question for maggiesugar and brighid

I've been reading hippylandscaper's wif's posts about the foods, and I was wondering about what brighid and maggiesugar were saying about the wheat cerial?
Why is it that there's those cerials at the store that have stages on them starting at 6 months if it's not supposed to be introduced until everything else later?
My mom was telling me that I should start Leane on wheat cerails and stuff first, and save the veggies and fruits for later. And everything that I've read so far says the same.
So when I start leane on soilds, should I start with the veggies and stuff first?
thanx!

 

is your baby breastfed? because I don't know about formula fed babies, they might have different nutritional requirements. Breastfed babies don't need any solid foods except just as practice with the flavors and textures until they are about 12-18 months old when their intestines mature to the point where they can actually digest things other than human milk. Rice cereal, in particular, is less nutritious than the box it comes in and often constipates babies. All of the vitamins listed on the label are sprayed on during processing, and not known whether they are actually bio-available (absorbed by the human body or just peed out). the iron it is fortified with also has a constipating effect. Wheat is a really bad choice for first food because it is indigestible and high on the list of possible allergens, even for many adults.


you should really check out this website http://www.askdrsears.com/html/3/t032000.asp

 

Commercial cereals and starting cereals first are "tradition". There is no proof that cereal benefits an infant or readies him for eating solids. Cereals were introduced to infants in the early years of commercialy prepared formulas, which were lacking in nutrients (especially iron) compared to todays. Cereals are bland, boring, lacking in texture and taste, so young infants who could choke easily on more advanced foods could swallow it. Cereals are easy to give to infants that are otherwise not ready for real solids. A baby who is showing true signs of readiness for solids is sitting firmly without support, can pick up and bring to his mouth small bits, will grab food off your plate, can chew and swallow tiny bites without gagging, and has at least 2 teeth, and can finger feed himself.

Grains are among the top allergens.
Commercial cereals are over-refined and processed.
They are empty calories; the breastmilk or formula you mix it with is what provides the little nutrition it contains.
They are flavourless, and a baby used to eating such boring fare will not accept more flavourful and textured foods as readily.
A baby's tummy is only as big as his little fist, and his growth is rapid. He simply has no room for foods that are not going to provide the maximum nutrition possible in each little bite.


I have never, ever given any of my babies cereal or other comercially prepared baby foods. My babies showed signs of readiness from as young as 4 months (Brian, who was 10 1/2 pounds at birth, 16 pounds at 6 weeks, and 20 pounds at 4 months was sitting up, crawling, and screaming and grabbing chicken legs off my plate everytime I tried to eat:H ) and as late at 2 years (Brandon, who was deathly allergic to everything under the sun as an infant, was exclusively breastfed until he was 2, and now at 21 has no allergies at all), most were around 6-10 months old before they showed signs of food readiness.
My babies were always included in family mealtime, either sitting in my lap, or when ready, in a high chair at the table. When they started showing interest in foods, I took a few small bits off my plate, placed on their high chair trays, and if they were ready, they picked them up and ate them. If not, they threw it on the floor. I never force fed an infant pureed foods from a spoon. If a baby is spitting out foods offered from a spoon, he is not ready, you should never have to do the "wipe the chin and shove it back in" thing. They got a spoon to play with while they fed themselves, and modeled using it (and good table manners) from the rest of us. They ate exactly how much they wanted, which on some days was quite a bit and on others barely a taste. One of my favourite baby pictures is of Brian, at 5 months, sitting in his high chair with a big, juicy, slippery mango he had pinned to the tray with both hands while he bent over it and sucked it down. The look of pure ecstacy on his face as he ate his mango is priceless!
My kids, with very few exceptions, now enjoy a wide variety of foods. Growing up, people were always amazed at how much they enjoyed eating fruits and veggies. I attribute this to my towards child led feeding practices and only ofering them "real" foods that the rest of the family enjoyed (babies learn by observing, they see mommy eating and enjoying spinach, they will enjoy it as well) as opposed to over-processed, tasteless, textureless commercially prepared pureed baby foods. They learned from a very early age to enjoy different tastes and textures and only when they wanted it.

