I'm still no mail and reading LN in the archives only.  The thread on
baby-led weaning, and the thread on legitimate clinical reasons to give
solids before six months, prompt this post.

The official Norwegian recommendation is now exclusive breastfeeding for six
months unless the baby is not thriving, in which case supplementation is
advised.  Below four months they recommend breastmilk substitutes but if the
lack of thriving as shown by faltering growth on exclusive breastfeeding
does not manifest itself before four months, they may recommend solids
rather than other milk, on the premise that this is less likely than bottles
to hasten the cessation of any breastfeeding.  I don't know what evidence,
if any, there is for such a premise.  I'm also fairly sure that when a four
month old baby here shows signs of faltering growth that give rise to
concern, a good focused look at the situation carried out by someone skilled
at helping mothers and babies overcome problems with breastfeeding is the
exception rather than the rule.  The attitude is laissez-faire in favor of
letting breastfeeding fall by the wayside because after all, four months is
plenty long enough.  After all, just a few years ago we were insisting that
mothers introduce commercially prepared, sweetened, iron fortified cereals
at four months, and threatening them with the spectre of brain-damaging
anemia if they continued to fully breastfeed for six.  A lot of the staff
counseling mothers today have been working in the same jobs for decades and
it takes more than a change in an official recommendation to change
practice.  

Oddly enough my first child who was born in the US did not taste anything
but my milk until she ate a piece of writing paper at six months, which was
also when she was offered crisp flatbread made of full grain rye flour and
water as her first official weaning food.  She didn't express any curiosity
about what we put in our mouths and in fact vehemently refused to taste
things, so that we could go for Viennese cakes far into her second year and
she would play happily with an ice cube while we indulged.  The only things
she liked were savory, preferably quite spicy and with some consistency.
She was two years old before she discovered, on finally tasting it, that she
liked chocolate ice cream.  She continued this conservative approach
throughout childhood though is more adventuresome now as an adult.

Second child was exceedingly curious about our dealings with food from about
two months.  We never considered letting him experiment at that age, despite
his very clear interest.  But when he was four months we let him have a
taste of something from the table which I mashed for him and he loved it so
I continued for a few days.  He started waking more at night so I stopped
the solids and held him off for about another month.  He weighed as much at
four months as his sister had done at a year, despite being just one pound
heavier at birth.  He never needed a bib, never spit out anything he'd been
offered, and never allowed us to spoon-feed him, preferring to do it
himself.  He was given pureed table foods for the most part, and commercial
cereals which at the time were available without added sugar or milk, which
is no longer the case here.  At eight months he realized we were eating the
same foods but without pureeing them and from that moment on he refused
purees too.  

I do think the curiosity children first show about food and eating is more
an expression of curiosity about the world around them than a conscious
desire for a more varied diet.  I wouldn't have let him taste a hot chili
pepper to satisfy his curiosity, nor other foods that I would not want him
to get a craving for.  But I could select from our table those foods that
are suitable weaning foods and offer those, and we let his response guide us
further.  I remember thinking how good it was that he was born second
because we would have thought there was something wrong with our daughter if
our first experience was with an omnivore who cleaned his plate, never threw
food on the floor or massaged it into his hair or clothes, and was equally
enthusiastic about pancakes, ratatouille, and salt herring at the age of two
years.  I know now that he was much less typical than she was.  Our family
has always given priority to mealtimes together, and to preparing food
together, and both the children have acquired those customs.

All Gill Rapley really says is that we can continue to practice on-cue,
child-led feeding right through weaning and beyond.  It is the adult's
responsibility to see to it that weaning foods are appropriate, just as it
is the adult's responsibility to see to it that the first food is
appropriate, and then it is the child's prerogative to eat as much or as
little of what is on offer, as their hunger dictates.  It is really the same
as on-cue breastfeeding.  Her approach appeals to me because it is what I
did myself and it worked for us, but also because it is cheaper and simpler
than any other approach I know of.  Now that my children are grown and I see
that they have remained free of weight problems, body image disturbances and
eating disorders, I am even more convinced that treating eating as you would
treat any other physiological, development-contingent process, is by far the
easiest and probably the best way to go.  This goes for weaning, walking,
getting out of diapers, talking, learning, all of it.  When the child is
ready to move on, it will do so.  

Rachel Myr
Kristiansand, Norway
Wondering how she ever managed without the baby timer gadget to tell her
when the children needed attention !!

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