Just wanted to say DITTO to Jan Barger's post about offering the baby food
and NOT making a big deal of it.  As soon as it becomes an arena of control
issues, the child has the upper hand.  In Mali, the approach is just the
opposite of the usual U.S. approach, in that food is offered and it is
totally up to the baby to eat or not.  Now, this can become a problem when
the baby is anorexic because of zinc deficiency or illness, and the parents
have no cultural practices to fall back on to encourage baby to eat.  Both
extremes can be problematic.  I have an article "Infant Feeding Styles" in
American Anthropologist (1990?) if anyone is interested in cross-cultural
perspectives on the feeding of solids.
Katherine A. Dettwyler, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University
e-mail [log in to unmask], specialist in infant feeding and health
co-editor of Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives