>Help.  Need references.

This mom's "reference" is right in front of her--her healthy baby. I think
we get a bit too reference focused.  Where are all of these required
references going to come from?

but is afraid of harming
>baby by not forcing baby to eat more food.

Is this mother *really* afraid of harming her baby by not forcing her to eat
more food?  She is probably just wanting reassurance in following her own
instincts.

My second child, Alison, wasn't eating *any* solid foods at her 1 year check
up.  The doctor (one of the "good guys") checked her H&H and said, "all is
fine she won't be needing solids for quite a while."  Some time later she
began to take an interest in solid foods and happily began eating them. I
was so glad that we hadn't made food an "issue."

BAB and Lawrence mention
>differing info about baby not learning to chew, critical period, if not
>given a chance now.

We discussed that "chew" thing some time last year. Alison not only chews
very well, but even with having been deprived of spoon feeding she also uses
spoon, knife, and fork, (and even chop sticks). We mothers used to be
"blasted" by Blast-prone physicians for not feeding our babies solids at 6
weeks because they would never learn to use a spoon.  One mother asked her
ped if she could give the baby breastmilk with the spoon. :) I was also told
with authority (by an earlier doc) that if I didn't put hard soled shoes on
my baby she would not walk.  Guess what!

People who don't trust that children will grow and develop without force are
telling more about themselves than about children.

Perhaps searching "chewing" in the Archives would get you the posts on the
"chewing window" theory. I think it is another way of making something hard
that doesn't need to be. And the last thing this family needs is for eating
to become a battleground.

I have had a few moms in LLL who have gone several
>months into second year exclusively bf.  One did not monitor H&H and it
>got too low.

In my 23 years of active LLL work, I knew many babies who were exclusively
breastfed into the second year.  I also knew one whose H&H was low, but
there were hundreds whose weren't low. And when the one baby was discovered
to need a boost, he got it and continued breastfeeding.

Has the baby been sick?  Sometimes after an illness our zinc levels can be
low and food doesn't taste good.  If you search the Archives for zinc you
will find a post I wrote in December '96 on this subject. But if the baby
has been healthy and is gaining weight and looks good, then mom will do well
to relax about solid foods. (And chewing too.)

Patricia Gima, IBCLC
Milwaukee




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