Fingerfood Beikost avoids overweight

Baby nutrition: Fingerfood as a complementary diet avoids overweight

02/07/2012

Finger food for the weaning of breast milk lowers the risk of obesity in babies. Being able to take their first food into their own hands will seem to reduce their sweet tooth preference and reduce the likelihood of subsequent weight problems, according to a recent study by Ellen Townsend and Nicola Pitchford of the University of Nottingham.

Like the news agency „AFP“ According to Nottingham University, British women researchers found that toddlers, who were the first to consume postpartum breast-feeding portions of semi-solid self-service food, had significantly less weight problems than babies fed with a spoon. The scientists compared in the context of their study the so-called „baby-led weaning“ (literally: baby-controlled weaning) with the usual weaning of breast milk by mash and puree-fed by spoon-feeding.

Baby-controlled weaning of breast milk
The „baby-led weaning“ sees as the first food bite-sized pieces of semi-solid food for self-service before and offers in the view of British researchers considerable advantages over the usual diet of puree or porridge. For example, as part of their study of 155 babies, the children who were spoon-fed developed a preference for sweets much more often than the babies with finger food diets for self-seeking. Also the children had the group of „baby-led weaning“ normal weight and were less fat after the end of breast milk weaning, than the babies with conventional Beikost-feeding, the news agency reported „AFP“ about the im „British Medical Journal“ (BMJ) published study by Nicola Pitchford and Ellen Townsend.

Finger food promotes healthy eating habits in babies
According to the British researchers, their current study results show that babies are less likely to become overweight if they can manually choose their first breast-feeding meal by hand. There is much to suggest that baby-controlled cessation of breast milk contributes to the promotion of healthy eating habits in early childhood and thus protects against obesity, say British scientists. However, further studies are needed to make a clear statement, as only 155 babies have been observed in the current study, concludes Nicola Pitchford and Ellen Townsend. In the future, however, the researchers' findings could fundamentally change the transition from breastmilk to complementary foods - away from spoon feeding with porridge or puree, to fingerfood in bite-sized portions. (Fp)

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Image: Lisa Black