I am not convinced that the "window of opportunity" for "spoon feeding" is real.
"Spoon feeding" is cultural...no one has to eat with a spoon.

Babies will start to pick up food and eat it with their hands when they want to, and when 
they can- they don't have to be "taught" how to eat solid food when they have no 
underlying medical problem.

FTT under a year of age is usually the result of too little, not too much breastfeeding, and 
it never has anything to do with the "failure" of the mother to force her child into eating 
solid food.
  
Most cue-fed babies/toddlers who can transfer milk well, and who have mothers without 
milk supply problems, will gain weight well on a year of exclusive to a year and a half of 
near exclusive breastfeeding, something they do by choice even though they are offered 
solid food.

The vast majority of these children will go on to incorporate more and more solids into 
their diets as their caloric needs out pace their mothers' milk supplies, and their growth 
will never falter because their mothers missed that supposed "window of opportunity" to 
"teach" their babies to eat solid food.

After a year to a year and half of age if FTT appears it is in spite of, not because of the 
level of breastfeeding a child is doing, or has done in the past. At this time exclusive or 
near exclusive breastfeeding, is a SYMPTOM- not the cause- of their feeding problems.

When the elderly have weight loss or feeding difficulties the medical profession 
recommends "formulas" because of the ease of consuming liquids and the nutrient density 
of these formulas. It is completely senseless to blame or withdraw breastfeeding as part 
of a care plan for a baby or toddler with FTT.

If a child is still breastfeeding when he presents to the medical profession with difficulty 
with chewing or swallowing- and he actually does need surgery or therapy so he can 
"learn" to eat-   the first response of the medical profession is to blame the mother for 
not introducing solids at the "appropriate time" in the "appropriate fashion" but this is 
almost never what has happened.  

[I am not saying that there aren't cases of FTT where mothers are withholding solids from 
toddlers who want them, but surely this is rare, (except in certain sub-cultures where the 
practice of exclusive breastfeeding for two years is actively promoted.)]

Most mothers begin to offer solids even earlier than they should.
It is the child who either refuses them or else is "appearing" to refuse them because 
when he gets them in his mouth he can't cope with them.

Some of the reasons I have seen that babies and toddlers refuse solids include- 

-they have been late to cut teeth and when they finally do have a mouth full of teeth they 
eat.

-severe tongue tie- they can't use their tongues properly to manipulate the food to the 
sides of the mouth where it can be chewed and then swallowed.

-severe food allergies


I have seen many cases of late failure to thrive where the doctor has recommended 
complete weaning from the breast because he has been taught the "window of 
opportunity" myth and he thinks breastfeeding has to be withdrawn in order to force a 
child to "learn" to eat. 

This is about as effective as starving the baby who cannot make a latch- thinking he can 
be "starved" into breastfeeding. 

It is the "window of opportunity" myth that make so many doctors approach feeding 
difficulties like a carpenter who only has one tool- a hammer- in his tool box.
Bringing the hammer down does more damage than good. 

The underlying chewing, swallowing, or allergy issues don't magically go away when 
breastfeeding has been withdrawn.

The only reason the "window of opportunity" myth persists in the medical profession is 
that so few doctors and nurses have any personal experience with mother-baby 
togetherness and cue-feeding  which results in a copious milk supply and a normal course 
of nursing where solids play little role in a child's nutrition until well after the first 
birthday.

Any research that purports to show a "window of opportunity" that closes before a year to 
a year and half of age simply hasn't had enough cue-fed, breastfed babies and toddlers in 
its research sample. 

On this list alone I'd bet there are thousands of examples of breastfed babies who refused 
any quantity of solids until the middle of the second year of life, and when they finally did 
want them they had no feeding difficulties whatsoever and their growth never faltered in 
the slightest.








 



 




 

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