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Home › Articles › Feeding Baby › No Low-fat Diet for Baby

No Low-fat Diet for Baby

Fat Performs Essential Functions for Infants and Toddlers

By Sheila Seifert

Pages:  1  2  3  

In addition to well-meaning parents, some infants and toddlers face malnutrition through lack of resources. Kevin and Marla Kiley of Denver, Colo., adopted their second son, Dane, from a Russian orphanage where nutritional resources are not as available as they are in the United States. At his first doctor's visit, Dane's weight and height as a 14-month-old were below all the numbers on the charts. "I put sour cream in his ground-up baby food and fed him the skimmed cream off of whole yogurt," says Marla Kiley. "I melted butter on his food and added cream instead of milk to his cereal." After two months in the United States, Dane gained 4 pounds. "HHis doctor says that it's OK to feed him a high-fat diet until his height or weight reaches the bottom numbers on the charts," she says.

High-energy Resources
Breast milk is the best source of fat for newborns. If an infant is weaned before the age of 1, an infant formula is preferred. "I would recommend a toddler's fat source be table food and whole milk through age 2," says Nielsen. A child's appetite for good food is an excellent indicator of what they need.

Toddlers should drink approximately 3 cups of milk each day or eat the equivalent in a milk product such as yogurt or cheese. Following the food pyramid, toddlers should have four servings of either fruits or vegetables and of cereal or bread. In addition, they should eat at least two servings per day from the meat group, which could include items such as peanut butter, eggs and beans.

Instead of giving a child an adult's diet, parents should model a high-fiber and low-fat diet and feed their children high-calorie, nutritional food. "A diet during infancy is not advisable," says Churchman. "The first year of life is when a child grows most. If I had understood the importance of fats in relation to brain cell development, I would have seen another doctor immediately for a second opinion."

Essential Fatty Acids in Infant/Toddler Development

Arachadonic Acid (AA): General growth, growth of brain membrane and blood vessels.

Decosahexanoic Acid (DHA):
Nervous system, retinal development, growth of brain membrane and blood vessels.

Both of these long-chain, polyunsaturated fatty acids, also called LCPs, can be found in breast milk and cold-water fish.

Linolenic Acid:
Growth and cognitive development. Linolenic acid is found in breast milk, flax seed, wheat germ, soybeans and canola oil.

Sources of Fat for Children

For babies 0 to 4 months and up to 6 months:
Breast milk or formula

For babies 4 to 6 months and up to 10 months:
Solid foods added to breast milk or formula
Rice cereal (4 to 6 months)
Vegetables except spinach and beets (7 months)
Fruit (8 months)
Unsweetened juices
Potatoes and soft finger food as teeth grow

For babies 10 to 12 months:
To the child's diet, parents can add meat, cheese, yogurt and egg yolks without the whites until they are 1 year old.

For babies 1 to 3 years:
The child should have milk and solid foods such as meats, green vegetables, liver, breads and cereals.


Pages:  1  2  3  

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