Ready to eat?

I know there are people and institutions say that you should breastfeed
exclusively until 6 months, but what do you do when an exactly 5 month
old baby grabs your hand, and stuffs your toast (with cheez whiz) into
her mouth? Do you feed when they seem ready to eat? You would think so.
Around here though, it's small town ignorance, I've heard about and
seen people feeding pablum in bottles, pablum to 2 and 3 month olds,
chocolate milk (in a bottle!!!) to 3 year olds, so no one to ask
here...people who swear up and down that rice cereal makes their baby
happy, the doctor TOLD them to feed a 2 week old cereal because the
baby needed the food....
I think I'll be the first to feed because she WANTS to eat solid
food...

Stasya

Some say kids can start as early as 4 months but personally, even though DS
was eyeing off my food and fascinated with this weird activity we were
doing, I didn't start him on anything solid until he was 5 and 1/2 months
old. Even then, it was 1 flat teaspoon of rice cereal mixed with breast milk
for over a week and didn't increase it until HE showed that he was ready for
more. He'd eat one or two baby teaspoons of it and I'd have to throw out the
rest. This from a kid who got excited at the sight of toast! I think that
probably a 4 month old's digestive system isn't really ready to deal with
anything other than milk. At the beginning the solids are more of an
experimental and learning thing than actually feeding. Once they are eating
enough to satisfy their hunger and start dropping milk feeds, THEN I'd say
it's actually really feeding.

To check your little one is ready, try giving her some milk on a plastic
baby spoon. What you are looking for, on top of interest in food, is that
the extrusion reflex has disappeared. She needs to open up for the spoon and
not stick her tongue out instead, blocking entry to the mouth. DS used to
sometimes "chew" by sliding his tongue in and out of his mouth, but he
opened up nicely for the spoon nicely.

"stasya" wrote in message
oups.com...
I know there are people and institutions say that you should breastfeed
exclusively until 6 months, but what do you do when an exactly 5 month
old baby grabs your hand, and stuffs your toast (with cheez whiz) into
her mouth? Do you feed when they seem ready to eat? You would think so.
Around here though, it's small town ignorance, I've heard about and
seen people feeding pablum in bottles, pablum to 2 and 3 month olds,
chocolate milk (in a bottle!!!) to 3 year olds, so no one to ask
here...people who swear up and down that rice cereal makes their baby
happy, the doctor TOLD them to feed a 2 week old cereal because the
baby needed the food....
I think I'll be the first to feed because she WANTS to eat solid
food...

Stasya

I know what you mean about people feeding their kids solids from an
extremely early age. After DS was born my well-meaning mother offered to
give me her books, the ones on which she had raised my sister and me. Herbal
tea from 2 weeks old. Diluted juice from 1 month old. Vege soup through an
enlarged bottle teat from 2 months. I think introduction of meat was at
around 4 months. I had a look at the quantities of food my then 4 month old
was supposed to be consuming and shuddered. Then I thanked her and said I'd
get a book that was slightly more modern than the 70s. She thought I was
being over-protective.

To this day my mum doesn't understand why I don't give DS juice or herbal
tea. She says it's "good" but doesn't quite understand my reasons for it. I
tried explaining that juice can rot teeth that haven't even cut through the
gums and that the herbal industry is unregulated in Australia so any old
crap can end up in "herbal" stuff, but it's not getting through. That's how
she fed us and we never got rotted teeth or poisoned by herbal tea. I know
that since the 80s there's been _some_ regulation of the alternate medicine
industry, but the fact remains that they are not subject to the same checks
and balances as traditional medicine and that independent tests consistently
show that amounts reported on the bottle or jar don't necessarily reflect
what is in that bottle or jar. I'd rather feed my kid food that I cooked and
let them drink cooled boiled water!

"stasya" wrote in message
oups.com...
I know there are people and institutions say that you should breastfeed
exclusively until 6 months, but what do you do when an exactly 5 month
old baby grabs your hand, and stuffs your toast (with cheez whiz) into
her mouth? Do you feed when they seem ready to eat? You would think so.
Around here though, it's small town ignorance, I've heard about and
seen people feeding pablum in bottles, pablum to 2 and 3 month olds,
chocolate milk (in a bottle!!!) to 3 year olds, so no one to ask
here...people who swear up and down that rice cereal makes their baby
happy, the doctor TOLD them to feed a 2 week old cereal because the
baby needed the food....
I think I'll be the first to feed because she WANTS to eat solid
food...

