I've been suggesting for days that babies can eat alone and today I will go into the subject a little more. With the studies that I already mentioned of Davis and others, we saw that children are able to eat the necessary amount of food and, more importantly and surprisingly, they are able to adapt their quality to their needs.
For some time now, a feeding mode called “Baby-led Weaning“, Which would come to be translated as“ weaning directed by the baby ”, although as in Spain, weaning comes to mean something else, one could say that it is the“ introduction of complementary feeding guided by the baby ”, or what is same, that the child adopts complementary feeding based on their needs and tastes.
Seeing this, that babies are able to feed themselves, one wonders what is the role of a mother or father before a fully trained baby.
The answer is simple. The best we can do is provide adequate nutritional and varied foods, so that they choose what and how much to eat.
These recommendations are born from Gill Rapley, nutritionist and deputy director of the UNICEF Friends of Children Hospitals Initiative (IHAN) in the United Kingdom.
According to Rapley, and following the recommendations of the WHO that we mentioned a few days ago, the ideal is to start feeding by offering the baby easy-chewed foods that are part of the parents' diet. In this way, by eating the same, they are less likely to have problems accepting flavors and textures with food.
It is about taking advantage of babies' innate curiosity, their desire to explore and experiment and their ability to imitate adults so they can try different foods as they are.
In this way the transition from milk to food is done in a natural way, since everything happens at the rhythm of the little ones and based on their abilities, desires and needs.
Children who are allowed to decide tend to be less demanding and it has been seen that they even avoid some foods that, valuing it later, would have produced intolerances.
But if I give him food, he will choke, right?
This type of feeding generates the logical doubt in the parents of whether their child will not drown eating in this way. In principle, if the child remains only in an upright position and is able to take the food with his hands and bring it to his mouth he has the ability to chew (even if he does not have teeth) and can move them to the back of the mouth to swallow them without problems (that doesn't mean you have to watch them while they eat).
The ability to catch tiny things comes later, which is why A child who feeds on what he takes cannot be choked with small things because he does not have the ability to take them and drop them in his mouth.
Babies aged 6-8 months grab things with the whole hand and, at most, doing thumb and full index finger clamp (lower caliper). With this way of taking things they can only eat (or suck) what stands out of their fists, so it is better for them to take very large pieces than small pieces, which will not know how to eat.
The meat, for example, is best offered in steak, since they can take it whole and suck the protruding part. When they are able to take food and drop it in their mouth, it is better to offer them minced meat.
In other words, according to Rapley, the ideal is to start with large pieces, the size of the baby's fist and a little more, since that little more will be what the baby will eat, gnaw or suck.
Ideal foods to start with can be pear or apple, cut into very thin slices, which if they are a little ripe can be undone quite well in the mouth, broccoli, since they grab the stem with their hand and eat the rest, a Small beef steak, a boiled carrot, potato ...
Anyway, nothing would happen if we offer peas, rice or chickpeas. If they are small and unprepared, they will fight with them rather than eat them (they will catch them in their hands and will not know how to open them to put them in their mouths) and, if they manage to get them into their mouths, they are probably ready to chew them.
And if he succeeds but is not ready?
Well, there are three options, one that eats it perfectly, another that is attractive, make an Arggg and the food comes back to the mouth to be chewed again and the last one to be scared and if in doubt we take the piece with your finger as when they put some small object.
Advantages
Children accept different textures and flavors better, tend to accept more food and their menus are very similar to those of adults. This is because in addition to looking at the taste, the temperature and the texture by the mouth, they can be fixed in the color, in the form, in the touch, in the temperature when touching it, in what happens when you hit the food against the table, etc.
They eat on demand, the amount that their bodies ask for and choose the food that can contribute more according to the nutritional requirements of each moment. As it is their own curiosity that leads them to try food, it is they who decide what and how much to eat, what they like and what they dislike and encourage the autonomy of babies.
When eating food separately, it knows all its characteristics in isolation, so banana tastes like banana, peas with peas and meat with meat. With porridge, however, they must assimilate a strange taste that they will probably never try again.
They can eat the same as adults eat, so you can sit at the table with them and be one more. In this way it is not necessary to have to go with porridge from here to there, we can go as guests to eat without having to prepare anything and in case of urgency we can buy a banana or something else to eat it.
Children do not get used to porridge and crushed (texture that adults do not usually use) and takes advantage of the period between 6 and 12 months (approximately) in which they have an impressive curiosity towards anything. After that time they are losing the desire to learn and try new things and are more likely to get used to crushing and reach an older age without wanting to try pieces and wanting to eat everything in porridge.
Disadvantages
Not all foods can be offered in this way to children. In the event that a child needs some type of specific food (usually in case of needing a special diet for some type of pathology) a porridge can be made in one of the shots to add those necessary foods. In the case of healthy babies, milk is the main food until the year, so it doesn't matter too much that you don't eat certain foods.
Another disadvantage is what three paragraphs ago was an advantage, which is a dirty, very dirty way of eating. The baby eats with his hands and nibbles and sucks the food. All this means that he himself, the clothes and the high chair end up full of food.
It causes distrust: Although I have already explained that it is normal that sometimes they make an arcade and even choking, because they are learning (with the porridge also happens at the beginning), many mothers are suspicious or do not dare to feed their children from this way. Ideally, start offering food in a rather affordable way and as we see that they are more prepared they can be given more solid food.
When it should not take place
This system should not be used in babies with a history of food intolerances, allergies or if it is premature. It is true that sometimes they reject some that would have caused them intolerance, but at the moment when a child suffers from some type of intolerance, the control should pass to the doctors, who will decide when is the ideal time to offer new foods.
Until I see it ...
There are those who think, when they read or listen to something related to letting children eat semi-solid foods for themselves, which is something unlikely or extremely dangerous. That is why I put some videos that can serve as a sample.
On YouTube there are some videos with which you can get an idea, but I found some of a specific child, Olivier, whose parents were recording him while eating since he was six months old.
In the first video Olivier is 5 months and 24 days old and we can see him eating boiled carrots and potatoes. If you look there is a time when a too large piece of carrot approaches the throat, Olivier makes a "semi-check", takes the carrot from the place where it should not be and continues to eat.
In the following video he has 6 months and 13 days and we see him eating broccoli:
In the next Olivier has 7 months and 11 days and we can see how a banana is eaten:
And in the last one I put you, in which Olivier is 7 months and 12 days old, we see how he eats something like a sandwich of bread (I don't know if there is something inside):
If you want to see more videos of little Olivier eating you can do it here. For my part I urge you to read a guide with tips to carry out the “Baby-led Weaning”.
Recommended book: 'The child already eats alone'
If you are looking for more information on the subject, a recommended reading is 'The child already eats alone'. It is the Spanish translation of the book 'Baby led weaning' by Gill Rapley, in which he explains the ABC of this form of food also known in Spanish as the ACS method (learn to eat alone).
