Pureed baby food is 'unnatural'

[seven]

Spoon-feeding babies pureed food is unnatural and unnecessary, a Unicef childcare expert has warned.

Gill Rapley, deputy director of Unicef's Baby Friendly Initiative said feeding babies in this way could cause health problems later in life.

She said children should be fed only with breast or formula milk for the six months, then weaned onto solids and given control over how much they ate.

This could prevent babies becoming picky about food.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gif
Mrs Rapley has spent 25 years as a health visitor, and she said: "I found so many parents were coming to me with the same problems - 'my child is constipated, my child is really picky' - and they couldn't get them on to second stage baby food."

Milk only

From these observations and her own studies she developed her feeding programme, called Baby-Led Weaning.

According to this programme, during the first six months babies should receive milk only.

She said: "In 2002 the World Health Organisation backed research that found breast or formula milk provided all the nutrition a baby needs up to the age of six months.

"That research said feeding a baby any other food during the first six months would dilute the nutritional value of the milk and might even be harmful to the baby's health."

She said these findings had been incorporated into Government recommendations on baby feeding.

Solids best

After six months, Mrs Rapley says babies are capable of taking food into their mouths and chewing it, and feeding them pureed food during this time could delay the development of chewing skills.

Instead, she said, they should be given milk and solid pieces of food which they could chew.

She said letting a baby choose how much to eat during this time could stop them becoming fussy eaters later in life, or developing constipation.
And she blamed the food industry for convincing parents that they should give children pureed food.

She said: "Sound scientific research and government advice now agree that there is no longer any window of a baby's development in which they need something more than milk and less than solids.

Difficulties

Professor David Candy, a paediatric gastroenterologist with the Royal West Sussex NHS Trust, said this programme could be a good idea.
But he warned that it was difficult to set an exact age at which babies should be given solids, as individuals would develop the skills needed to eat them at different rates.

Purees could help some babies make the transition between liquid and solid foods more easily.

He said: "Some babies could manage this, but others may not have the oromotor skills necessary to chew the food - they would just push it out of their mouths.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gif
Roger Clarke, director-general of the Infant and Dietetic Foods Association which represents members of the food industry, said the research needed to be looked at carefully.

But he said a "one size fits all" policy on baby-feeding was not appropriate. He added that generations of parents had relied on baby foods to provide a "safe, sound nutrition" for their babies.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6762795.stm

[sunrise]

so what about those jar thingies r they bad for children? ive seen even muslim shops seeling them :scratch:

[Abandoned-Mind]

so what about those jar thingies r they bad for children? ive seen even muslim shops seeling them :scratch:

They are Muslims, not specialists on the dietary need of babies lol.

I've seen Muslims selling alcohol...

[Zesty]

They are Muslims, not specialists on the dietary need of babies lol.

I've seen Muslims selling alcohol...

lllloooolll sorry.. that just made me laugh :o
Those ready meal things are a waste of money :p (although i suppose its cos of convenience that people use them), but i think its best to make your baby's food at home.

[sunrise]

They are Muslims, not specialists on the dietary need of babies lol.

I've seen Muslims selling alcohol...


haha...errr no...i meant it might pose a threat to muslims on this forum who may buy their baby food from muslim shops!

[Supernova Nebula]

a very good read. thanks seven.

[heaven2002]

is says to start giving solids at 6 months, but babies dont have enuf teeth at that age to chew??

[dhakiyya]

MashaAllah excellent thread - this research confirms what I have found with my baby mashaAllah.

She had nothing but breastmilk for six months - following the current advice. I did not just look at her age though, I looked for all the signs that show she is ready for food - these include (though I can't remember them all):

- loss of the tongue thrust reflex - when the baby is not ready for solid food, they poke their tongue out to push things out of their mouth. When they are ready for solid food they stop doing this.

- interest in food - e.g. trying to grab food from you, looking at you longingly when you are eating like "mummy i want some too"

- being able to sit up

She was ready for solid food just one week before she was exactly six months old.

