Creating Healthy Children
(excerpts from Creating Healthy Children — Through Attachment Parenting and Raw Foods by Karen Ranzi)
Transitioning from breast milk to solid
It is fundamental that infants receive mainly mother’s milk for most of the first year of life.
At least until the end of the first year, the baby’s diet should be mother’s milk. Dr. Graham points out, Mother’s milk is 50% fat by calories. A one year old fully nursing child will take in about 1000 calories from milk, 60 of which are protein, hence about 15 grams. This supplies more than enough protein for the child and demonstrates the fastest growth spurt in the complete human growth cycle. The introduction of fruits between ages one and two should total approximately 10-20% of calories, with fat intake being reduced by only a few points. As larger scale weaning occurs between ages two and three, fat from mother’s milk will drop another 10-20% or more.
Dr. Graham says, Under the age of five, children still require plenty of fat, but more than the percentage of fat found in mother’s milk would be too much fat.
The child should not be given solid food to chew until there are many teeth.
Another likely sign of readiness for solids is if the child isn’t gaining enough weight from mother’s milk alone and requires additional food.
Children who begin eating before they are ready often develop allergies.
Toward the end of the first year, foods high in carbohydrates can be offered only if the child truly desires them.
It is best for baby to eat mono meals (one food at a meal) as this is easiest on baby’s still developing digestive system.
When the child is ready, the first solid foods should be ripe fruits.
During the latter part of the first year, a very limited amount of diluted unprocessed fresh fruit juices may be given. These juices could be 50% water and 50% juice, made of oranges, apples, melons or pears.
Victoria Boutenko, in her article, The Imprinting of Eating Habits, lifelong food preferences start to develop while a baby is still in the womb. The strongest pattern for future food preferences is formed during the age of 9 to 18 months.
Most children under age three or four do not secrete enough of the salivary enzyme ptyalin, or the pancreatic enzymes necessary to digest starch. Babies who eat cereal grains and legumes will often have indigestion, colic, constipation, colds, hives, diarrhea, problems with tonsils and adenoids, poor dental development and other even more severe problems.
After the child has decided to wean, there is no need for any kind of milk. Milk from other species is known to cause health problems such as asthma, mucus, cold, ear and throat infections, and is linked to many diseases such as various forms of cancer and osteoporosis that abound primarily in countries that consume cow milk. Aside from breast milk, fruit is the easiest food for baby to digest later in infancy.
Excerpts from Creating Healthy Children — Through Attachment Parenting and Raw Foods by Karen Ranzi.
**High Vibe does not endorse or not endorse anything in this article and suggests reading this book, and others, and interviewing mothers of healthy children, before making any major decisions regarding your health or the health of your children. We have seen many raw women succeed in having healthy babies and others not succeed so highly.
High Vibe knows that nature is perfect and that if a woman listens to her body she will be directed to eat what is prefect for her and her child, and this this is not based on any percentage-based diet plan. The best advice is to enjoy life, enjoy your pregnancy and stay positive and compassionate at all times…sing and talk to the child and hear them sing and communicate with you. It’s All God.
