I have to weigh in on this topic, if briefly.

While solids as early as 3 months would protect against problems caused by
bottle-feedings, I rarely see problems with bottles (occasional) by 3
months, but I HAVE seen problems with mothers giving eary solids.

In some studies, it has been shown that the addtiion of solids does NOT
change the volume of milk babies are GIVEN in bottles (holder of bottle
governs its use, of course), but that breastfed babies' intake of human
milk from the breast WAS affected; they breastfed much shorter periods.

In my practice, I have seen some babies given early solids (defined as
before 5 months) whose rate of gain started to fall off the charts.  Why?
Mothers gave solids before breastfeeding (to make the baby take them! and
because MD told them to do this to "make sure" baby took them) and the
resultant caloric load dropped markedly.  Check those baby food jars in the
stores.  2.5 oz of baby carrots (a favorite of mothers for some reason;
perhasp to avoid those nauseous smelling baby peas!) is only 25 calories in
the entire jar.  Since breastmilk ranges from 18-27 cal/oz.  mom was
substituting 25 calories for what would have been at least [averaging at 20
cal/oz) 50 calories!  ACK and double ACK!

Most early solids mothers give are NOT calorically dense unless they know
what that means, are told, and prefer to give things like yams/sweet
potatoes, bananas or avocados.

SO.... (whew!) if I am asked about early solids, I warn about giving them
first before a breastfeeding and explain why I have concerns about that,
and then suggest caloridcally dense foods rather than the low-calorie ones
most often given.  We, of course, also talk about why mother is in such a
hurry to have to "enjoy" really smelling stools....  sometimes the
"olfactory" effect of them slows down the process.  :-)

Especially when fathers hear about stool changes likely to be experienced
as a result.

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Kathleen G. Auerbach,PhD, IBCLC (Ferndale, WA USA) [log in to unmask]
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