. It seems to fit in with my philosophy, following the child's own pace and letting him introduce himself to food. It is also an extremely economical and time saving idea. No purchasing baby food and no hassle making it. I have been all ready to do things differently. In the end, I ended up pulling from multiple sources to decide how my son should start eating, but this was definitely the right place for me to start.First things first, we had to decide when to start solid foods. After all the research I've been doing, six months seems like the earliest choice. Babies digestive processes just aren't ready to handle food until this point as their stomachs are designed to process breast milk quickly and effectively. The stomach lining pulls proteins directly into the blood stream without having to break it down, which is great for breast milk but not good for solid food proteins which need to be broken down. At the same time, baby's gag reflex is at the front of the mouth so that he only ingests liquid foods. This is why people have to puree everything and spoon feed before this time, they have to override his natural gag reflex. Baby's body is telling us what he needs and we don't need to override it. At six months, this gag reflex moves further back and the stomach begins to break foods down. This is the earliest starting point.
Now, just because baby is six months old, doesn't necessarily mean he's immediately ready for food, so if your child isn't interested, that's ok. You just wait until he is. My little guy showed interest almost immediately, but at as he gets older, I can see it increasing. When they start grabbing for food on your plate or watching you eat and mimicking your chewing, you know they are ready. And even if they just play with it and don't put it in their mouths yet, that's okay too. It's all about exploration.
For us, knowing when to start wasn't the hard part, although you do have to have all the conversations with all of the people who wonder why you haven't started solids yet (when they do, I just tell them what the research says). The hard part has been trying to figure out WHAT to start. This one seems less easy to decide. According to the baby led weaning book, you can start with most foods that are easy for your child to gum. By cutting the food in long spears so that your child can grasp it while still having some stick out to eat, your child can begin to explore the food. Baby led weaning strongly advises against any spoon feeding.
Another book I picked up, Super Baby Food, has a very specific regimen for which foods to feed when. I picked this up because I was starting to learn about how an infant's digestive system is still developing, and they only have certain enzymes at certain points in this development. If the food needs a certain digestive enzyme that baby has not developed, then you may end up taxing the infant's system. At first I was frustrated by Super Baby Food
because it did not mention the actual science, so I tried to do the research on my own. Let me tell you, it is extensive. This book has already done the research on when a baby's system is ready for certain foods, so I have chose to follow that (although not strictly).Now, the book I just mentioned, also has a lot of suggestions for making baby food and how much baby should eat and when. I've decided to ignore that part and stick with the baby led weaning for that. My little guy's main food source is still breast milk and food is merely exploration at this point (he's seven months now). When he's hungry, I feed him by breast, and make sure food exploration does not occur at times of hunger (so he doesn't wean to early and also so he isn't fussy). I am not strict about not spoon feeding...I let him eat foods I've mushed off a spoon (such as banana, avocado, and squash). But, he has complete control on whether or not he eats and how much. I just hold the spoon up and his head does the rest. Otherwise I give him whole foods to gnaw on so he can begin learning how to take a bite, how to swallow it, and how big to make it.
No one ever told me how scary this would get. The truth is, I'm glad we are following the baby led weaning, because his gag reflex is still far enough to the front of his mouth to keep him from choking. If I weren't letting him explore that now and only feeding him purees, then when he did get to larger bites of food, his gag reflex would be further back and he would be more in danger of choking. But I'll tell you, his gagging isn't any less scary. Actually, part of why I put spoon feeding into the mix is so that he has some opportunities to just focus on learning to swallow food. Sometimes when he gags on something, he ends up spitting it out and then refusing to eat anymore because he didn't like gagging (which I must say is relieving to me because, when he gags, I just feeling like throwing all the food away and telling him he can breastfeed until he's 20!). In those instances he doesn't get swallowing practice, so I think the spoon feeding mixed in helps him cover all the bases.
There's a lot of vigilance involved. I make sure I watch as he eats, which is easy since he's either in a high chair right up at the dinner table (no trays) or in my lap (it's important infants stay upright when they eat). I make sure I see how big his bite is, just in case. I also make sure to check his mouth after he's done and make sure no food is left over or he might choke later. Beyond that, I just have to remember that all of us learned to eat somehow...it's a natural process and he will be okay. And then I appreciate that I know the Heimlich Maneuver for infants.
So far, I haven't worried about allergies. My pediatrician said that there's no real evidence that delaying foods delays allergies, so instead, I look for an inflammatory response. From what I understand, if he gets mucus or sinus stuff, that implies that he's having an adverse reaction. So I stay vigilant there too. I haven't been feeding foods one thing at a time either...I just figure that if I ever see a response, I'll work backwards. I have been avoiding salted and sugared foods as I know that babies don't process either well.
So far, that's been our exploration into food. We've tried banana, avocado, squash, plain yogurt, cucumber, broccoli (although, I need to hold off on that again now that I've learned about digestive enzymes), and crackers. It's slow going, but I'm hoping that by letting my son explore a wide-array of taste and real foods, we'll be on the start to a healthy and well-rounded appreciation for food.
Thanks for the poost
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