It is the component of life that is most essential to the child’s growth and development. Infants will have a slightly different feeding pattern depending on whether the infant is breastfed or formula fed. Formula fed babies my need to eat about 6 to 8 times per day. The newborns will start with 2 to 3 ounces of formula per feeding for a total of 16 to 24 ounces per day. As with breastfed babies, the number of feedings will decrease as the baby gets older. The amount of formula will increase to approximately 6 to 8 ounces per feeding during this stage of the baby’s growth. At 4 to 6 months of age an infant should be consuming 28 to 45 ounces of formula per day. The baby should also be transitioning to solid foods as well. Infant formula should never be frozen because this can cause the products’ components to breakdown. Infant formula can be used until the infant is 1 year old. The AAP does not recommend regular cow’s milk for children under 1 year’s old. After the age of 1, the child should only receive whole milk and not skim or reduced fat milk.
Proper preparation of infant formula is important to the nutritional needs of the infant. First and foremost the formula should be checked for the expiration date. The “use by” date should be checked before using the formula. Caregivers should never purchase or use formula that is outdated. Before using baby bottles for the first …show more content…
Feeding cow’s milk during infancy can cause anemia as it irritates the gut and can lead to small but consistent loss of blood from the GI tract. This condition can interfere with the absorption of some nutrients and a high solute load. Immature kidneys can have difficulty excreting these types of solute loads. Thus, the AAP recommends three types of formula: Ready to feed, powder, & concentrate. Nutritional requirements are important to the safe growth and development of infants. Most importantly, proper preparation is vital to the infant’s