(Article reposted from 2013 blog)
Babies are designed to thrive on a predominately liquid diet for the first several years of life. Yet our culture does not support the promotion of prolonged breast feeding or even long term use of formula for infants. The reasons for this are interesting and addressed in the article, Need to Feed (will repost and provide a link in the future).
Transitional formulas are a concept of providing a nutrient rich liquid diet at a time when solid foods would generally be introduced, often while continuing breastfeeding. Transitional formulas follow the principles of appropriate food introduction and developmental readiness for food. They allow a child a more gradual transition between a liquid and solid diet by solving many of the problems faced by strictly breast feeding (or formula feeding) or an abrupt change to solids.
Transitional formulas may truly transition a healthy child to a solid diet, or may be used
therapeutically to deal with medical issues such as weight gain issues, food allergies (or allergy prevention), nutrition related issues, or sometimes even to resolve family or social issues. Whatever the reason, transitional formulas require careful assessment and monitoring to assure correct nutritional standards are met, weight gain is appropriate, and early symptoms of nutritional illness are identified and corrected. Since all children are different, transitional formulas allow a practitioner to improve nutrient and calorie intake while individualizing solid food introduction based on the unique needs of the child.
For more information on food introduction, plan to attend our class, First Foods. Consider this article in the context of that class which discusses the appropriateness of transitional formulas for individual children.