Then mashaAllah I started her on stage one purees I made myself. She didn't really go through stage one at all (stage one is where they have just smooth purees) - because my home made purees had lumps in she had to cope with lumps right from the start mashaAllah, as she was six months and would be moving to stage two if I followed the baby food manufacturers advice, I didn't see a problem with my lumpy purees lol :p and she ate them. She went straight to eating three meals a day, it took less than a week from first food to three tiny meals a day. She never had any problem with texture mashaAllah so she was pretty much into stage two purees (i.e. purees with lumps in) and then finger foods as soon as she could pick up food and put it in her mouth. Before that she would put her hands in the food and look at it, then as soon as she could put her hands in her food and then in her mouth I gave her finger foods and she loved them mashaAllah.

Now mashaAllah (11 months old) she eats three huge meals a day, shovelling all kinds of food into her mouth, she even eats curry mashaAllah (made without salt or chilli) - very often she has the same food as me and my husband (when I don't have any added salt in the food) - she eats all kinds of vegetables mashaAllah, rice, pasta and bread, she loves avocado, I chop them into small pieces that she can pick up and eat - although with soft foods I can serve them as batons and she can bite them with her lil baby teeth mashaAllah. She also has no problems with new foods.

Once when she was just starting on finger foods, we were at a picnic with some friends and my friend from Palestine brought some home made felafels (yummy mashaAllah!) and my baby just helped herself to a felafel and started munching on it mashaAllah. First I knew was when a friend asked "is she allowed felafel then?" and I noticed she was eating it lol. Actually I wouldn't have allowed her to have one as they had sesame seeds on them (nuts and seeds are best avoided until they are three if you have allergies in the family as we do) and I hadn't checked if there was salt in the recipe, but she was already munching away on it so I couldn't take it from her mashaAllah.

I think a lot of people are in too much of a hurry to introduce solids, like they think if they leave it too long their baby will be behind, but mashaAllah this was not the case with my baby, because she didn't really have a stage one, and she got to stage three at an earlier stage than the babyfood companies say.

Another thing about shop bought baby food, if you only ever give them it (although one tin here and there when you are out or too rushed off your feet to cook will not influence their tastes) they will develop a taste for processed food. I was talking to a mother the other day whose daughter is the same age as mine, and she was saying how her daughter clearly has a taste for shop baby food and will only try home made food very tentatively, if at all. Babies develop a taste for what they are given to eat, and for what they see you eating. We always had family meals where we could, and mashaAllah I think this is a very important way to get babies and children into good eating habits. Showing an interest in what you eat is one of the signs they are ready to be introduced to solid food, so keep up that interest in what you are eating, and also eat healthy foods when you eat with or in front of the children. (save your unhealthy foods for when they are not around inshaAllah)

I don't necessarily agree with the expert at the end of the first post that says about babies pushing food out with their mouths. You really have to observe how the food is being pushed out. If they are poking their tongue out to push the food out - i.e. the tongue thrust reflex - they are not ready for the food so you should wait a while. However, particularly with breastfed babies, even if they are ready for solid food, to begin with, they will treat solid food like breastfeeding, and will squeeze the food against the roof of their mouth, and some will go backwards and be swallowed, and some will come back out again. If this is what a baby is doing, then just scoop the food off their chin and poke it in again, inshaAllah they will get the hang of solid food soon. If a baby who is ready for solids doesn't want to eat what you are spoon feeding them, they will turn their head away from the spoon. Take this as their signal that they've had enough.

[dhakiyya]

is says to start giving solids at 6 months, but babies dont have enuf teeth at that age to chew??


they don't need teeth, they chomp perfectly well with their little gums. If you know a baby around six months old, poke your finger in their mouth where they have no teeth, and they will chomp your finger and you'll feel just how strong and hard their little gums are mashaAllah. Teeth are sharper and even harder, so don't put your finger in the way of their lil teeth mashaAllah.

