How to Feed an Infant?

Many young mothers face a dilemma when it is best to feed their baby. Clearly by the hour or when the infant asks for it? A recent study by the representatives of Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane has shed light on this question.

A team of scientists led by Professor Lynne Daniels has analyzed the questionnaires of 293 young mothers. The women described how they had brought up and fed their babies up to two years. 14 months later, the experts weighed the children.

The babies, who had been fed according to a schedule, lacked weight. However, the boys and girls, who had been eating when they wanted, had a healthy weight.

Children have an innate ability to control the amount of food they need, as well as their diet. If the baby is fed by force, it loses this ability. In the future, having no habit of relying on the feeling of hunger can lead to the development of obesity.

In other words, one should not force the infant to eat if it does not ask for it, The Telegraph says.