Why it's NB to introduce Finger Foods at 6 months

JustineK - you can buy the book at Exclusive Books (R224.00)

Kirst - babies get their most nutrients from milk. "It is probably true that food arriving in the stomach in pureed form is easier to digest that food in large pieces. But mouths were designed to mash food - or puree it - by chewing. Food that is thoroughly chewed is easier for the stomach to deal with than food that has been pureed by a blender because mixing saliva with food helps to kick-start the digestive process - especially the digestion of starchy foods. Babies who are allowed to eat at their own pace tend to keep food in their mouths for a long time before they swallow it. During this time it is being softened with saliva and mashed by the gums. But pureed food hardly meet with saliva at all. Instead they are sucked off the spoon straight to the back of the throat and immediately swallowed - without any chewing. Pureeing food - especially fruit and vegetables - can also destroy some of its nutrients." (Baby-led Weaning p.71)

The gag reflex is more forward in the beginning, so that babies can learn to manipulate food in their mouths, without choking on it. eg. move it around with their tongue.

gloeiwurmpie - I really can't believe you're comparing BLW to sword-swallowing...

Yes, I agree, different things work for different mothers, and then different things work on your children (the first may be fine with one method but your second child might be opposite). Maybe this Baby led weaning way is similar to people who try to swallow swords. With lots of practice, one can train your gag reflex to swallow a sword. I really started feeling bad for trying the whole time to get my baby to eat finger foods/textured foods while she was clearly not able to do so. Maybe a gastroentiologist would be able to tell us more about this gag reflex thing. But I agree with you Kirst, my instincts told me their must be a reason why her body rejected finger foods at an early age. But then some children might be candidates for "sword swallowing" some day!

I suppose different things work for different babies and mothers. I'm just wondering about the gag reflex being so far forward when they are still small - is this maybe to prevent parents from feeding their babies solid solids too soon? As a mother, my natural reaction to my baby gagging would be to not give them what is making them gag. Another thing, pureed food surely offers the best way for as much nutrients as possible being made available because it requires less digestion than bigger pieces of food?

mmm...Maybe our problem came from here: A normal, healthy six-month-old baby is able to sit upright, pick up pieces of food, take them to his mouth and chew them.
Our baby could only sit upright at 8 months, could only pick up pieces of food at 10.5 months. Thanks for the info, I enjoy reading alternative methods of doing things.

I must say i didn't think you sucked it out of your thumb, I think it is just a very new different approach to feeding compared to the way of introducing solids as it was done in the past. I have read your posts on pampers forum about this topic, and I really thought you gave the impression that most babies can handle this. I think you leave out a very important part in your advise to moms regarding solids, Baby-led weaning is about following your childs queues with regards to eating and allowing them to experiment with food placed in front of them. At 6 months almost nothing actually makes it inside, I only saw a drastic increase in the intake of food around 9 months. However, I thought because your baby is sitting down at your table at 5 and a half months eating with the family, there must be something wrong with my child.
When I spoke of adding more texture, I talked about instead of blending it fine, rather mashing food like banana or veggies with a masher. This didn't go down too well, from 6 - 9 months.
You are absolute right when saying that moms are too scared too add textured foods from fear of choking, and there should be an awareness that the goal should be to get your baby to eat normal food and not purees forever. Like you have said, give them food to experiment with under supervision, but don't expect them to get a whole meal from eating finger foods.

Marijke, where can I buy the book? I have started this process with success but would like to read up more about it.

Gloeiwurpie, this isn't something I sucked out of my thumb - it's from a book written on the topic of feeding babies, written by a nutritionist specializing in babies (book called baby-led weaning). Some babies do vomit and just continue eating. But if it gets to the point of what RM describes then no.

You keep saying "tried adding more texture" and I'm not sure what you mean by that. Perhaps your little one has a sensitive gag reflex in which case, do what you must. Baby-led weaning is about following your childs queues with regards to eating and allowing them to experiment with food placed in front of them. At 6 months almost nothing actually makes it inside, I only saw a drastic increase in the intake of food around 9 months.

Not all babies have the excessive vomiting problem, but I've found that so many mothers are so unrealistically afraid of giving anything except purees for fear of choking.

Out of personal experience (with the 5 children in our family - none suffering from sensitive gag reflexes or excessive vomiting because of it) I can tell you that feeding purees or cereal as 'first foods' aren't necessary. *Most* babies can handle whole foods from 6 months

The idea is that you have to start giving them safe types of foods to play and experiment with from 6 months on.

www.baby-led.com/
There's a download-able pamphlet on the front page so you can read the key point of the book for yourself