Christine asked: Why not educate parents as to how to tell if their individual baby is ready?
I wish it were that simple!
In my decades of helping breastfeeding moms I've seen many changes
In the 70's (before I had kids or knew about La Leche League) I watched and tried to learn the skill of my sister-in-law, who put baby food in the mouth of my 6-month-old niece - then scraped it off her face and put it back in...
As I dealt with my own baby - I tried to put 1/4 CUP of banana in the poor child at his 6 month birthday (to this day he HATES banana).
But I've also found that when we went to "skill readiness" or "maturity" - it became a 'competition' ... MY baby is "ready" at 5, 4, 3 MONTHS compared to HER baby - MY baby is [fill in the blank] [brighter/faster/more coordinated]
Dr. Jane Heinig and her team have been trying to add more knowledge about feeding readiness, and you can see some great information in their "Secrets of Baby Behavior" website: http://www.secretsofbabybehavior.com/
They have an article on starting solid foods: http://www.secretsofbabybehavior.com/search/label/starting%20solid%20foods
They also conducted research and provided training to California WIC staff as a result of the research with information such as the one that addresses NOT overfeeding babies just because they cry:
http://www.cdph.ca.gov/programs/wicworks/Documents/NE/WIC-NE-EdMaterials-CryingAndSleepingEnglish.pdf Sometimes they need to be PLAYED WITH!
More information is available at: http://lactation.ucdavis.edu/
Jeanette Panchula, BSW, RN, PHN, IBCLC
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