'Children should be fed family diet for normal growth'
Children aged six months and onwards should have different items of our diet as complementary food, for their normal physical and mental growth.
“We have to bring change in complementary food items for children as they have equal tastes like adults,” Chairperson of Training and Assistance for Health and Nutrition (THAN) Foundation Dr Rukhsana Haider told yesterday.
Children cannot continuously have the same food, she said, adding that they want change in food items like adults.
Rukhsana, also a former associate scientist of International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR, B), said many people give their children the same food again and again as complementary food.
As result, those children lose their taste and decline to have complementary food, which push them into malnutrition.
After six months of age, children need complementary food along with breast milk for their proper mental and physical growth, Rukhsana added.
She suggested people to feed their children from family diets such as rice, fish, meat, eggs, colourful vegetables and fruits.
Complementary food is needed for children from the age of six months for normal growth, said Chairperson of Bangladesh Breastfeeding Foundation Dr SK Roy. “We prefer the complementary food prepared at home,” he added.
He said children could suffer from malnutrition despite having complementary food along with breast milk, if the complementary food is not prepared with six components- carbohydrate, protein, fat, vitamin, mineral and water.
Dr Roy said children have small stomachs and cannot consume much food at a time. “So, we should prepare complementary food by mixing different items so that small quantities of it contain much calorie,” he added.
World Health Origination (WHO) recommended breastfed children of 6 to 23 months to be given food from animal source, fruits rich in vitamin A and vegetables daily.
Breastfed infants (6-8 months) should be fed complementary foods two to three times per day, with one to two snacks as desired. Breastfed children (9-23 months) should be fed the meals three to four times per day, with one or two snacks.
Children aged 6-23 months and stopped being breastfed should receive milk products to ensure that their calcium needs are met.
In addition, they need animal-sources foods and vitamin A-rich fruits and vegetables.
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