Stasya

stasya wrote:
I know there are people and institutions say that you should breastfeed
exclusively until 6 months, but what do you do when an exactly 5 month
old baby grabs your hand, and stuffs your toast (with cheez whiz) into
her mouth? Do you feed when they seem ready to eat? You would think so.

That's how I hope to do things next time around. (This time, I was
obsessed with the whole
never-a-scrap-of-anything-other-than-breastmilk-shall-sully-the-purity-of-my-child's-gut-because-the-WHO-say-so-so-it-must-be-crucial
dogma. Until I actually read the WHO recommendations and realised how
little they were basing it on.)


All the best,

Sarah
--
http://www.goodenoughmummy.typepad.com

"That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be" - P. C. Hodgell

Sarah Vaughan wrote:
stasya wrote:
I know there are people and institutions say that you should breastfeed
exclusively until 6 months, but what do you do when an exactly 5 month
old baby grabs your hand, and stuffs your toast (with cheez whiz) into
her mouth? Do you feed when they seem ready to eat? You would think so.

That's how I hope to do things next time around. (This time, I was
obsessed with the whole
never-a-scrap-of-anything-other-than-breastmilk-shall-sully-the-purity-of-my-child's-gut-because-the-WHO-say-so-so-it-must-be-crucial
dogma. Until I actually read the WHO recommendations and realised how
little they were basing it on.)


All the best,

Sarah
--
http://www.goodenoughmummy.typepad.com

"That which can be destroyed by the truth, should be" - P. C. Hodgell

I think too that while recommendations are excellent just for your
peace of mind, common sense must prevail.
After I posted my original post, I tried to feed my baby some yogurt.
She loved it! Opened up for the spoon, sucked some down, spit some out,
and was entirely fascinated by the experience. Then about a half hour
later I nursed her, and she spit up, which she hasn't done in ages. So
maybe yogurt wasn't the way to go! lol. I hadn't bought any rice cereal
or applesauce yet, I was just trying what was on hand to see if she
would accept the whole spoon in mouth thing. Also I offered her a bit
of honeydew to suck on, which I don't think she really thought was
food.
If any of you think this is shocking, you should hear what my dh says
HIS mom did with the babies....at 6 months, when they were teething,
she'd give them essentially blue rare chunks of steak to mouth on,
they'd get iron, and something soft...just when you'd thought you'd
heard it all...

Stasya

"stasya" wrote and I snipped:
I know there are people and institutions say that you should breastfeed
exclusively until 6 months, but what do you do when an exactly 5 month
old baby grabs your hand, and stuffs your toast (with cheez whiz) into
her mouth? Do you feed when they seem ready to eat? You would think so.
Around here though, it's small town ignorance, I've heard about and
seen people feeding pablum in bottles, pablum to 2 and 3 month olds,
chocolate milk (in a bottle!!!) to 3 year olds, so no one to ask
here...people who swear up and down that rice cereal makes their baby
happy, the doctor TOLD them to feed a 2 week old cereal because the
baby needed the food....
I think I'll be the first to feed because she WANTS to eat solid
food...

I hear ya, and I agree that you will do what you think is best, however
.......

I've heard it here, and it makes sense to me, to consider that a baby will
grab and mouth almost anything, including your car keys for example. That
action, in and of itself, does not indicate a readiness for solid food.

The reasons I waited until after 6 months with my two included desire for
their stomachs to be ready for something more than breastmilk, awareness
that solids would not fill them up or offer much nutrition for months to
come, and laziness. That last one because spooning food into a baby's mouth
takes time.

