Hello!

 My name is Katy Giller, and I have been lurking and learning for about
3 months.  I am an RN, work in labor and delivery, worked on a
mother-baby unit at a teaching hospital for 4 years, and in their
lactation support service for two years.  This is my first post, so feel
free to let me know if I'm doing anything incorrectly.

One of the dieticians I worked with at the teaching hospital was very
knowledgeable about breastfeeding and active in the Nursing Mother's
Counsel.  She told me that she thought it was important for babies to at
least start trying some foods other than breastmilk at about six months
because this was an important time to begin developing tastes for other
foods.  She said she had had to work therapeutically with some children
who had been fed breastmilk only for more than a year and that it was
difficult because they wanted everything to taste like milk, and as a
result were "picky eaters" to the point of having to see her on a
professional level because of their poor nutritional status.

I wonder if there is a developmental period babies go through in which
their brains are "ripe" for learning to like different foods, just as
there is for language acquisition, for example, and if you miss that
window of opportunity to introduce new tastes, it becomes more difficult
later.  I don't know.  I just thought I would share this angle on an
interesting subject.

Katy Giller
Mother of Alexandra,Brookes and Zoe, who zealously breastfeeds at 11
months