Book review: Baby-led Weaning

I know I said I should lay off parenting books for a while but I was about done with this one so I thought I should post anyway. Please forgive me :)

This book was so much fun and it made me really excited about starting solids with Hyrum. Here's the overall idea: Offer your baby safe, healthy foods and let them feed themselves. This thought 1) makes sense and 2) seems strange. We've all grown up with the idea of feeding little kiddos from a baby spoon and making airplane sounds to get them to open wide but this book squashes that notion as a necessity. Instead the authors suggest that babies develop self-feeding skills at the same rate their digestive tracts are able to handle the food and at the same rate that their bodies actually need solids. Here are a few of the general elements of baby-led weaning:

• Many people in our society have an unhealthy attitude toward food whether it be picky eating, eating disorders, or obesity. The authors suggest that these unhealthy attitudes may begin in infancy when children are spoon-fed food. Spoon feeding removes a child's control over what to eat and how much to eat. The authors suggest that instead, families should be eating healthy foods together, as a family, and the baby (as well as all members of the family) should be able to choose what and how much to eat.
• To allow your baby to feed himself, offer foods in manageable sizes. At 6 months, offer stick shapes because they pick food up with a palmar grasp and as they get older offer smaller pieces they can pick up with pinchers, offer child-sized silverware as they grow so they learn to use it as they're ready, etc.
• To do baby-led weaning safely, never put food in your child's mouth. Babies can, when given appropriate foods in appropriate shapes to their development, handle it safely on their own. But, when food is put in their mouths for them, they no longer have the control over the food and the baby is more likely to choke.
• Babies who feed themselves and are allowed to touch, hold, examine, drop, smoosh, etc. learn about food and also learn many other different things like cause and effect, gravity, how to handle different textures, etc.
• Solid foods should not begin until 6 months old because this is 1) when their digestive tracts are ready and 2) when they can self-feed. This point was actually a big seller for me. One doctor will say four months, another six months, and another whenever they seem interested. It made sense to me that a baby's body was ready for solids as they became ready to handle them in other aspects.
• Milk feedings should remain the sole source of nutrients up to six months old and should be the main source of nutrients until at least12 months old. The authors point out that introducing solids before 6 months can cause an early decrease in the mother's milk supply. Since breast milk or formula are far more nutrient-packed than cereals and other baby foods, babies below 6 months should have more breast milk or formula if they are acting hungrier or waking at night, rather than starting solids before the 6-month mark. They also point out that babies who seem interested in solids are actually just interested in just about everything. Curiosity is not a sign of readiness (kind of reminds me of the church's position on receiving temple covenants).
• Babies should be allowed to exercise control over their food--both by feeding breastmilk on demand and by not forcing a baby to eat solids that they don't want to eat. This helps to create a healthier relationship with food, cuts down on mealtime tantrums, and allows baby to learn appetite control.
• Babies only start to need solids at 6 months. Even though they're mostly playing and not eating much at first, as long as they're still having plenty of milk feedings and being offered nutritious foods at every meal, they're getting enough to eat.

Overall, I really liked this concept. I've watched too many kiddos who won't even touch something they've never tried before and I don't doubt it's because they weren't allowed to explore many different foods as a baby and young child. I also really like how it goes against the whole idea of an outside institution (especially baby food companies. I'm just not a huge fan of most of them) deciding what and how much your child should eat.

We've been doing baby-led weaning with Hyrum for a couple of weeks now and it is so much fun and so easy. We just give him what we're eating and he tries just about everything. Even if he makes the "gag" face like he doesn't like it, he still goes back for another try. Thus far, I'm pretty convinced and we're all having a good time. Best part, because we're giving baby what we eat, we're all eating healthier too

My rant about weaning

I made a boo-boo today. I mentioned to a couple gals who don't have kids that I plan on breastfeeding my baby past the first year. They kind of gave me that, "ummm, you're weird" look. Maybe it's me that is in the dark here but I don't really understand why people think that's so strange. I guess, come to think of it, I used to think it was strange too. But now that I have a baby and have learned so much about the amazing benefits of breastfeeding, it just seems normal. In fact, the current WHO recommendation is to breastfeed your baby until at least 2 years of age. This is for numerous reasons but one of the main ones being the benefits to a child's immune system, which is still quite underdeveloped until around the age of two.

So here's the real question, why doesn't anyone look at a mother strangely for giving her child cow's milk at age one? Cow's milk was meant for cow babies but for some reason that is kosher, but feeding a human child milk that was meant for human babies is strange. What gives?

If you look at infant feeding around the globe, many children do not wean until close to their third, fourth, or even fifth birthday. But in North America and in some parts of Europe, that seems absolutely insane. If you look at trends across the animal kingdom, most other mammals don't wean until they have at least quadrupled their birth weight. If a human mother were to nurse her baby until he quadrupled his birth weight she would likely nurse her baby until an average of 3 years of age.

So why one year old? Doesn't that seem kind of arbitrary when you think about it? Children are considered babies until they reach their second birthday, so why are we in such a rush to move them out of the baby stage and make them grow up before their time. Don't children deserve to be children?

And what about allowing your child to decide when they are ready to give up nursing? One can assume that if there were no arbitrary guidelines or societal pressures surrounding breastfeeding and weaning, most likely the baby would be the one to set the pace. And really, why not have it be that way? In fact, a mother's milk supply is meant to sustain her child at the rate that he feeds. God created a woman's body so that she could produce milk until her baby stopped sucking at the breast, so why don't we follow that?

I'm not saying everyone needs to nurse their baby past the first year but when you look at breastfeeding around the globe, across the animal kingdom, in conjunction with the child-human's immune and digestive system, and the mother's continued ability to produce breastmilk indefinitely, the idea of "You're one, you're done" is what seems strange. In fact, from what I can ascertain, any limits that have been put on breastfeeding (i.e. scheduled feeding, weaning age, etc.) all began with uninformed male physicians in the 1920s and 1930s who knew little to nothing about maternal lactation--the same men who told women with small breasts that they wouldn't be able to produce enough milk and who pushed women to use infant formula because it was better for babies than breastmilk. However, you ask a lactation consultant, someone who has actually been trained in the intricacies of maternal lactation, and she'll advocate on-demand feeding and breastfeeding past the first year. So, why aren't the real experts voices being heard? Why are we still listening to the uninformed, uneducated voices of the past?

I guess that's everyone's choice. But, please don't frown down on me because I choose not to.