<< And they are ready when they try to grab food and put it in their mouths. >> Both of my kids have shown advanced gross motor skills, early reaching, walking, swimming, climbing, etc. My fair little girl has shown my sister's tendency towards sensitive skin and had more eczema than I would have expected from an exclusively bf baby (dairy in my diet was partly responsible). She was reaching and grabbing food from 5 to 8 months and then having diaper rashes and stomach upset. That was the first of many signs that she would be "ready" for certain things before she was really prepared/equipped to handle them (the teenage years will be interesting!). I'm thinking that with #3 I will intentionally try to hold off solids until a "date on the calendar" to allow the intestinal/immune readiness to catch up with the motor skills (and I'll give up the frozen sugared bovine secretions). Someone posted about giving a spoon, other suggestions or comments are welcome (private email please). Elaine Ziska Jackson, MS *********************************************** The LACTNET mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software together with L-Soft's LSMTP(TM) mailer for lightning fast mail delivery. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html