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#1
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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 |
#2
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Ready to eat?
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 |
#3
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Ready to eat?
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 |
#4
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Ready to eat?
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 |
#5
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Ready to eat?
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 |
#6
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Ready to eat?
"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 |
#7
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Ready to eat?
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 |
#8
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Ready to eat?
"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). |
#9
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Ready to eat?
"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 |
#10
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Ready to eat?
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 |
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