Should babies be given solid foods with oil or fat?

My baby is 6 months old and has started eating solid foods. Should I mix vegetable oil or animal fat into her baby food? (Truc Quynh, Long An )

Reply:

Fats provide energy, essential for babies to maintain their daily activities. Some vitamins, such as A, D, E, and K, are fat-soluble. Supplementing with oil helps the baby's body dissolve and absorb these vitamins more effectively.

40-60% of the energy a breastfed baby receives comes from the fat in breast milk. When the baby starts eating solid foods and gradually reduces milk intake, the mother needs to add fat to the solid foods to balance nutrition.

Many parents are accustomed to only using vegetable oil for their babies' weaning diets. However, both vegetable oil and animal fat are essential for babies starting solid foods. From 6 months of age, babies grow rapidly, potentially gaining 1.5 cm in height and 500 g in weight each month. Babies need to supplement arachidonic acid (ARA) – an omega-6 fatty acid – which is abundant in animal fat for better growth.

ARA is also essential for children's development and maintenance of central and peripheral nervous system function, supporting the comprehensive development of the brain and vision. ARA also participates in the production of eicosanoids, which regulate inflammatory and immune responses. This enhances children's ability to fight off many pathogens.

Your baby is 6 months old, so you should mix about 5 ml of cooking oil into each meal (porridge, baby food, soup, etc.). The recommended ratio of animal fat to vegetable fat for a 6-month-old baby is 70% and 30%. You can alternate between two meals with fat and one meal with oil, or at least one meal with a mixture of fat and one meal with oil, to ensure optimal development.

It's important to note that even though a child's meal may contain a certain amount of animal fat from meat, fish, eggs, etc., it may not be enough to meet the body's fat requirements.

Doctor Nguyen Anh Duy Tung
Nutrihome Nutrition Clinic System

Readers can ask questions about nutrition here for the doctor to answer.

Source link: https://vnexpress.net/nen-cho-be-an-dam-voi-dau-hay-mo-4679535.html