 

For sure DON'T start him on the wheat first!! Rice is first always! Mixed w/ breastmilk. Rice is the LEAST ALLERGENIC, and wheat can be an allergen even to adults.
I recommend that you go with- Healthy Times Organic Rice Cereal. And it'll be just a teeny - tiny amount at first , say a teaspoon- 3 times a day for the first week, but ALWAYS Nurse after.
Expect baby's poopies to slow down, watch for mucus and blood, discontinue food if that occurs- it's a sign that baby isn't ready. If you are going to feed cereal start slow. I'm sure there is a recommendation schedule of foods... I'd have to go and look it up. I suggest that you go to the library and research too.

Baby's CAN exclusively breastfeed for the first year, but there's always room for argument regarding that issue.

Also, NEVER EVER Microwave baby food or bottles of milk, the microwave can cause "hot-spots" in the food/milk which can cause 3rd degree burns in baby's mouth/throat/esophagus!

I'm different and all baby's are different (regarding feeding needs, I've heard of babies as young as 3 months being fed, but have had digestion issues and not-pooping issues ), but I didn't try to feed my Son until 9 months, and he never really liked anything other than breastmilk until he was a year old, and now he loves babyfood, cereal, almost all the foods... it changes all the time.

Some say that the baby drooling is proof positive that baby can now digest. As saliva contains pitalyn an enzyme that starts to digest starches (rice is starch)...

Le Leche League supports breastfeeding, and encourages you to breastfeed as much as possible. The more you nurse the more milk you'll have. Breastmilk is so nutritious it provides EVERYTHING.

I know how a Mom wants to provide more... I steamed and strained and mixed all kinds of fruits and veggies, and cereals... I moved too fast for my baby's taste and I ended up throwing almost all of it away. Sometimes not even a bite. O well.

But at about 10/11 months my Son loved avocados and that was so much fun to feed him. But he always follows an eating session with a nursing session....

 

Sadily, leane is formula fed. I don't want to go into the whole long story again, I'll just say that she was NEVER satisfied even when I sat on the couch for 4 days STRAIGHT, neither of us slept and she was still hungry. I also had horrible infections.
succulentflower-I thought that wheat and rice and all that stuff just kinda belonged in the same category.
brighid-Leane always sits with us at supper time in her high chair. (Except when she's pooped out and is sleeping). She used to sit in my lap (and grab food off my plate), but she's ready for the high chair now. I have given her a spoon to play with and she watches us and puts it in her mouth while watching. It's kinda funny!
She still doesn't have any teeth yet. That's about the only thing that she's not showing for readiness.
I've heard about this drooling thing before, to watch if it slows down or stops, which means that they have learned how to swallow, and she did that a while back. At first, I really didn't know why she suddenly stopped drooling, and when I read that, it made sence. That was supposed to be another sign of readiness.
So when she is completely ready, should I just surpass the grains and move on to veggies adn fruits? Like I said, my mom was saying that there are "nutrients" in the cerials that she needs when she starts to eat solids. I also read something that was talking about how babies need more iron once they reach 6 months....which was surprising to me considering the iron levels in forumula.

 

I have a question regarding this issue too. When I was on vacation with the DH and his parents recently, MIL nagged me to death about feeding him solids. So, reluctantly I gave him a bite of very mashed banana. He seemed to love it but, he could only suck it in via my finger, not take it in with an open mouth and swallow. I'm torn between his obvious enjoyment and his obvious sign he's not ready for solids. Mightn't I try again, now that he's nearing six months? He's not having any weight gain issues, he's a little porker so the breast milk is obviously doing it's job!

 

i just got to read the link above to the dr sears web site, and it answered almost all my questions.
check it out jazzmama! it really helped!

 

Brighid, people are amazed at what my kids love to eat, too. Their favorite vegetable is asparagus. The other day we were eating at a Mexican restaurant, Virginia (3) was eating a mushroom quesadilla and I had a spinach one-she saw it and said-mommy, I want your spinach!


