Delaying Solids

My only daughter is my youngest of 4 children. She is still a baby - and also the topic of this blog entry. I am thrilled that God has given me a daughter - mostly because I have the amazing privilege of raising my daughter to love homemaking. This entry is one of the many tips I will pass onto my daughter as I train her to love motherhood and homemaking.

I love the topic of health and nutrition and delaying solids is one of those topics that is particularly important to me for many reasons.

**Delaying solids give baby more protection. While babies are exclusively breastfed - no solids whatsoever. . . no juice. . . no cereals, etc., they are even more protected from illness than while being breastfed and eating solids.

**Delaying solids gives the baby's digestive system the proper time to mature. There are certain enzymes that don't reach maturity until 7 months old or later. Those enzymes are needed to help in properly digesting solid foods.

**Delaying solids decreases the risk of food allergies. That are certain antibodies that are passed on from mother to baby that help reduce the liklihood of allergic reactions. The baby will begin to develop those on her own after 6 months of age.

**Delaying solids help to reduce the risk of developing obesity later in life.

**And one of my favorites. . . it's just plain easier!! And by easier, I just mean that I don't have to puree the food, then deal with the mess of the baby's tongue thrust mechanism. In some respects it could be considered more difficult to delay solids, because the nursing mom is unable to be away from baby for very long.

For those of you who are used to feeding on a schedule, if you also want to delay solids, demand feeding might be a better way to go. When you delay solids and also schedule feed, it's quite possible that baby won't get enough nourishment for what they need to grow and thrive. Feeding on demand will ensure that baby is getting all the nutrients he/she needs, thus alleviating any worry from your mind that baby needs any additional food. I feed on demand, so I never had to worry about whether or not Rosalie needed any supplements. I fed her whenever she indicated she was hungry, instead of by the clock. In any case, delaying solids and demand feeding seem to go together.

Having said all of that - I gave Rosalie her first solid foods this week! She has taken to them very well and is loving them! I started by giving her some mashed up avacado. Avacado is one of the best first foods that you can offer a baby. It's fairly easy to digest and it is full of nutritional benefits and good fats for brain development. She seemed to enjoy it. Then I gave her some bananas. She really seemed to like those! I also gave her a mixture of avacado and banana.

Last night, she actually ate cream of chicken soup with us. I love the fact that when I wait so long to give solids, I don't have to make anything special for her. I can pretty much just give her what we are eating.(provided it is healthy - and I go to great lengths to prepare healthy meals) She doesn't have to have pureed foods. I just cut her chunks down a little smaller. I did start to give her some grains once or twice, but cut that out when I did some more reading on the topic. Interestingly enough, grains are very difficult to digest. So, I want to give her digestive system a little more time to mature before grains become a regular part of her diet. And even then, I am going to make sure she only gets grains that have been soaked and fermented to aid in digestion. For right now, I am going to focus on giving her mostly vegetables and some meats.

Rich is plagued with chronic skin problems, asthma, and allergies, so we decided we wanted to take every possible precaution that we could to keep our children from developing those conditions. Just based on genetics, they most likely have a predisposition to those conditions, but environmental factors always play into it too. So, I am hoping and praying that our efforts will keep our children healthy.