Babies Have Different Nutritional Needs

It may be worthy to note that babies have different nutritional needs, safety and proper care even for the feeding equipment is thus necessary for a healthy baby.

This is a challenge especially for first time mothers. To be able to manage the possible stress of feeding your baby, you will need to understand the different nutritional needs as your baby's growth progresses.

It may be necessary to tell you that babies even before conception needs nourishment. Proper nourishment of your baby inside your tummy will help develop his organs and prepare him for the challenges the world outside has to offer.

You will thus need to ensure you eat well and involve all the four food groups to ensure you will have a healthy baby.

Babies 0 to 4 months old also has different nutritional needs as against older babies, understanding this will help you understand your babies requirements as he grows.

Feeding requirement and feeding equipments for babies 0 to 4 months old

At this stage, babies may only take liquid food intake such us milk. This will be either breast milk or formula. Whichever of the two you choose to give your baby, they will need different feeding equipments to ensure safety and healthy babies.

Breast Feeding Equipment

• Breast Pad - make sure you use clean pads all the time. This will help avoid bacteria developing around the nipple that may harm your newborn.
• Nursing Bra - you need this to help avoid the inconvenience of breastfeeding.
• Breast pump - you will need a breast pump especially when returning to work. It will help lessen the pain you will experience as the milk bulk in your breast. Clean every after use. Choose the brand that you can sterilize, this is another safety precaution.

Bottle feeding equipment

• Feeding bottles - at this stage, newborn babies need frequent small amounts of milk. Having enough bottles will give you enough time to clean them well and be ready for every use. Sterilize bottles to avoid bacteria building up that may harm your babies' health.
• Bottle and Teat cleaning brush - this will help clean the bottles thoroughly.
• Sterilizer - this is necessary for ensure feeding equipment such as the feeding bottles will be safe for use.
• Bottle warmer - using bottle warmer is a convenient way to ensure you feed your baby with warm milk all the time. You may however ensure that you do not heat the milk too much, because it may cause discomfort on his part.
• Insulated bottle carrier -especially when traveling with your bundle of joy, your insulated bottle carrier will be enough to fit all the babies' equipment including feeding bottles with warm water and milk powder in the dispenser. This will help you prepare whenever and wherever when you baby needs feeding.

Feeding equipment for babies 4 to 6 months

This stage of baby's growth is when you can start introducing solid foods. In doing this, you will need the following:

• Bender - l your baby will not be able to digest pieces of food. Coming from milk, only pureed food can be digestible. Start with bland food such as baby rice or potato. They are the best to start his maturing digestive system.
• Dinnerware - Plastic bowls, plates and twin-handle cup with spout may be necessary to assist your baby while going about weaning.
• Bibs - Use this to protect the baby from messing with his food. Choose toweling bibs because they are soft for your baby.

Feeding equipment for babies 7 months and older

Your baby may now be able to handle spoon and probably start picking stuff and putting them in his mouth. Feeding the baby at this stage could be somewhat difficult because your baby might fight for the spoon. Prepare for this by having two sets of utensils so that you can give him one set to play with while you continue feeding him with the other.

You will still need to sterilize all the feeding equipments your baby will use, safety at this stage is always necessary.

As mentioned earlier, babies nutritional needs vary as their growth stages advances, knowing when to feed and using proper feeding equipments can help you lessen the stress of this special task of giving life to your bundle of joy.

Avoid undue tension by trying to understand what your baby needs rather than ask around from other people, each baby has different needs and has different personalities.

Understand what your baby's personality and enjoy the growing up stage of your little angel in the house.

Summary

Proper choice of feeding equipments will help your baby look forward to mealtime. Your choice of feeding equipment and ensuring they are safe for use will help you avoid subjecting your baby to external factors that may harm him.

Also, use mealtime as a bonding time between you and your baby. You may also give daddy sometime to bond with baby by letting him feed the baby when he has acquired enough patients to do so.