Pureed Food Unneccesary

[Astrid]

As someone who is into history and recreating some aspects of the past, I can totally see that baby led weaning would have been the way to go hundreds or a thousand years ago. Basically with limited equipment, supplies and just about everything requiring human labour to do, I just cannot see a viking women, for example, pureeing food when she has to get the weaving done, the geese fed and all cooking done over a fire. If a bubs cannot hold the food easily themselves, then I doubt someone would have had the time to spoon feed them and then deal with the washing that pureed foods create.

There are some cultures that do feed their babies something called pap from an early age, but I do not know much about that.

With regards to soy it is best consumed in the format that the Asians do (tofu etc), it is the westernised soy that is the main problem. This processed soy is added to so many foods these days, that we actually eat more soy than they do in Asia.

[bon]

what do they mean by 'pureed'. I mean, to me the pureed commercial baby food is a lot different to pureed home made food. Whenever I made my babies' food I would mash or blend it, so it was sort of pureed but it never looked anything like the thin watery stuff in baby food jars. I agree the ages on the commercial baby foods should be changed to reflect the new advice.

[mbear]

My decision NOT to feed my 3rd daughter solids until at least 6 months of age had some mothers shocked, and confused (at mothers group/swimming group). I felt i was disadvanting my little girl by not feeding her at 4 months like some others were.....why rush it ???

It doesn't hurt them to wait, they don't starve and they don't stop growing so for me its not worth the risk. They will be eating their entire lives no need to rush these things.

...totally agree.

[Zee]

DD didnt like pureed food anyway, she always liked hers lumpy etc so the baby food you can buy at the supermarket she wouldnt touch which was fine by me!

[fionas]

I just want to elaborate a little on my first post. I started my DD "early" because she seemed to want to. If I have another baby, I will start when they seem ready too - whether that's 5, 6, 9 or 10 months. If my baby wasn't ready at 6 months, there's no way I'd push it for the sake of it just because I thought she was behind what the guidelines said. I believe babies are clever creatures and they know when they're ready for something new.

BTW Astrid, I've been thinking about your post and what people would have done hundreds of years ago without spoons/other implements. And as I was feeding my DD and thought back to when I first started feeding her and how she would stare intently at me chewing, the first thing that occurred to me is that if I was a Viking woman, I probably would have chewed something up quite well and then given it to her. Sounds a bit gross by our standards but that's what I would have instinctively done. Kind of like what birds do with their young.

[Liz]

So what do we give them in the beginning? What about chewing properly so as not to choke? or is this where the 'real' age for solids becomes much later than we're led to believe?

I have to wait until DD is 6 months corrected, so that's 7 1/2 months and she's already watching me eat! LOL.

WRT soy - I thought soy was the reason that asians have a low incidence of cancer? (so many "studies" out there.. totally agree with moderation being the key with anything).

[fionas]

I would never dream of telling you when to start your child on solids Liz. I'm just saying I believe I knew when the time was right with my own DD. Every child is different - that's why I chose to ignore the guidelines and I treated the stuff about allergies with a pinch of salt. Some may think that was foolish - that's OK too - I'm prepared to take that risk because it honestly seemed cruel to me to deny her something that she obviously wanted so badly. Of course, it wasn't that she was just watching, she was trying to grab and she was much more restless/bored with her bottles. Added to that was her physical readiness - she swallowed no problem. If she hadn't I would have waited. But all those factors, not just one, made me give her solids.

She literally jumped up and down with excitement after a few goes with food and I so wish I'd videod her. She would giggle and headbutt the spoon in her fever to get to her food and her eyes became saucers. And she also seems much happier to have her bottles now too because it's not the only thing she's getting.

But if I was a Viking (I feel a tad silly writing that but just to answer your question...) and I thought it was going to be unsafe to give her some of my chewed up food, then obviously I'd wait a bit longer.

[Janie]

I haven't read through the whole article, or this thread, so I don't have a feel for the response. But I wanted to say that I went to the ABA seminar yesterday, and heard Gill speak. She also presented video footage. What she's talking about makes alot of sense to me as a mother, and this way of feeding really works in our household.

[Liz]

It's just hard to shake the 'first foods' thing hehe. I have seen (perhaps Barb posted it?) it said that pureed food only became the norm because we were introducing 'solids' too early, and that's why it needed to be pureed. I just can't think of what else I would give as a first food, no matter what the age LOL.. don't they still need to learn to eat? Even if you wait until they're close to 12 months.. they still need to learn to chew and swallow. btw.. I don't like the really pureed stuff.. we started with mush more than anything.

Any examples of what to feed? I'd love to not have to prepare 'baby food' for DD! heheh

[~Saram~]

Well I wholly agree with that statement. I have never pureed Ari's food and she has developed a lot better eating habits. We would just give her what was on our plate, (we don't add butter or salt to our food so it was easy) little tastes of things from 5 mths off my finger and once she was 6-7 mths (as gross as it sounds) I would just either break up with my finger or give it a bit of a chew - kind of like a baby bird. She chews well, eats well, and is not fussy. The only thing she won't eat is the pureed stuff my MIL tried to give her :-)

It has made the intro of solids so much easier and cheaper

[Liz]

Yeah, DS was eating our food pretty early on, and to this day eats anything and everything - ALL DAY!! But I still did prepare baby food for him in the early days, mushed veggies frozen into ice cubes. Or cooked and mushed fruits. *shrug* Think I'll probably still do it for DD.. worked well with DS hehe. I can't imagine finger foods that early tho.

