In my Tips for When Your Baby Resists Solid Food, I made the remark that “there is no rush to get the baby to eat solids because breast milk provides complete nutrition through the first year.” I’ve since revised that statement to “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)” based on the following comment that that post received:
http://www.who.int/nutrition/publications/infantfeeding/WHO_NHD_00.1/en/index.html – see page 10 + 11
Breastmilk does not provide complete nutrition for the second …read more

So far in this three-part series I have offered ten tips for helping your baby enjoy solid food. In this last installment, I make some suggestions for what to do when your baby resists eating solids.
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 …read more

The list of tips for helping your baby enjoy solid food continues today with five more ideas. Stay tuned for the last five tomorrow when I will share some thoughts for what to do when solid food feeding is not going as well as you might hope! Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments section — what have you done and do you agree or disagree with this set of tips so far?
Five More Tips for Helping Your Baby Enjoy Solid Food
6. Set a good example with what you eat. One of the signs of readiness for solid …read more

You have determined that your baby is ready for solids (see Starting Your Baby on Solid Foods: When, What and How). You are determined to make it a good experience for both of you! Here are some tips to get the adventure off to a good start. Over the next couple of days I will post more tips in this series. While I don’t claim to be an expert, I apparently have a lot to say on the subject!
1. Tell your baby the name of each food you are offering. This simple step goes a long way to establishing a …read more

Last fall my family purchased a share in a Community Supported Agriculture farm (CSA). It’s been a wonderful thing. The kids like to have a “feast” from the organic fruits and vegetables we get in the basket delivered from the farm to our pick-up site. They enjoy old favorites like apples and pears, and make new favorites like kohlrabi (in lemon, olive oil, and salt).
Today we got the opportunity to visit the farm to pick strawberries out in the field. The field trip (forgive the pun) showed the kids exactly where their food grows. The experience was educational and …read more

Test your knowledge of how alcohol affects breast milk with these 8 questions! The trivia was derived from studies compiled on the LactMed database as of April 2009. For information about drinking and breastfeeding, see this article on alcohol and the controversial Milkscreen test. For current information on drugs and lactation, visit the LactMed database.
nswer these 8 questions and compare how you did with the answers below.
1. Nursing after 1 or 2 drinks (including beer) causes the infant to:
a) increase milk intake.
b) decrease milk intake.
c) Milk intake remains unaffected.
2. Nursing or pumping within one hour before ingesting alcohol:
a) does not …read more

The results of the poll on allergies and breastfeeding were quite telling and the comments were helpful and insightful, especially for all those dealing with allergies in the breastfed baby. Frankly I was surprised at the number of nurslings with known or suspected allergies and the number of mothers coping with an elimination diet. An even 1/3 of respondents said that yes, their nurslings have food allergies. These pyramids (in honor of the USDA food pyramid LOL) illustrate the distribution of the 148 votes.

Let’s be clear though — breastfeeding is wonderful for babies with food allergies. Do not interpret these …read more

I thought I would update how Nicole is doing at six months of age.
Solid Foods

Nicole continues to enjoy trying new solid foods. As you can see, mashed ripe avocado is one of her favorites! Just as with breastfeeding, I believe in baby-led solid food feeding. She feeds herself with her fingers or with a spoon that I have pre-loaded for her with food. She controls how much she gets, and I make sure to take her out of the high chair before she ever gets upset. I want that feeding chair to be a happy place! It must be working …read more

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{democracy:50}
Please leave a comment to explain your answer. Whether or not your child has known food allergies, do you restrict your diet in any way? How easy or difficult is it to eliminate particular foods from your diet? Is there a history of food allergies in your family? If your nursling has food allergies, to which foods? Did your nursling or other children outgrow any food allergies?

As I researched the local agricultural fairs in which my daughters might like to participate, I learned that January is National Oatmeal Month! Somehow for a breastfeeding blogger, everything relates to breastfeeding, and National Oatmeal Month is no exception. It begged the question, does oatmeal increase milk supply? I knew that the answer could be found in the new book The Breastfeeding Mother’s Guide to Making More Milk by Diana West, IBCLC, and Lisa Marasco, M.A., IBCLC. The authors note that oat straw and its grain, oats, have long enjoyed a reputation as a galactagogue. In a section on lactogenic …read more