Softish foods like banana, avocado, potato, fish, apple, cooked carrot etc can easily be chomped by little gums - you can cut these into small batons for them to bite and chew and they love it mashaAllah.

The foods you need to be careful of are grapes and cherry tomatoes, because these are just the right size and shape to block the windpipe, and its hard for a little mouth to bite them when they are whole, so this kind of food needs to be cut into baby bite sized pieces first.

Very hard foods like whole nuts also present a choking hazard because they are so hard. The allergy advice is not to give nuts until three years anyway, but even then whole nuts is not a good idea - best to crush them first.

[neelu]

Jazakallah khayr seven and also dhakiyyah cos' I was just about to ask whether there were any real life examples of parents who had tried this:up: A word of caution though; always be mindful of how lumpy the food is or how big the chunks are... a distant relative of mine lost her son cos' he choked on a piece of banana- and I think he was over a year old:(

[Te'oma]

Spoon-feeding babies pureed food is unnatural and unnecessary, a Unicef childcare expert has warned.

Gill Rapley, deputy director of Unicef's Baby Friendly Initiative said feeding babies in this way could cause health problems later in life.

She said children should be fed only with breast or formula milk for the six months, then weaned onto solids and given control over how much they ate.

This could prevent babies becoming picky about food.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gif
Mrs Rapley has spent 25 years as a health visitor, and she said: "I found so many parents were coming to me with the same problems - 'my child is constipated, my child is really picky' - and they couldn't get them on to second stage baby food."

Milk only

From these observations and her own studies she developed her feeding programme, called Baby-Led Weaning.

According to this programme, during the first six months babies should receive milk only.

She said: "In 2002 the World Health Organisation backed research that found breast or formula milk provided all the nutrition a baby needs up to the age of six months.

"That research said feeding a baby any other food during the first six months would dilute the nutritional value of the milk and might even be harmful to the baby's health."

She said these findings had been incorporated into Government recommendations on baby feeding.

Solids best

After six months, Mrs Rapley says babies are capable of taking food into their mouths and chewing it, and feeding them pureed food during this time could delay the development of chewing skills.

Instead, she said, they should be given milk and solid pieces of food which they could chew.

She said letting a baby choose how much to eat during this time could stop them becoming fussy eaters later in life, or developing constipation.
And she blamed the food industry for convincing parents that they should give children pureed food.

She said: "Sound scientific research and government advice now agree that there is no longer any window of a baby's development in which they need something more than milk and less than solids.

Difficulties

Professor David Candy, a paediatric gastroenterologist with the Royal West Sussex NHS Trust, said this programme could be a good idea.
But he warned that it was difficult to set an exact age at which babies should be given solids, as individuals would develop the skills needed to eat them at different rates.

Purees could help some babies make the transition between liquid and solid foods more easily.

He said: "Some babies could manage this, but others may not have the oromotor skills necessary to chew the food - they would just push it out of their mouths.
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/shared/img/o.gif
Roger Clarke, director-general of the Infant and Dietetic Foods Association which represents members of the food industry, said the research needed to be looked at carefully.

But he said a "one size fits all" policy on baby-feeding was not appropriate. He added that generations of parents had relied on baby foods to provide a "safe, sound nutrition" for their babies.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/6762795.stm

My kids were all breastfeeding and cereals by the age of 2 months because the milk wasn't enough. One word of advice though, if you are going to use baby foods, don't start them on fruits and then try to move to vegetables and meats. Start them on the vegetables first or they will develop a sweet tooth early on and getting them to eat anything that isn't sweet will be like pulling teeth.

[dhakiyya]

Jazakallah khayr seven and also dhakiyyah cos' I was just about to ask whether there were any real life examples of parents who had tried this:up: A word of caution though; always be mindful of how lumpy the food is or how big the chunks are... a distant relative of mine lost her son cos' he choked on a piece of banana- and I think he was over a year old:(

Even adults can choke on foods.

