SINGAPORE – The first two years of a child’s life is the golden window of opportunity for parents and caregivers to inculcate healthy lifelong eating habits. During that time, what and how parents feed their children is crucial.
To prevent picky eating in later childhood, parents should introduce food such as vegetables into their infants’ diets when they are six months old and still breastfeeding.
Fruit juices and sugar-sweetened beverages should be avoided until their children turn two.
These tips come from Singapore’s first set of Guidelines for Eating and Feeding in Infants and Young Children, which was jointly developed by KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital (KKH) and the College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Singapore to help parents and caregivers foster healthy eating habits in children.
The recommendations come after a KKH study of over 1,000 caregivers in Singapore found that children’s eating behaviours and caregivers’ feeding practices were suboptimal.
The study found that children were offered a limited variety of foods, resulting in a lack of balance in nutrition.
One in five infants in the first year of life was offered foods from only three food groups or less. In addition, 10 per cent of infants here were given sugar-sweetened beverages.
Providing sugary foods at an early age can predispose children to obesity as it can cause them to develop a liking to sweet foods that can stay throughout childhood and adulthood, said Associate Professor Chua Mei Chien, the head and senior consultant of KKH’s department of Neonatology, who chaired the workgroup that developed the guidelines.
According to the study, 10 per cent of children aged between one and two years old were unable to eat independently using their hands or utensils. Self-feeding, however, should be encouraged from six months of age.
About 100 children of caregivers surveyed were distracted with digital devices during mealtimes.
Children exposed to screens while eating tend to overeat and consume more unhealthy foods as they ignore their own satiety cues when distracted. Risk of developing behavioural problems such as attention-deficit disorders is also increased, said Dr Chua.
It was also found that about half of the children who were between six months and a year old, and almost a quarter of children aged between one and two years, were still provided milk between 12am and 6am, either every night or most nights.
The guidelines advise parents to feed their infants during the day after they turn six months old as consuming calories at night elevates the child’s risk of obesity.
“No one is born a fussy eater nor with a sweet tooth. What to feed, when to feed, and when to stop feeding are deliberate choices that parents and caregivers must make for young children who will not know better otherwise,” said Dr Chua.