Helping my baby feed herself some yogurt

Five More Tips for Helping Your Baby with Solid Food Feedings

11. Don’t starve the baby of breast milk in the hope of encouraging solid food intake. I hope that sentence speaks for itself, but in case not, let me explain what I mean. Don’t give in to the unhelpful suggestion or thought that you are feeding the baby too much breast milk and that is the reason the baby shows little interest in solids. People who think that are misguided on a few levels: (1) it’s nearly impossible to feed a baby too much breast milk (you cannot force a baby to nurse when the baby is not interested, and babies self-regulate at the breast whereas milk from a bottle flows freely and it is harder for a bottle-fed baby to control the amount consumed), (2) depriving the baby of milk does not encourage solids but does encourage a cranky, potentially malnourished baby, and (3) there is no rush to get the baby to eat much solid food because breast milk provides the bulk of nutrition through the first year (and in fact some babies thrive on breast milk alone — see the comments section for more discussion on that assertion).

A baby who is resisting solid foods simply might not be ready for any number of reasons. Maybe the gag reflex has not completely gone away. Perhaps your baby is teething or ill and needs some time off from or a delay in starting solids. It’s even possible that your baby knows what is best. I have heard anecdotes about babies who resisted solid food or certain foods in particular and those babies turned out to have one or more food allergies. If you suspect a food allergy, read “A” Is for Allergy Prevention and Reduction.

12. Offer a choice. As I’ve said before, I believe most food issues are about control. If you limit food choices and try to force your baby to eat a particular food, that can backfire to the point that your child severely limits the foods he or she will eat. Give your baby the control by offering a choice at any given meal. “Squash or applesauce?” “Pears or kiwi or both?” Even a six-month-old can indicate a preference for food through facial expressions, sounds, or grabbing for a particular food. The idea is not to prepare two separate meals or to waste food, but to show the baby what’s on offer and to provide the food the baby will actually eat!

Of course, the choice is not “veggies or fast food chicken nuggets.” All of the options you offer should be nutritious. This will become more and more important as the baby becomes older. At my house, a child can choose whether to eat any or all of the fruit, vegetable, grain, and/or meat offered at that particular meal. If the child chooses not to eat any of the items on offer (this has happened two or three times with my four-year-old), then she gets to wait until I finish my meal before I will prepare one other healthful option (usually something unexciting like whole grain cereal and milk). I look at my child’s nutrition over the course of a week and do not worry about any isolated meal.

13. Ease up if it is not going well. Hindsight will often reveal why a baby was refusing a particular food or solids in general. Let your baby rely on the nutrition from breast milk as you slow down the process. Your baby will sense if you become tense or anxious about food. Don’t let your anxiety become contagious! The goal is for your baby to enjoy solid food, not any particular amount of food or any one certain food. Success breeds success, and a baby who has a good experience at meal time will look forward to the next meal. A child who refuses vegetables at one meal just might eat them at the next, and in the end the child quite possibly will eat better if you do not engage in a battle of wills over a certain food. It all comes back to the issue of control.

14. Invite over a peer. If your older baby still does not show much interest in solids or does not eat many different types of food, it can be very helpful to invite over a little friend you know is a good eater! Go on a picnic or have a play date. Talk to the other parent in advance about serving a food the other child will readily eat. When your child sees the other child eating that food, your child might very well want some too!

15. Read up on the subject. If you missed parts one and two of this series, see 5 Tips for Helping Your Baby Enjoy Solid Food and More Tips for Your Baby and Solid Food. If your baby is just starting solid food, check out Starting Your Baby on Solid Foods: When, What and How. For more detailed reading, you might enjoy the following books:

Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron
Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense by Ellyn Satter
My Child Won’t Eat!: How to Prevent and Solve the Problem by Carlos González

What are your thoughts? Do you agree or disagree with my tips? Have you read any of the books I mentioned? Do you have any other books you recommend?

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3

Among the study findings were that one-fourth of mothers do not place their child on their backs to sleep, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, and 34 percent regularly co-slept with their infants. In addition, only 8 percent of mothers experienced six “baby-friendly” hospital practices that encourage and assist mothers with breastfeeding. The more of these practices experienced, the greater the likelihood that mothers would breastfeed for six weeks or longer. Pertaining to food practices, nearly all mothers who fed their infants formula used an iron-fortified product, and more than 20 percent of infants had a food-related health problem, including 6 percent with allergies.

It is not at all surprising to me that mothers are not receiving proper encouragement and assistance in hospitals for breastfeeding. Those findings are consistent with the 2007 CDC National Survey of Maternity Practices in Infant Nutrition and Care, which found that 70 percent of birth facilities continue to undermine breastfeeding by marketing formula to new mothers.

Those findings are also consistent with my experience when I prepared to give birth this past July. I researched Baby-Friendly Hospitals and did not find any in my area. When I examined the breastfeeding rates in the hospitals near me, they were disappointingly low. I was glad to have a home birth and a successful start to breastfeeding.

Hopefully the results of the Infant Feeding Practices Study II will inspire additional practice-specific research and lead to greater support for breastfeeding.

Post from: Breastfeeding 1-2-3