do your pediatrists suggest?

Thanks for your post. Your kids are very lucky to have such a caring mum. :)

I agree with your point of view on BF. I reduced it after Albert wanted self-service BF in public, now we keep it as our little morning ritual.

The fruits idea is an interesting one, I've never heard that before. I have heard the same about cow milk though.

Do you use all the spices when you cook for all the family including the kids? I found Indian cuisine very spicy and I cannot imagine children eating it, on the other hand, maybe it explains why the adults don't have a problem with all the chilli, ginger, garlic, asafoetida etc. :) - and this is not meant as a critique, I love Indian food and consider (just for myself) green chillies, fresh ginger and garlic to be veggies ;)

Originally Posted by helena77

Thanks for your post. Your kids are very lucky to have such a caring mum. :)

I agree with your point of view on BF. I reduced it after Albert wanted self-service BF in public, now we keep it as our little morning ritual.

The fruits idea is an interesting one, I've never heard that before. I have heard the same about cow milk though.

Do you use all the spices when you cook for all the family including the kids? I found Indian cuisine very spicy and I cannot imagine children eating it, on the other hand, maybe it explains why the adults don't have a problem with all the chilli, ginger, garlic, asafoetida etc. :) - and this is not meant as a critique, I love Indian food and consider (just for myself) green chillies, fresh ginger and garlic to be veggies ;)

Helena, so are you. The fact that you're doing your own reading and research, you rock as a mommy.
Fruits not being good is a new one to me. In my experience, fruits were the easiest to introduce, apple sauce and banana were lapped up readily LOL while I gave on the usual ones like rice, did not go down well with it.
Indian cooking uses a lot of spices that are not hot, like cumin seeds or its powder. It is believed to help in digestion and adds quite a nice flavour just by itself. Asafoeteda is an acquired taste, alright. But we use asafoetida and fenugreek seeds with pulses. After cooking the pulses/beans like red beans, chickpea with fenugreek seeds, we do a tadka. In a teaspoon of oil we splutter a pinch of cumin seeds, powder, asafoetida and some corriander seed powder and mix it to the pulses. For a good measure, we add a few drops of lemon juice to help with the iron absorption and to enhance taste.

Originally Posted by helena77

The chickpea flour sounds interesting ( i noticed it in many Indian recipies) but don't know where to buy it in my country and I don't have the courage and time to try and make it myself.

I hope I did not come on strong about breastfeeding, the second year of nursing has been more challenging to me than the newborn nursing, so I understand. But I do think you're indeed adding quite a bit nutritionally.

Usually, chickpea is sprouted, sundried and then powdered in the blender. I do believe there are quite a few Indian food shops in Europe.

Sounds like you too are a great mom. You are doing so much research to do the right things for your kiddo.

Well I did nurse my DS1 everywhere including public places and still nursing DS2 also everywhere. I believe that you get comfortable as you start nursing in public often. But morning rituals are fun, aren't they?

Regarding the fruits, as I said, this is something that we believe in our home and some Karnataka people believe. When we say this people are surprised. We introduced fruits to Appu after he was one year old or maybe more than that.

During the first year of life, we don't give food which is pungent. After that also we introduce very slowly. We cook seperately for the LOs, till they get accustomed. Even now we cook food with less spices for Appu - he is going to be 4 this December.

Originally Posted by helena77

Thanks for your post. Your kids are very lucky to have such a caring mum. :)

I agree with your point of view on BF. I reduced it after Albert wanted self-service BF in public, now we keep it as our little morning ritual.

The fruits idea is an interesting one, I've never heard that before. I have heard the same about cow milk though.

Do you use all the spices when you cook for all the family including the kids? I found Indian cuisine very spicy and I cannot imagine children eating it, on the other hand, maybe it explains why the adults don't have a problem with all the chilli, ginger, garlic, asafoetida etc. :) - and this is not meant as a critique, I love Indian food and consider (just for myself) green chillies, fresh ginger and garlic to be veggies ;)

Originally Posted by Amitha

S

Well I did nurse my DS1 everywhere including public places and still nursing DS2 also everywhere. I believe that you get comfortable as you start nursing in public often. But morning rituals are fun, aren't they?

:D I used to feed Albert everywhere as well :) It was the self-service that was uncomfortable for me, once he started walking and eating solid food and drinking water or herb teas I decided to end up public BF ... but that was my decisions. Many mums carry on even in public and many quit completely.

And thanks for clearing up a bit my ideas on Indian cooking for kids. :)

Originally Posted by tikka

Indian cooking uses a lot of spices that are not hot, like cumin seeds or its powder. It is believed to help in digestion and adds quite a nice flavour just by itself. Asafoeteda is an acquired taste, alright. But we use asafoetida and fenugreek seeds with pulses. After cooking the pulses/beans like red beans, chickpea with fenugreek seeds, we do a tadka. In a teaspoon of oil we splutter a pinch of cumin seeds, powder, asafoetida and some corriander seed powder and mix it to the pulses. For a good measure, we add a few drops of lemon juice to help with the iron absorption and to enhance taste.

Well, thanks for all this information. Cumin is fine, here we use caraway, which is very similar. I did not know that lemon helps iron absorption, that is good to know. Thanks.

Originally Posted by tikka

I hope I did not come on strong about breastfeeding, the second year of nursing has been more challenging to me than the newborn nursing, so I understand..

It is OK. I agree.

Originally Posted by tikka

Usually, chickpea is sprouted, sundried and then powdered in the blender. I do believe there are quite a few Indian food shops in Europe.

Well, I did not think of using a blender. Thanks for the idea. I'd be afraid that it'd break without a liquid, well, maybe I'll try one day soon...
As for the shops... yes, but I do not know of one in my city within reasonable reach, some things can be found among thai and other asian shops and sometimes even health food shops though, that's true.
But when you say in Europe... well, would you travel from New Delhi to Agra to get groceries? ;) (just joking)

HI frnds...

let me tell abt wht my pedi told me... i just followed some .... 6 months exclusively BF not even water..... so till 6 months only BF... after that they said u can give anything... avoid citrus fruits for 1 yr... non-veg can be introduced only after 9th month... curd he suggested me to give lowfat coz it digest soon it seems...

actually pedi asked to start egg yolk as the first solid food... i did but did'nt suit my DD... so we tried after 9th month... but some of our frnds here started giving from 6th month itself... 1/4 portion of egg yolk in the beginning then slowly u can increase...

so from 6th month i started giving, ragi porridge, cerelac, all veggie, dal, rice, curd ...

but regarding BF here they advice us to give till 2 yrs... i was feeding her till 1.5yrs... then gradually i stopped after that...