Tagged with 'infant-nutrition'

Did you know baby foods were created because doctors used to recommend feeding babies WAY earlier than we do now? Even 3-6 weeks of age in some cases! The texture had to be pureed if you’re feeding them that young.

My Baby's Messy Eating Story

When my son turned 5½ months old, I was so excited to introduce him to solid food. I sat him in his highchair with everything prepared to give him his first taste, and to my disappointment, he wanted nothing to do with any of it—he pierced his lips and turned his head. I tried various foods—the yummiest pureed fruits I could make, and he ate very little, and just wouldn’t let me feed him with the spoon. I figured he wasn’t ready yet, but two weeks, three weeks, and one month later, he still refused the spoon. It’s funny how things happen…just as I was becoming very discouraged, I came across a type of feeding style called baby-led feeding.

Baby-Led Feeding

Baby-led feeding quite simply means letting your child feed themselves from the very start of introducing solid food. With my son, I started offering him sticks and strips of anything I could think of which was soft enough. I let him be in charge. In time, he learned to pick the food up and “gum” it. To make a long story short, my son flourished with this eating style and by 8 months old, he was shoveling food into his mouth. This was such a great solution to his refusal to eat from a spoon!

Benefits and More

This feeding style offers many benefits (ie: saved time, no purees, no blender, no potato masher, no baby rice cereal, no jarred baby food, no weird fruit and veg combos), and there were a couple downfalls. First, mealtime is slow, very slow, but that can be expected, and he has gotten faster with practice. Second, it’s a total mess! He’s a mess, the floor’s a mess, the highchair is filthy, and anything he can touch from his chair is a mess.

Messy Eating May Equal Faster Learning

I thought the messiness was a negative, but alas, a new study suggests in making all that mess, my child is learning. In fact, toddlers who messed with their food the most learned the names of them more quickly.

Babies brains usually pick up words for more permanent objects more easily, such as blocks or daddy, because they can prod and pinch them and they remain the same, more or less, while non-solid objects are a bit more confusing. Think about yogurt: sometimes it’s shaped like a bowl, sometimes a container, and sometimes it’s a big blob on the highchair tray. Or consider the similarities between glue and milk; if you didn’t touch them, they could seem pretty similar.

How the Toddlers Were Tested

To test how toddlers learned the names of gloppy, changeable substances, researchers introduced 14 oozy items, things the toddlers could safely put in their mouths, like applesauce, pudding, juice, or soup. As they offered the toddlers the items, they gave them made up names, such as “dax” or “kiv.” A short while later they asked the toddlers if they knew the name of one of the substances, presented in a different size or shape. Toddlers who could remember the name of the item were obviously relying on more than just what it looked like.

How the Toddlers Processed Everything

Not surprisingly, many toddlers gleefully dove into this task by poking, prodding, touching, feeling, eating—and yes, throwing—the nonsolids in order to understand what they were and make the correct association with the hypothetical names. The study determined, toddlers who interacted the most with the foods were more likely to correctly identify them by their texture and name them. For example, imagine you were a 16-month-old gazing at a cup of milk and a cup of glue. How would you tell the difference by simply looking?

The Outcome From Messy Eating

The toddlers who really got their hands, and sometimes the walls or floors dirty, seemed to be the ones who understood the differences in texture or viscosity better. All that fooling around was actually learning. It also helped if they were in a high chair. Per the researcher, it turns out that being in a high chair makes it more likely you’ll get messy, because kids know they can get messy there. Playing with these foods there actually helped these children, and they learned the names better.

Bottom Line: Eating is such a learning process and experience, considering the variety of textures, colors, smells, temperatures, and flavors. I hope all parents allow their children to explore the wonderful world of food, and just accept the fact that it's going to be messy, but the mess is benefiting their child.

In Health and Happiness,

Kelly Harrington, MS, RDN

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist for Healthy Goods

References:

Perry LK, Samuelson LK, Burdinie JB. Highchair philosophers: the impact of seating context-dependent exploration on children's naming biases. Developmental Science.

