Just wanted to say DITTO to Jan Barger's post about offering the baby food and NOT making a big deal of it. As soon as it becomes an arena of control issues, the child has the upper hand. In Mali, the approach is just the opposite of the usual U.S. approach, in that food is offered and it is totally up to the baby to eat or not. Now, this can become a problem when the baby is anorexic because of zinc deficiency or illness, and the parents have no cultural practices to fall back on to encourage baby to eat. Both extremes can be problematic. I have an article "Infant Feeding Styles" in American Anthropologist (1990?) if anyone is interested in cross-cultural perspectives on the feeding of solids. Katherine A. Dettwyler, Department of Anthropology, Texas A&M University e-mail [log in to unmask], specialist in infant feeding and health co-editor of Breastfeeding: Biocultural Perspectives