Teenytiny, really, just bypass the grains. She will get all the nutrients she needs from the formula. Let her "tell" you when she is ready. Put a nice soft green bean on her tray or a well cooked piece of carrot. See what she does with it. If it is cooked enough, and if she is ready, she can pop it in her mouth and gum it.

 

sugrmag-that's what I was thinking. That's actually what I was saying to my mom the other night and that's when she said that bit about her needing the cerial.
From what I was reading on the dr sears web site and stuff, he was saying that foods now are for flavour and texture, not nutrients....that's what the formula is for.

 

Good work, Mama! I would have said what most of the mamas said, also. (Bridhid and I often repeat each other, LOL.) Forget the grains completely, amylase probably isn't being produced in her gut until somewhere between 9 and 12 month, maybe later, so wait on all grains. (People need amylase to digest starch and although an other poster did give some good info, drooling is not a sign of grain ready enzyme production.)

I just had a consultation with a mother whose baby simply started dropping weight within weeks of starting solids. She was dong OK before that. We'll have to wait, totally eliminate the grains, AND the doctor is requiring a battery of tests, as he is thinking horrible things like Cystic Fibrosis or Celiac Disease, when this poor baby probably just isn't ready for solids yet.

Better to be more cautious and take solids slowly. You did your homework, good work, teeny.

 

We went through all those tests with Dakota. Because he had reflux and asthma they were convinced he had cystic fibrosis. And he was losing weight from all the reflux. Turns out he was allergic to milk and wheat. When we took the milk and wheat away, the reflux and asthma went away. He has hardly had even a sniffle since then. You could look at his fat little legs and know that he didn't have cf, but the doc was convinced. One of the tests they do is called a sweat test. They stimulate the sweat glands and then put pads on his forearms to collect the sweat. This little guy would sweat bullets if it was the least little bit warm. But when they did the sweat test, he didn't produce a drop. It was too funny. They did it twice. Wanted to do it again but I refused. I knew he didn't have cf. Now at 3 1/2 her eats almost everything. We still don't give him milk to drink, but he loves yogurt and he eats cheese. And we don't give him stuff with nitrites in it, (ham, bacon, sausage.) I don't know why they don't educate these docs on things like allergies and waiting to introduce solid foods.

Kathi

 

Too many pediactricians get "funding" from formula-baby food companies. They are given cruises, where the Guest Speaker talks about the latest "innovation" in processed baby food, and how they are "closer than ever" to human milk ect. They are given golfing vacations, trips to Hawaii for "education" and things like that. Also, most medical schools teach little to nothing about human milk OR nutrition. These schools also get funding from Abbott Labs, Carnation, Ross Labs ect. They are often biting the hand that feeds them to be truthful about good nutrition, breastfeeding ect. GOOD medical schools don't take the funding ect, but a good number of schools and doctors in the USA do.

I do understand that there are real reasons to have to use baby formula, but, as we have all talked about before, it is more the exception than the rule. I'm glad it exists, for the babies whose mom's just can't make it, or for adopted babies, whose moms may not be able to lactate either, or for those poor babies whose mama's die or are being treated for cancer. But, when these companies are funding hospitals, medical schools and workshops including Continuing Education Credits for doctors, you aren't going to get doctors who are educated in REAL nutrition.

It is amazing the number of kids who have food allergies who were subjected to tests they didn't need, when a simple elimination diet would have been much less invasive and disruptive. Sunshine had dairy, wheat and corn allergies. Luckily, our Ped had taken La Leche League sponsored nutrition courses, and put my fears about Celiac to rest. She was meeting all her milestones ahead of time, and fat as a little piggy. The first Ped did say he "didn't think" it could be a wheat allergy as "that is really uncommon" but our regular Ped said, "Go ahead and do the elimination diet." She was kept off of wheat and dairy and corn for about 5 years, then we rotated them back in, watching her for any signs of continued allergy. I think she may still have some mild allergy, and she definately CAN'T drink fluid cow milk (yuck anyway) but she can eat regular bread, now, and some corn (although she doens't like corn, which is fine.)

I'm glad Dakota is doing better. Sunshine was in about 4th grade before we could start rotating in her allergic foods. You have to go on what works for your baby.