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Dhaka Day by Day

The Changing Modern Babies

By A S M Nurunnabi
All things change and the spirit of change affects all — young and old babies and adults alike, flic strange thing about babies Is that they sometimes pick up new things more quickly and in queer ways There is, however a gulf 6f difference lietween a child of the past and that of the present. In the past, a baby used to crawl, in due time on the floor. Nowadays babies move Irani side to side in hanging cribs listening to Hindi songs Previously babies used to suck at the breast of their mothers like yearlings. Al present babies suck at coca-cola from feeding bottles' in the bark seat of a car. These are not uncommon sights in the streets of Dhaka. In the traffic jams and in crowded parking areas, mothers are seen feeding their babies
with soft drinks m feeding bottles. Tin' considerabiy lessens the burden ol tin moliiers in preparing milk formula loi their sophisticated babies.
There are other indications that mod ern babies are a fas tldious lot. They show other dimeii sions of change in their food habits. Am mother will tell you that the more she bothers with her child's food habit' the greater is the te sistance by the tim thing who prefers i -go its own ways. All mothers more or
less, particularly the new ones, get tefribly upset over such problems and consult the doctor frequently to solve such food problems. The assurance of the doctor that there is nothing wrong with such babies and that it is part of their developing individualism does not help the mothers much. .The mothers seem to be at a loss to understand why a baby instead of milk and baby foods cares more for soft drinks, tea or iccc ream. Of course this is an urban attitude and by and large does not affect babies in the' rural areas. This places an urban mother in a difficult position. The mother does not seem to care much about the conunonsense view that a child will take Its food when hungry and that there is no cause for worry if the child develops an iiKllvidti.il pattern in its likes and dislikes about loot I. The-result is that the mcllier .worries and suffei' .1 l"I Of late urban babies show a new dimension of change in their approach to food consumption. It has been observed that some children of 4-5 age groups are strangely attracted to TV commercials. When these programmes are on the air, these children become more pliable and accommodating In their acceptance of food This Is definitely a stroke of good luck for those whose children are generally recalcitrant. Previously this spell of good luck was available In the afternoon. This facility extend ed when the CNN began its morning telecast Now the situation has changer! more. In the changed circumstances. BBC/CNN/Satellite TV programmes are run almost throughout the whole day. During these periods, mothers find
an easy way of feeding their babies. Some mothers find an additional way of distracting their babies at feeding time. Some children are equally attracted by cartoon films. So for reasons of variety, the mothers play on the VCR/VCP/ Satellite TV as situations demand, at feeding times. Thosg whp have no satellite TV. play cartoons with the help of VCR/VCP when the BBC/CNN programmes are off. The cartoon films are also very helpful in keeping babies otherwise
Imsy and out of harms way. The strategies of the parents to feed their babies this way go awry when there is load shedding. At such times the parents become helpless.
The problems of feeding the young get intensified if the young ones happen to belong to nuclear families where the mothers always remain worried about the dietary habits of their small children. The mothers' Insistence make the babies more obstinate. But it is strange that Irrespective of age. children are fond of soft drinks, sipping them from bottles or glass containers. Some are even addicted to tea like adults. So some mothers find no alternative but to mix some tea with milk when feeding their children. Indeed the pattern of diets of children sometimes become strange in modern times, thanks to soft drinks lea. CNN/BBC7 Satellite TV advertisements utoon films.