Why Do Children Need Companionship At The Age Of 6 Months? This Is The Answer

Illustration (Andrea Piacquadio/Pexels)

JAKARTA - To achieve optimal growth and development, children need a balanced nutritional intake. The goal is to improve the quality of life in the future. At the age of 0-6 months, children's nutrition can be fulfilled from breast milk (ASI). But after the age of 6 months and over, breast milk alone is not enough to meet the daily nutritional needs, such as iron and calcium.

Iron serves to form blood hemoglobin and prevent anemia. Meanwhile, the function of calcium is to help the formation of bones and teeth. In addition, calcium is also needed for muscles, heart, nerves, and other body organs so that they can function properly.

Mom, did you know that babies aged 6-12 months need 11 mg of iron per day which is higher than the needs of children aged 1-3 years? While breast milk contains only 0.3 mg of iron / day. Because breast milk cannot meet the iron needs, children must be supplemented with complementary foods. The choice of complementary foods must also be nutritionally balanced.

For introductions, you can give soft-textured solids and continue with coarse-textured solids later. Because children begin to adapt to solid food and practice eating skills (Oromotor Skills). You can schedule complementary feeding to children three times a day in the morning, afternoon and evening.

As you get older, you can alternate snacks twice a day outside of main meal times, in the afternoon and evening. However, the frequency and portion of snacks for each child is not the same. There are children who are given enough snacks twice a day, but there are also more.

From a variety of snacks for children, choose snacks that contain iron and calcium. Reported from the Femina page, Monday, August 9, dr. Muliaman Mansyur, Head of Medical KALBE Nutritionals said that organic snacks are made from organic ingredients that are processed naturally.

Foods from organic ingredients can help reduce the risk of disorders in children's health in the long term. "Organic MPASI can be an option for children, where organic MPASI comes from agriculture and is processed naturally and naturally so that it is good for the ecosystem, also has more antioxidants for health," said dr. Muliaman.