Infant: Encyclopedia II - Feeding and lifestyle

Infant - Feeding and lifestyle

Feeding is done by breastfeeding or with special industrial milk, "infant formula". As infants age, and their appetites grow, many parents choose from a variety of baby foods to feed the child. Infants have a sucking instinct allowing them to extract the milk from the nipples of the breasts or the nipple of the baby bottle. If the mother is unable to breast feed, or does not want to, infant formula is used in Western countries. Sometimes a wet nurse is hired to feed the infant.

Breastfeeding provides infants with many natural immune substances and isolates the infant from most bacteria or other contaminations in the local water supply. Infant formula does not provide these immune substances and in places with poor quality water supply, subjects the infant to an increased risk of disease.

Infants are incontinent, therefore diapers are generally used in industrialized countries, while methods similar to elimination communication [1] are common in third world countries. These techniques assert babies can control their bodily functions at the age of six months and they are aware when they are urinating at even earlier age. Babies can learn to signal to the parents when it is time to urinate or defecate by turning or making some noises. Parents have to pay attention to the baby's action so they can learn the signals.

Babies cannot walk, although more mature infants may crawl; baby transport may be by perambulator (stroller or buggy) or on the back or in front of an adult in a special bag, cloth or cradle board. Infants cry as a form of basic instinctive communication to their parents when in need of feeding or when in discomfort.

As is the case with most other young children, infants are usually treated as special persons. Their social presence is different from that of adults, and they may be the focus of attention. Fees for transportation and entrance fees at locations such as amusement parks or museums are often waived.

While there is no defined end to infancy, babies are traditionally called "toddlers" when they start to walk. Even if not standing and walking, children older than one year are often no longer considered to be an infant and called a toddler regardless of whether they can actually toddle. Conversely, daycares with an "infant room" providing infant care will call all their charges in the infant room "infants" even if they are older than a year and/or walking; they will sometimes use the term "walking infant".

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Feeding and lifestyle", http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infants, under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki