Introducing Solid Foods: When, What, and How - Part One

This article provides information on why wait, infant feeding at a glance, feeding solids: six to nine months, and feeding strategies. There will be more on safe toddler (one year and older) feeding tips, feeding solids: nine to twelve months, making your own baby food, commercial baby food, and bring out the cup in Parts Two and Three, so keep an eye out for these articles.

  Experienced mothers have discovered a basic principle of introducing solids foods -- feed babies according to their own developmental skills rather than a preset calendar or clock. babies'; appetites and feeding skills are as individual as their temperaments. Let's feed them that way.

  Over the years infant-feeding practices have changed -- for the better. No longer do we feed babies according to the calendar, stuffing cereal into the reluctant six-week-old and feeling we have failed if baby has not taken a full-course meal by six months. Today, infant feeding involves matching good nutrition with individual developmental and intestinal readiness, which varies widely from baby to baby. Reading the feeding cues of your baby, introducing solid foods gradually, and encouraging self-feeding all lead to that important principle of baby feeding: creating a healthy feeding attitude.

Why Wait?
  You and your three-month-old are comfortably breastfeeding, and baby certainly seems to be getting enough to eat.

Baby's tongue movements and swallowing skills are the first clues to delaying solid foods. In the early months, babies have a tongue-thrust reflex that causes the tongue to automatically protrude outward when any foreign substance is placed upon it. This may be a protective reflex against choking on solids too early. Between four and six months this tongue-thrust reflex diminishes. Also, prior to six months of age many infants do not have good coordination of tongue and swallowing movements for solid foods. An added sign that babies were not designed for early introduction to solid foods is that teeth seldom appear until six or seven months, further evidence that the young infant is primarily designed to suck, rather than to chew.

  Not only is the upper end of baby's digestive tract not designed for early solids, neither are baby's insides. A baby's immature intestines are not equipped to handle a variety of foods until around six months, when many digestive enzymes seem to click in. Pediatric allergists discourage early introduction of foods especially if there is a strong family history of food allergies. Research shows that starting solids before six months increases the risk of allergies. Maturing intestines secrete the protein immunoglobulin IgA, which acts like a protective paint, coating the intestines and preventing the passage of harmful allergens (cow's milk, wheat, and soy are common examples of foods causing allergies when introduced early)(. This protective IgA is low in the early months and does not reach peak production until around seven months of age. As the intestines maturee, they become more nutritionally selective, filtering out offending food allergens. Babies whose systems tend to be allergy-prone actually may show delayed willingness to accept solids -- a built-in self-protective mechanism. contd....