Feeding & Nutrition

A nut-free rule in a classroom is there because for one child in that room, a trace can be an emergency. Here is how to comply without a boring box.

The breakfast a child actually eats is the one that is ready. Fifteen options that are made before the morning starts.

The hour after school is the hungriest, crankiest hour of the day, and what is in the house at that moment decides most of a child's daily nutrition.

Twenty recipes chosen for one quality above all: they are still good at eleven o'clock, at room temperature, eaten fast with one hand.

One planning session on Sunday removes five 6 a.m. decisions. Here is the week, the prep, and how to rotate it so nobody notices the pattern.

Every baby prefers sweet, because breastmilk is sweet. A fruit-only diet is a normal preference taken to an extreme, and it is missing the two things Indian toddlers most often lack.

Some babies grab the spoon at seven months and some want nothing to do with it at fifteen. Most of the gap is temperament, and some of it is fixable.

The bottle matters less than the cleaning. Here is what to buy, and the routine that actually keeps it safe in an Indian kitchen.

Plenty of mothers never need a pump. For the ones who do — returning to work, a preterm baby, supply problems — the right type saves hours.

Breastfeeding is natural; it is not automatic. The first weeks are a learned skill for two beginners. Here is the guide that is honest about the hard parts — and clear about the few rules that really matter.

The reliable signs are nappies and weight, not the clock and not how long a feed took. Almost every worry at this age comes from measuring the wrong thing.

Most food reactions in children are not allergies — and the few that are matter enormously. Here is how to tell them apart, and what to do when a reaction starts.

Before adding food, check whether there is a problem at all — and if there is, the answer is usually energy density rather than quantity.

Most unsettled formula-fed babies do not have an allergy. A minority do, and the difference is worth knowing precisely, because switching formula on a hunch causes its own problems.

Formula exists for good reasons and feeds healthy babies every day. What matters is preparing it correctly — that part is not optional, and most of the risk lives there.

Packaged baby food is convenient, expensive and heavily marketed. Homemade is cheaper and mostly better, and there are situations where the packet wins.

The commonest reason a child does not eat at mealtimes is that they have been eating all afternoon. Grazing is the problem that disguises itself as fussiness.

There is no correct number of spoons. What there is: a rough shape by age, and a principle — you decide what is offered, the baby decides how much of it is eaten.

Milk is made by being removed. Almost everything that genuinely raises supply comes back to that one fact — and most of what is sold does not.

The Indian kitchen already makes the best baby food there is. Here is the month-by-month plan — what to introduce when, how thick, and the recipes that take ten minutes.

The advice reversed within the last decade. Delaying allergenic foods was once standard and is now known to increase risk — introducing them early, and keeping them in the diet, is what protects.

More than half of India's young children are anaemic — and the fatigue, poor appetite and slow learning it causes get blamed on everything else. Here is how to fix it on a normal Indian plate.

It can be done safely, and it cannot be done casually. The nutrients at risk are specific, and B12 is the one that causes irreversible harm when it is missed.

No Indian child is going to grow up without chips, cold drinks and instant noodles. The aim is not banning them — it is keeping them at the edges of the diet rather than at the centre.

Milk goes from being the whole meal to being one item on a plate — and most Indian toddlers are given far too much of it. Here is the right amount, the right container, and the powders you can skip.

Most Indian children stay on a bottle far longer than guidance suggests, and the night bottle is the one that does the damage.

Millions of Indian children grow up strong on vegetarian food. It works — provided four specific nutrients are deliberately planned rather than assumed.

Six months, give or take readiness — that's when the spoon enters the story. Here is the Indian kitchen's version of weaning done right: what to start with, how to progress, and the short never-before-one list.

There is no correct date to stop breastfeeding — only a decision that suits mother and child. What matters is doing it slowly enough that neither of you suffers for it.

Ten recipes, organised by when you need them rather than by ingredient. Quantities are for two children; allergens are marked on each.

Almost every toddler in India is described as a fussy eater by someone in the family. Most are eating exactly as much as they need. Here is how to tell the difference, and how to stop the war.

The tiffin box is a small daily negotiation between nutrition, taste and what survives four hours in a school bag. Here is how to win it most days.

Painful feeding is common, is not something to endure, and has several causes. Tongue-tie is one of them and it is both over-diagnosed and missed.