Dr Rachit Saxena

Nutrition Between
1 and 2 Years of Age(Part 2)
What should I feed my child
at 1 year of age?
By 1 year, child should be offered all foods prepared at home for other members of the family. He/she can take cereals, vegetables, fruits, pulses, milk, egg, meat, and fish.
Iron-rich foods such as green leafy vegetables, jaggery, meat, and fish should be included in diet.
“Variety is a good appetizer”. So, add variety, but introduce new foods one at a time.
Food items to be avoided include tea, fruit juices, sugar-sweetened beverages and other junk foods containing high amount of sugar, salt, fat, and chemicals, which not only make the child feel full but are also harmful. Too much
milk (apart from breastfeeding) should also be avoided.Use milk to prepare balanced foods for the child rather than making him/her drink the milk repeatedly.
Self-feeding should be encouraged. Your baby will be slowv and messy at first but it will promote good feeding habits.
Offer foods up to 4–5 times in a day. Small frequent feeds may help to increase food intake and help in better digestion.
Handle the food hygienically.
Do not offer food sitting in front of TV/mobile. If possible,tell her/him good stories (It will improve her social skills also) at the time of feeding. Basically, make the mealtime a
pleasant event for the child as well as for parents.
Food items such as groundnut and sweets may lead to choking (aspiration). Forceful feeding also may rarely lead to aspiration. So, take care.

Dental Hygiene (Part 1)
Are baby teeth important, as they fall
anyways?
Primary/milk teeth/baby teeth give shape to your child’s face and help to guide permanent teeth into the right position.
They are crucial for learning to eat and to speak thus, it is important to care for them.
Protecting baby teeth is important as they are around for 12 years and not just as tools for chewing.
Healthy baby teeth are also important for language development, jaw growth, and
coordination of the musculature as they are for esthetics and therefore for your child’s self-esteem.

We all have stories and some stories are magical(The Antenna Baby).
Your courage to fight and live was commendable boy(22days of hospital stay 4 days of NIV).
Attending you in OPD today brought the sense of satisfaction and joy to my face, antenna baby yes that is what we named you when I placed a canula at your scalp coz no where else I could find the veins as you had been admitted and refered to R & R hospital New Delhi from previous two hospitals.
I remember the face of your father when I agreed to admission.
You have a story yes a story of courage that helps me keep fighting that if you made it so can other babies to. If I can fight for you and bring you back so can I do for other babies too.