>
>
>I think that breast milk for the first year provides all the nutrients a baby
>needs and if it is "deficient" in certain minerals, that may be best for
>human babies in the long run.
>

I think that is a distinct possibility, especially given the research
indicating that large amounts of solids in prehistoric peoples tended to
start around 18-24 mos I think (wasn't that one of the chapters in Kathy
Dettwyler and Patricia MacAdam-Stuart's book?)...what medical science
discovers about the *differences* in babies who had solids early
compared with those who had them later are perhaps not really telling at
all, compared to what our bodies were "programmed" to expect.

I've said before how my daughter started around 8.5 mos and it was tiny
amounts at that point, until well past 12 mos, in my opinion.

I think that generally if you wait until after 6 months and then offer
something that can theoretically be eaten by gums, and swallowed if the
child wants to, and do not actually do any of the feeding yourself,
chances are the baby will start at an age when they're ready.  I know
that my daughter could have physically brought pieces of cooked carrot
or banana to her mouth at 6 months and mushed them with her gums and
swallowed them.  But they all made her gag and though sometimes a piece
found itself into her mouth, it always came back out the way it went in,
though sometimes mushed a bit.  It was only when she got her first tooth
that suddenly, within the space of a few days, she stopped
gagging...though her intake was still very small at that point (1 tsp or
so per day).

I think where we go wrong the most is in insisting we "feed" our
children their "solid" foods, in puréed form.  If they can't eat it the
way it comes, they aren't ready for it, in my opinion.

Interestingly, my mother-in-law who kept saying kids have to be started
out on purées to start things out "gently" (which I don't believe at
all) did have her kids eating food with lumps, not purées anymore...at 8
mos if not before that.  But she started at 2 weeks with the purées and
baby cereals.  By 4 months they were eating soup with soft cooked
veggies in it.  If her kids were able to do that at 4 mos, I don't see
why mine couldn't at 6 or 8 mos (when she was ready to swallow the
pieces), from a motor point of view (the ability to learn to chew and
swallow)...without passing by those purées.  ;-)


Fio.
ressource person with Allaitement Québec
Mama to Sandrine, 31 mos and #2, 11/2002

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