Premature Baby: When to Start Weaning?
Introduction
Premature Baby: When to Start Weaning? If You Have a Baby of a Few Months
preterm birth - this definition is used for births that occur before the 37th week of gestation calculated from the first day of the last menstrual period - this question has undoubtedly been on your mind.
Perfect! In the article in the next few lines, I will answer you in detail. I remind you that, for further information on feeding your puppy, you can watch the video course “Practical, easy and stress-free self-weaning” , curated by Doctor Federica Dell'Oro, the nutrition biologist of the DrSilva team.
If you want, you can also check out the Instagram profile @drsilva.com_official !
Premature weaning: when to start?
In Italy, 6.9% of births occur before the end of pregnancy ( data from the Italian Society of Neonatology dating back to August 2022). These numbers have increased during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.
Giving birth to a premature baby can be a cause for concern for new parents, who are naturally left wondering when to start offering foods other than breast milk or formula.
As Dr. Dell'Oro reminds us in this video, the same advice given for full-term babies applies .
Parents, therefore, must observe their little one and pay attention to the maturation, on his part, of the psychophysical requirements necessary for the approach to foods other than breast milk or formula.
As I mentioned in this article , we are talking about loss of the extrusion reflex, mastery of the palmar grip, the ability to sit without hunching over with the help of a limited number of supports and interest in food consumed by adults.
A separate parenthesis should be dedicated to age . It is necessary to understand whether to consider the anagraphic one, that is, the actual date of birth, or the correct one, from the presumed date of birth .
Doctor Dell'Oro recommends that families who contact her for consultations start when weaning premature babies when the baby is around 8 months old.
According to the experts who have compiled a document of great importance when it comes to the start of weaning in premature infants , namely theJoint Consensus Statement on Weaning Preterm Infants , respecting the above-mentioned time indication allows us not to miss the sensitive periods for the acceptance of solid foods and to guarantee the child the development of adequate food management skills.
Noteworthy is the scientific approach that is adopted in the extremely rare cases of premature babies born before the twenty-fourth week of pregnancy.
In these circumstances, as specified in this audit , published in 2018, of Italian primary care pediatricians, it is necessary to take into consideration, in addition to the chronological age, also the neurological development of the child.
Weaning a premature baby: what precautions should be taken?
After answering the questions of those who wonder, in the case of a premature baby, when to start weaning , it is good to understand if, with children born before the end of pregnancy, it is appropriate to adopt some precautions.
It must be taken into account that a premature baby may have an immature metabolism and, in some cases, a deficient nutrient reserve.
In light of this, you may need to introduce more calories and energy reserves through your diet.
Parents must respect his/her timing and, as mentioned several times when talking about the advantages of baby-led weaning , expose him/her to a healthy diet , characterized by a balance between the various nutrients and attention to the seasonality of plant-based foods.
Milk, whether breast milk or formula, obviously should not be put aside.
In fact, international guidelines recommend it as the main source of nutrients in the child's diet throughout the first year of life .