As a mom of a baby boy who recently started complementary foods, aka: “solids,” these new findings are really exciting! Released in January 2013, the recommendations were written after finding that delayed introduction of solid foods, including the top allergenic foods, as previously recommended (in 2000), did not lead to fewer food allergies among children at risk for developing allergies based on family history. In fact, over the past decade, the incidence and prevalence of food allergy and allergic diseases in general have increased substantially, leading to the re-evaluation of the 2000 recommendations.

Food allergies affect mostly young children, and about 90% of these allergies are caused by 8 foods: cow's milk, eggs, soy, peanuts, tree nuts, wheat, fish, and shellfish. With the exception of peanut allergy, the majority of children outgrow their food allergies.

The Nuts & Bolts of Introducing Complementary Foods (aka: “Solids”) per the 2013 Recommendations

• The AAP prefers moms exclusively breastfeeding until baby is 6 months old. There are also a couple developmental milestones your baby should achieve before introducing any complementary foods. Baby should be able to sit upright with support and have sufficient head and neck control.

• In an unselected population of children, feeding solids before 4 months old is associated with a higher incidence of atopic dermatitis, which was also detected 10 years later.

• No current evidence suggests delaying the introduction of solid foods beyond 6 months of age will prevent allergic disease.

• In fact, interestingly enough, delaying the introduction of solid foods, especially the highly allergenic foods, may increase the risk of food allergy or eczema.

General Advice for Introducing New Foods to All Children

• Most pediatric guidelines suggest first introducing single-ingredient foods between 4 and 6 months of age, at a rate not faster than one new food every 3 to 5 days.

• Complementary foods in the United States are typically rice or oat cereal, yellow/orange vegetable (ie: sweet potatoe, squash, and carrots), fruits (ie: apples, pears, bananas), green vegetables, and then age-appropriate vegetables with meats.

• It is common for acidic fruits (ie: berries, tomatoes, citrus fruits, and vegetables) to cause, on contact with the skin, a localized skin reaction or rash. However, these do not usually result in a systemic reaction so delayed introduction of such foods is not recommended.

• The committee doesn't recommend introducing one of the highly allergenic foods as one of the first complementary foods. Once a few typical complementary foods mentioned above are tolerated, highly allergenic foods may be introduced.

• Offering whole cow's milk as the infant's main drink should be avoided until 1 year old for reasons unrelated to allergic disease, but rather increased renal solute load, and low iron content.

• It is ok to introduce other cow's milk-based products, such as cheese and yogurt before age 1 year.

• Whole peanuts and tree nuts, but not peanut/tree nut butters, carry aspiration risk and should be avoided until your baby's primary care physician feels they are safe.

How to Introduce Highly Allergenic Foods

• Give the initial taste of one of these foods at home, rather than at day care or at a restaurant.

• For some foods, such as peanuts, most reactions occur in response to what is believed to be the initial ingestion.

• If there is no apparent reaction, the food can be introduced in gradually increasing amounts.

• Introduction of other new foods should proceed at a rate of one new food every 3 to 5 days if no reactions occur.

New Recommendations for Eating Allergic Foods During Pregnancy

While pregnant, I heard varying information about whether or not to eat allergenic foods. The thought was, if I ate a lot of peanut butter, my baby would have an increased risk of having a peanut allergy. With the new recommendations, we know this is not true. Avoidance diets during pregnancy and lactation are not recommended at this time, but more research is necessary for peanuts.

Note: These recommendations come from a collaboration between the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), the joint guidelines of the European Society for Pediatric Allergology and Clinical Immunology, and the European Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology, Hepatology, and Nutrition.

In Health and Happiness,

Kelly Harrington, MS, RDN

Registered Dietitian Nutritionist for Healthy Goods

For more information, please visit: Fleischer, DM et al. Primary Prevention of Allergenic Disease Through Nutritional Interventions. J of Allergy and Clinical Immunology: In Practice. Vol. 1, Issue 1: 29-36, Jan. 2013.