-Patty, mom of 1+2

To check your little one is ready, try giving her some milk on a plastic
baby spoon. What you are looking for, on top of interest in food, is that
the extrusion reflex has disappeared. She needs to open up for the spoon
and not stick her tongue out instead, blocking entry to the mouth. DS used
to sometimes "chew" by sliding his tongue in and out of his mouth, but he
opened up nicely for the spoon nicely.

only if you think that the way to feed a baby is with a spoon, we were lucky
with our DD, in that the day she chose to pick something up and eat it was 3
days short of being 6 months, but she had the tongue thrust for much longer
than that, it was between 8 and 9 months that we could reliably feed her
with a spoon.

Anne

"Anne Rogers" wrote in message
...
only if you think that the way to feed a baby is with a spoon, we were
lucky with our DD, in that the day she chose to pick something up and eat
it was 3 days short of being 6 months, but she had the tongue thrust for
much longer than that, it was between 8 and 9 months that we could
reliably feed her with a spoon.

Fair enough. It is generally recommended that kids are started on rice
cereal, hence the feeding with a spoon idea. I guess there is no reason not
to start them on soft boiled vegetables which they can hold in their hand
instead. I'd steer clear of bread/toast at that young age, though, as wheat
products are not supposed to be introduced until around 8 or 9 months (due
to possibility of gluten intolerance or allergy).

"stasya" wrote in message
ups.com...
I think too that while recommendations are excellent just for your
peace of mind, common sense must prevail.
After I posted my original post, I tried to feed my baby some yogurt.
She loved it! Opened up for the spoon, sucked some down, spit some out,
and was entirely fascinated by the experience. Then about a half hour
later I nursed her, and she spit up, which she hasn't done in ages. So
maybe yogurt wasn't the way to go! lol. I hadn't bought any rice cereal
or applesauce yet, I was just trying what was on hand to see if she
would accept the whole spoon in mouth thing. Also I offered her a bit
of honeydew to suck on, which I don't think she really thought was
food.

The yoghurt was the problem. You shouldn't start her on full-on dairy for
another couple of months. DS tolerated yoghurt well from about 8+ months.
Between 6 and 9 or 10 months is when most allergic reactions happen. The
reason I know about the 6 to 10 month reaction window is because I gave DS
egg white at 10 and 1/2 months and he had a reaction. He had not reacted to
the yolk given in the previous week. After he came out in a huge rash I did
a bit of research on kids and allergies and pretty much those first few
months, when you're introducing new foods, is when they are most likely to
have a reaction. So delay the common allergens - wheat (gluten) 8 months,
milk (lactose and milk proteins) 8 or 9 months, eggs (particularly egg
whites which carry more egg proteins than the yolk) after 10 months and nuts
(this is the biggie, most likely to cause death due to anaphylaxis) after 1
year. If you can hang on and delay nuts until after 2 years, all the better.
Especially if your daughter has eczema, which is a marker for a kid prone to
allergies.

If any of you think this is shocking, you should hear what my dh says
HIS mom did with the babies....at 6 months, when they were teething,
she'd give them essentially blue rare chunks of steak to mouth on,
they'd get iron, and something soft...just when you'd thought you'd
heard it all...

As long as it was beef... And was fresh... LOL Beef is the only meat humans
can consume without cooking. Unlike pork and chicken, it doesn't actually
carry any of the bacteria that make us sick. See my other post about what my
mum thought would be a good solids introduction schedule

stasya wrote:

So
maybe yogurt wasn't the way to go! lol. I hadn't bought any rice cereal
or applesauce yet, I was just trying what was on hand to see if she
would accept the whole spoon in mouth thing. Also I offered her a bit
of honeydew to suck on, which I don't think she really thought was
food.

I'm not one of the super-cautious about avoiding allergens, but both of
the things you tried are considered best to hold off on for a bit. Of
course, I fed my first child plain yogurt from seven months or so with
no problem.

If any of you think this is shocking, you should hear what my dh says
HIS mom did with the babies....at 6 months, when they were teething,
she'd give them essentially blue rare chunks of steak to mouth on,
they'd get iron, and something soft...just when you'd thought you'd
heard it all...


Well, I cooked it first, but I did offer beef liver as a first food for
my two older boys. I cut it up very small so they could essentially
swallow it whole if they didn't get the chewing thing. I figured iron
was what they needed, and it was what Adelle Davis recommended, so . .
.. Son #1 was eating whole hamburgers at 8 months!

Leslie