Guest Blog: There is no such thing as “baby food.”

Our post today is from the lovely and brilliant Tara Davis, a friend of mine and a fantastic mother.  I’m very excited to present her post today on introduction to solid foods.

A mother was preparing a holiday dinner, cut off the ends of a fine roast and threw them away. An observant little girl stared and asked her mother, “Why do you cut off the ends like that?” Her mother replied, “That’s the way we cook it.” Unsatisfied the child asked, “But why!?” Her mother said, “I don’t know, go ask grandpa.” The girl asked him and he responded the same and sent her to great-grandmama. The question was repeated and was met with, “Why dear I don’t know. My mother did it so I did too. ” Exasperated, the girl threw her hands up and asked the quite aged great-great matriarch. “What a silly question dear! Because that’s how I got it to fit in my favorite pot!”

Why do we use jarred baby food? Why do we feed babies, rather than helping babies feed themselves? Why do we grow up assuming that our cabinets will be lined with purees? Action without reason. Enemy, thy name is Gerber and Beechnut. Remember the baby food brand from the movie Baby Boom 1987?It was Country Baby. Not only is that telling, but the quote from the movie when the big boy company wants to buy out Gourmet Country Baby, hits hard, “You have discovered an untapped market…” Mothers are a market. Convince your market that the old way is too much work, that your product saves time and is good for baby and you can wipe out common sense in one generation.

Is your baby unable to pick up their own head? No problem, they have liquid peas that you can scrape and push scrape and push into the baby’s mouth…with a patented rubber coated spoon, matching warmer dish, semi-reclining padded high chair, and starter bibs. Nevermind that it tastes little better than paste, is half water, baby can’t digest it and it comes out as pea-green poop. Can your baby sit up and is 6 months old? No problem, here is a bigger jar with slightly less water. Baby hate puree… here is stage 2! Buy chunkier stage 3 for your 9-12 month old. Graduate with packaged toddler food! Supplement all this with Gerber baby juice and Gerber puffs (puff refined rice sprayed with vitamins. 1g sugar per serving. Fiber 0. Might as well buy a box of Fruity Pebbles right?).

Honestly, has anyone bothered to taste baby cereal? I’d rather lick a cheap envelope myself. Babies have taste buds and I’m sure they’d agree. Baby food banana is truly frightening. The texture is odd…it has a sheen…it has no banana texture or color. It is eerily uniform. It has about as much resemblance to banana as a fresh cranberry has to cranberry sauce that comes out as a molded can. And what does it say when you have to mix baby fruit on the spoon to trick your baby into eating their baby veggie? Do I even need a visual for jarred meat?

And we wonder why kids turn their noses up at strange vegetables like green peas? They were weaned on carbs, salt, sugar and canned goods. To solve the vitamin problem of a picky eater you can even buy a tasty drink for that too. It’s no wonder so many babies suffer from constipation. Where is the substance and fiber?

You have to admit that advertisers are brilliant.

Organic is no better. And, yes, I was at first enamored by homemade baby food. That is until you realize you are half convinced to buy a food mill or new blender. Or start to plan to freeze purees in ice cube trays. And you begin to see that the conditioning runs deep. It’s a lie.

Listen up my friends. THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS BABY FOOD.

That’s the truth of it. Let the notion of baby food go. There is just food. Period. Some of it is soft, some hard. Raw or cooked. Fancy and fuss are optional.

All you need is:

• A baby at least 6 months or preferably older.
• Some food of the veggie or fruit persuasion. Cook it if it is hard.
• A normal sized fork to smash it with or cut into small pieces.
• A regular spoon.
• High chair optional.

Ideally, a baby should be able to sit well unassisted, have lost the tongue thrust reflex, (a safety mechanism to keep solids out –purees bypass this safety feature) has shown interest in meal liberation (stealing from your plate), has the ability to bring food to their mouth, and has tongue control. That happens around six months (later is common) which is just about the time that the gut is maturing. My baby enjoyed a good suck on my whole apple, but she clearly wasn’t ready to eat at 6 months. A month later she had tongue control and could move food and swallow. Even better, a baby who has developed a pincer grip has an even better digestive maturity. A baby who wants to share a meal communicates quite clearly. If free to move about, they will crawl over to sit or pull up to beg for some. If in a high chair, there will be vocalizations and attempts to nab or entice morsels. Grabbing their open mouth is one! Banging the table or tray and screaming is less subtle.

