When a child is very young, whether they are breastfed or on formula, their basic food needs are more or less taken care of. But as the child gradually grows teeth, a new mother faces her first question: how to prepare meals for the baby? This article shares how to solve the problem of indigestion in children through common household foods.
The first food to aid digestion: Rock Sugar Candied Hawthorn Water
A child's digestive tract is still immature and fragile. Many children also tend to eat quickly. Furthermore, with the abundance of food today, parents often let their children eat too much or have irregular meal times, which can easily lead to digestive problems.
When a child has indigestion or food stagnation, there's no need to buy medicine. You can buy a串 of rock sugar candied hawthorn from the street, put it in a pot to simmer over low heat, add two large red dates, and simmer until the dates and hawthorn flesh are soft. Remove the hawthorn pits and date pits, and let the child drink this soup. It's sour, sweet, tastes good, is gentle on the stomach, and is also effective.
Sweet Hawthorn Water
The second food to aid digestion: Fermented Glutinous Rice (Laozao)
Fermented glutinous rice, also known as sweet fermented rice, is a southern Chinese snack that every household can make. People in the north might not be familiar with it, but it's not difficult to make and can be learned quickly. For the sake of my child, I advised my daughter to get into the habit of making it. This food is rich in B vitamins, which aid digestion and help a child's metabolism. It helps the body metabolize carbohydrates and also aids in energy metabolism. Women trying to lose weight know that accelerating carbohydrate and energy metabolism can lead to weight loss.
Today's children eat too many refined grains like rice and flour, leading to an insufficient intake of B vitamins, which can cause obesity. Therefore, eating fermented glutinous rice can also reduce the chances of childhood obesity. Coincidentally, my daughter's mother-in-law is from the south and is very good at making delicious fermented glutinous rice. This food is highly beneficial for children and costs very little. Using it to supplement vitamins for your child is much better than buying capsules from the pharmacy. Making fermented glutinous rice is simple: just soak glutinous rice until it's fully absorbed, steam it, mix in a sweet wine starter bought from the supermarket, seal it, and let it sit for a while.
The third food to aid digestion: Yogurt
Yogurt contains probiotics called Bifidobacterium, which are one of the normal flora in the gut. They are the body's "health guards" and the gut's "clean-up crew," helping to maintain good intestinal function.
Why are Bifidobacterium considered the body's "health guards"? Because the Bifidobacterium living in the intestine grow on the intestinal mucosa, forming a "biofilm barrier." It's like building a Great Wall of steel on the surface of the human intestine, acting like a police officer, preventing invading pathogenic bacteria from finding a foothold for growth and reproduction. Why are they called the gut's "clean-up crew"? Because the lactic acid and acetic acid secreted by Bifidobacterium stimulate the intestinal wall, promoting intestinal peristalsis and maintaining normal bowel function, thus expelling harmful and toxic substances from the intestine in a timely manner.
Homemade Yogurt
However, nowadays, Bifidobacterium is used as a commercial gimmick. Many advertisers claim their dairy products contain "Bifidobacterium," but in reality, active Bifidobacterium are only found in homemade yogurt. The Bifidobacterium in industrial dairy products have already lost their activity, to put it plainly, they are dead. Why is that? Because Bifidobacterium are anaerobic and die easily when exposed to air. By the time industrial dairy products reach the consumer, after such a long process, the Bifidobacterium inside have almost all lost their activity. Therefore, these commercial claims are essentially taking advantage of people's lack of nutritional knowledge, playing a conceptual game. Only freshly brewed and freshly eaten yogurt is rich in Bifidobacterium. Only by eating this kind of yogurt can you effectively utilize Bifidobacterium to solve a child's digestive problems. It should be emphasized that yogurt should be consumed after a meal, not on an empty stomach.
Of course, drinking yogurt is also an effective way to supplement calcium.