Buzz
Traditional infant feeding has been a generational method passed down through the ages by Vietnamese mothers. Each meal for the baby consists of mashed mixed ingredients including vegetables, meat, and fish right from the start of weaning. When the baby starts teething, the mother switches to feeding porridge with mashed food. With the traditional weaning method, the mother spoon-feeds the baby, and the baby's only task is to swallow the food. Many believe that traditional weaning is no longer suitable for today's times. However, this is not entirely true. Every year, millions of Vietnamese children reach the weaning age and are fed using this method by their mothers.
Recently, traditional infant feeding has fallen out of favor with mothers. Is it because this method is outdated?
So what leads to the rejection of traditional infant feeding by mothers?
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Poor ability to chew
Since traditional infant feeding involves only mashed food, it affects the baby's ability to chew, resulting in poorer chewing and swallowing functions. Many children by the age of 2-3 can only swallow whole or eat mashed food, which is unhygienic. For example, boiling bones to cook porridge for children, taking children for a stroll while eating, eating and shouting, jumping around... This greatly affects the child's stomach and digestive system.
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Poor ability to differentiate baby's food
Traditional weaning foods are mixed and mashed, making it difficult for the baby to differentiate the flavors of each ingredient. Moreover, because of the mixed feeding, parents find it difficult to accurately identify the baby's favorite foods or which ones may cause allergies.
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Difficulty integrating with family meals
Since the baby only knows one mixed flavor, they will have difficulty integrating into family meals as they grow up. Additionally, cooking with shared ingredients will make it difficult for the baby to perceive flavors, leading to food boredom, picky eating, and food selectivity in the future.
The undeniable strengths of traditional weaning
– Baby's digestion system is protected by finely mashed food
– Pureed food is easily accessible for newly weaning infants, allowing them to consume large quantities early on, promoting healthy weight gain.
– It's easy to gain support and acceptance from the family when there are no conflicts regarding infant feeding practices across generations.
– The infant feeding menu is simple, requiring no elaborate processing, saving time for busy mothers. It's suitable for those who prefer simple preparation methods, minimizing time consumption.
Mothers often associate the traditional method of infant feeding with roaming around, pressuring the baby to eat, etc. However, there's no documentation mandating such practices. It's merely a desire for their babies to eat more for satisfaction. Yet, branding traditional infant feeding as outdated and boycotting it is a misconception.
On the contrary, traditional infant feeding remains effective in certain cases such as infants averse to milk, mothers with low milk supply (from the 8th month onwards), or infants with weak bones or frequent vomiting. If mothers want to learn from other countries' weaning methods, they can combine traditional infant feeding with Japanese-style weaning and Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) – allowing faster texture changes without the slowness of traditional weaning and occasionally letting babies self-feed.
Each weaning method has its own strengths. The key is ensuring good nutrient absorption, healthy eating habits, and full development – so even if it's a traditional approach, there's no reason why mothers shouldn't follow it. What's important is that mothers know how to choose safe food for their child, ensure nutritional quality during preparation, and maintain freshness when storing food.
To select the right method for your baby, mothers shouldn't rely solely on intuition but also consider the baby's health, well-being, and the mother's time availability. Each mother's approach may vary, but they all share one commonality: love for their child and the desire for the best for their child. Therefore, mothers should not boycott traditional weaning but should instead look at its advantages to consider whether to apply it to their baby's circumstances.