Meal sharing is the idea. Baby doesn’t need to eat a separate elaborate meal or have a special separate meal time. When baby eats well, you eat well! Share a nice ripe pear, avocado, or baked sweet potato. Enjoy kiwi, mango, and persimmon. Indulge in blueberries, steamed carrots, or share a chilly cucumber. Everyone likes apples and some are nice and soft for eating. Harder apples can be gently cooked in a small bit of water if you like a quick applesauce. It is deliciously chunky and makes a fine topping for pancakes or waffles. Want a meal to go? Toss a banana in your bag. Cheap. Easy. Biodegradable. Eating out? Order a baked potato or side of steamed broccoli. They sky is the limit! Asparagus, parsnips, beets…try them all. Do grains sparingly and you may consider avoiding meats and fish the first year.

Break bread with your baby! If you eat it they want it. It’s fine to use your fingers. Give baby the spoon. Let the baby squeeze every ounce of delight from a piece of butternut squash. Watch how your baby inspects, squishes, slurps, chews/gums, and moves their tongue. A mess can be cleaned. For when you don’t want a mess, let the baby control the food, don’t put it in their mouth. Let the baby take it. Load and guide the spoon, but let the baby control it.
I have learned some things:

Tip #1:
Don’t be alarmed when you see beans, bits of kiwi, or identifiable foods in the diaper. That is normal. Babies don’t digest solids efficiently. Purees only look digested because they went in mushed, so the come out mushed, but that doesn’t mean it was digested better. All nutrition in the first year comes from breastmilk (or formula) so there is no need to stress if baby doesn’t want solids or doesn’t seem to digest much. Food before one is just for fun, so enjoy it!

Tip #2:
Modern plastic high chairs with the cushions might be nice for some, but they are hard to clean in my opinion. Unless you want to clean butternut squash out of a screw head with a toothbrush, get thee an oldfashioned plain wooden high chair or the type that that they have in restaurants with a tray. Even better when you want to let the baby “have at it” lower is better. Put a washable mat underneath! A floor level low seat with a tray on top of a the washable mat on the floor means that the food doesn’t fall so far and can be given back to the baby. It’s also fine to not use a chair at all.

Tip #3:
Babies do gag. It’s a reflex to ensure that food doesn’t go down the wrong pipe or to disloge a piece that stuck on the roof of the mouth. A baby’s gag reflex is much farther forward than an adults and so it is triggered sooner. Coughing happens too, this is also a safety feature. And sometimes a baby will vomit from a gag or cough (they usually ignore it and resume eating like nothing happened). This isn’t choking. Choking makes no sound because the airway is blocked. Everyone should know the baby Hemlich regardless. Also, never leave the baby unattended and eating should always be done with the baby upright (this is also a safety mechanism…food will fall forward.)

Tip #4:
Give yourself permission. This is supposed to be an enjoyable learning experience. While the book I reccommend helped me to get started and was an good read, nothing can take the place of mommy instinct or day to day practicalities. People around you are going to be paranoid and skeptical and as a result you too will worry. If you know that your baby can handle small pieces, see what happens with a bigger piece. If they can’t handle it they will spit it out! Start with naturally soft foods and feel your way with your baby. Some babies are more aggressive than others or have different level of hand and mouth control. You are both learning.

Tip #5:
It’s okay if you don’t like waste. Don’t put too much on the tray! 2 or 3 pieces is more than enough. You CAN still do baby-self feeding with guidance and minimize mess especially in a restaurant or over someone’s house. I don’t like waste either. The key is guidance and offering. You can hold a morsel in your fingers and let the baby take the food. It doesn’t have to be a big mess all the time. Because that wouldn’t be much fun now would it? Try low mess foods. When you do allow the mess-tacular…do it before a shower or bath.

Resources:
Baby-Led Weaning by Gil Rapely (BOOK)
http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/blw/engels.html

http://babyledweaning.blogware.com/

http://babyledweaning.com/

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2855840155 (facebook)

Tags: baby food, baby led weaning, solids