[Rouge]

I can totally see what you are saying fionas, however with Paris she was way more ready than Seth ever was, she was having 3 meals a day by the time she was 5 months and she was loving it. Yet she ended up with severe eczema and later at 4 asthma attacks. For me I wish I had known then what I do now. And yes there is a possibility it could have happened anyway but I would have put it off a few months on the off chance it would have helped.

[monnie]

Felix didn't start solids until he was pretty much 6 months.

He's now coming up to 7 months and we are very much trying the finger food thing (rather than the purees).

But...I'm finding it really confusing as to what I can actually give him.

So far, we've tried:

banana
avocado
rusks
cooked pears
cooked apples

All the above foods have been given to him as finger food...about the size of a hot chip (sometimes a little smaller)...

Is that how you do it?

Anyone got any other suggestions of what I can give him?

Cheers!

[~Saram~]

Monnie

zuchinni cooked and cut into fingers is a good one
carrot and beans (well-overcooked) is good too
Strawberries in quaters, grapes in halves


Once he is a little older cheese sticks, meat, sandwiches in fingers

hmm can't think of any else at the moment

[Matryoshka]

I have had a real struggle with my 20 month old who will not eat anything "lumpy" and still now has his dinner mashed It has been a long process of slowly going from puree'd food (all home made) to our dinners mashed, and still he will not eat finger food. By this i mean he would never pick up a vegetable or fruit and eat it, it must be mashed, or most recently cut in the the most minute pieces and hidden in a yoghurt or something else smooth.

I am definately looking at infant led weaning for this baby as i do wonder if DS's "texture issues" stem from the introduction of puree'd foods.

[Artechim]

My DS won't eat pureed food. He will put the first spoon in his mouth, spit it out, clamp his mouth shut and it is all over. However, he was grabbing at food I was eating and stuffing it in his mouth. So I am following his lead and feeding him finger foods. So far he has had banana, tomato wedges, chicken kebab, cheese, bread, pastry, quiche, capsicum, lettuce, potato, kumera, steak (couldn't gum any off though). He is far happier to eat things this way.

The first couple of days he was gagging if he put too much in his mouth but now he is biting off less and gumming/tonguing it to make it small enough to swallow. He hasn't choked on anything.

[Jennifer13]

I followed the ABA's advice on introducing solids to the letter (they have a great booklet on this that is worth every cent of the $5). I never bought anything food-wise for my DD that was commercially prepared, with the exception of occasionally adding a teaspoon-ful of rice cereal to fruit that I mashed myself to thicken it slightly. She was exclusively bf for just over 6 mths before I tried anything and I really didn't bother much until she picked things up readily herself at about 7-8 mths.

I only offered DD foods that we already ate. I did mash the occasional bit of fruit or offer her spoonfuls of things like avocado that are already somewhat mushy, but I stuck to finger foods on the whole. Cooked pieces of vegetables, rice and pasta are pretty soft anyway, as are many fruits.

Interestingly I watched some programming on children and toddlers with eating problems and all of those covered had an aversion to getting their hands and faces 'messy' with food and in general. So I took the approach that DD could mush and play with her food as much as she liked! Whenever I used a spoon I gave her one so half of the time she was trying to spoonfeed herself.

I am very glad I stuck to all of the recommendations I got from the ABA. My DD is a normal toddler and will be suspicious of new foods as are most kids but she has a great healthy attitude to eating, is always game to try things and has a wide diet. She's had a couple of colds but she's never been constipated, and she has only had one lovely tummy bug that involved a couple of days of diarrhoea and a spew.

Apart from the food itself I also believe behaviour around eating is very important, so I always make a point of sitting down with DD while she eats a meal (preferrably also with our meals for breakfast and lunch, but with a healthy snack at dinner). Eating a meal only happens at the table and she doesn't get up and down during. If she doesn't want everything on the plate, that's fine. Everything she's offered is healthy anyway, so I don't care when she chooses to eat it.

Snacks are fruit mainly, not processed foods. We allow ourselves treats and I'm not a cupcake-Nazi at morning teas. But on the whole I have to say that taking advice from a great organisation like the ABA and the WHO has led me to (so far) raise a great healty eater!

[Phteven]

hehe I can come out of the closet now and admit to never giving Imran any pureed food. I've always felt a bit guilty because for Yasin I cooked up veges and mushed them in with organic rice cereal and boiled, filtered water but poor old Imran's first solids were bits of mashed up veges off my plate and chicken drumstick bones and cutlet bones. The funny thing is that Yasin is a bit of a fussy, picky eater but Imran gobbles up anything although I've been putting it down to ages and stages and I'm just witing for the day that Imran starts turning his nose up at anything a bit unusual.