How to make children eat well after ending breastfeeding

A key speaker at a session on
proper parenting, organised
by PREMIUM TIMES, has
advised parents on how to
ensure their babies are well-
fed even after they had
outgrown breastfeeding.
The event, which focused on
how good parenting can help
in nation-building, held in
Abuja on Saturday. It was co-
sponsored by TW Magazine,
and Parenting Resources and
Initiatives of Atlanta USA. A
similar event had held in
Lagos.
Delivering a lecture on the
topic, “ Reconsidering the
nutritional culture of families
and its effects on children’s
health”, the speaker,
Adewumi Ayodele, said
parents should find healthy
ways of enriching breastmilk
substitutes, like pap, to
encourage children embrace
feeding.
According to Mr. Ayodele, a
nutritionist, a large number
of children experience
feeding difficulties after they
had been weaned.
The problem, he said, was
largely because most parents
fail to apply simple tips that
would make food products
adopted as substitutes of
breastfeeding, as enticing as
breastmilk.
“The result of such poor
nutritional culture is always
a depreciating state for the
child,” said Mr. Ayodele.
He suggested ways parents
can make their children eat
better.
“Blend groundnuts and add
Soya beans. Blend that too a
little then add blended fish,
but be mindful of how your
children react to such kinds
of fish. If they like it, go
ahead with it, but if they
don’t, just avoid using it,” he
said.
“Once you have done all that, that is
where you have your reinforced
pack, you will then sweeten it by adding
your table spoon sugar and the normal
milk for children, make sure that the
quantity is sufficient enough to change
the colour of the pap. Note that until the
brown colour changes, you haven’t
added enough milk,” he advised.
Another guest
speaker, Sunday Dogonyaro, Nigeria’s
former ambassador to Sao Tome and
Principe, who spoke on the
topic , “Fundamental life values” , said
families should help children understand
the virtue of tolerance and co-relation,
as a key to addressing social problems in
the society.
Mr. Dogonyaro said schools play a major
role in molding children, and that most
schools in Nigeria have failed to impact
the culture of basic reasoning in
children.
“No child should grow like an Island,”
Mr. Dogonyaro said. “Look for the school
that is a leveler to a large extent.
Critical thinking is at the root of
progress and it is what brings
development to any nation.”
Another speaker at the event, Binta Max-
Gbinije, said parents must watch the
kind of reward packages they give to
their children.
“Let the reward be appropriate, at the
right time and accurate,” she noted. “Let
them know that not all that comes to
them should be theirs.”
Mrs. Max-Gbinije spoke about the power
of savings and how important it is for
parents to save for years for their
children’s future.