Hello again!
   This is in response to the post about getting babies to start ingesting
something other than human milk to develop their tastes for other foods. Human
milk changes flavor (and color) with whatever the mother eats. The mother
serves as a huge filter for all the tastes and proteins that her baby will
eventually experience directly. So there should be no worry about children who
aren't interested in solids at the expected 6-month mark. If the baby is at
the table, and is part of the whole social experience of meals, and allowed to
do what it wants, it will eventually eat. Please Trust the Baby! They are
honest, and want to live and be healthy. From my personal experience, one
child wasn't interested in any food until she was about a year old. The other
child started screaming at a barbeque when she was six months old and wouldn't
shut up until I gave her some chicken!
    I feel that much of our concerns come from our cultural distrust of
birthing and babies. For example, women aren't trusted to be able to push out
a baby, so people grab hold of the baby's head as soon as enough is out to
grab, and start pulling. This does all sorts of damage to the tender bones of
the occiput and neck, as well as undermining a woman's power and often causing
injury to the cranial nerves that are necessary for a good suck. After birth,
people don't trust that babies will know what to do. The easiest way to help a
new mother deal with conflicting advice is to ask her "What does your baby
want to do?" The baby is the only one that knows. If babies were dishonest,
they would not survive.
   Forgive me, but this is a pet peeve of mine. Warmly, Nikki