Anything the size of a large grape is not good for a baby, because its too big to bite and the right size to block up a windpipe. Either have things in long batons that they can bite manageable sized chunks off of, or have them in small lumps. Also be careful of very hard foods, because even though a baby's gums are surprisingly good at chewing, they're still not as good as teeth. Never give a child under seven or eight boiled sweets, its a total choking hazard - too hard to bite and the right size to block up the windpipe. (although you shouldn't give babies sweets for the reason Te'oma mentioned, plus they rot the teeth).

[dhakiyya]

My kids were all breastfeeding and cereals by the age of 2 months because the milk wasn't enough. One word of advice though, if you are going to use baby foods, don't start them on fruits and then try to move to vegetables and meats. Start them on the vegetables first or they will develop a sweet tooth early on and getting them to eat anything that isn't sweet will be like pulling teeth.

How did you know the milk wasn't enough? (not a loaded question, I'm genuinely interested)

[nadous]

I have 4 children and what ever specialist as saying , i never listening to it...

When the mother breast feed a baby , the baby does not need anything else on the beginning... But if your children ask at 4 months milk every 2 hours and keep crying for it , it is because he is hungry and he is not feed enough during the day...

I start usually to gave them boiled rice or rice cereals about 3 months ( 1 tea spoon) and vegetable/fruits about 4 or 5 months depending of the needs. At 6 months they eat everything and still taking milk to 6 times a day....

If a mother have to breastfeed the baby every 2 hours she got tired and stop to do it (in mostly case)... But if she can manage it to do it with food she can go up to 2 years old which it is recommended by islam...

I even give a cow milk to one of them when she was 9 months (and doctors wasn't agree)... She was having milk problem ... breasfeeding not working, formula not working, special formula not working either... 9 months she was look like 3 months baby , not taking weight, always throwing up and sick... When I stop all of those she wasn,t even able to drink boiled water... I gave her cow milk (3.25%) and she gain weight in 2 weeks , start to eat, and 1 month after she as took 3 pounds... She born at 8.2 pounds and at 9 months she was only 11 pounds... I proove it to the pediatrician then my mom, grand-mother and all my women ancester who was giving cow milk was having a good reason...

Specialist are good for many things, but what it is concerning a baby the better doctor is the mother....She know her child...

[dhakiyya]

I
If a mother have to breastfeed the baby every 2 hours she got tired and stop to do it (in mostly case)... But if she can manage it to do it with food she can go up to 2 years old which it is recommended by islam...
..

If a mother has this problem there are many steps she can take before supplementing her milk with something else. Supplementing (whether with formula or any other food) actually makes breast milk supply problems worse, and should only be done after everything else has been tried already.

Breast milk works on a supply and demand system, there are always days when the baby needs more than he or she did the day before, and to increase the mothers supply, he or she will suckle for much longer, very likely every two hours or so and maybe suckle for an hour or even longer each time. When a baby does this, it is not an indication that breast milk is not enough (although it certainly can feel that way at the time!!) - because within a day or two the body responds by producing more milk. After one or two days of feeding the baby for much longer than usual, you get a day where you have tonnes of milk and the baby is satisfied after just twenty minutes then sleeps for 3-4 hours or whatever time the next feed is scheduled (depending on the baby's age and weight), then the day after that he or she is back to the usual schedule and you have the right amount of milk.

When a baby goes through a day like this, if you give supplements to the feed, then they will not do the extra suckling necessary to increase the supply, and this is a vicious cycle because you will not have enough milk the next day either, and will keep on needing to supplement the feeds and never build up enough milk supply to meet the baby's needs.

If a mother is having supply problems, she needs to ensure that she is getting all of the following:

1. enough water to drink - being dehydrated is the quickest way to get milk supply problems. This is why Allah says that a breastfeeding mother does not have to fast if she fears that fasting may affect her milk supply, because going without water for long periods affects milk supply - different women are affected in different ways with this, which is why some women can fast when they are breastfeeding a young baby and others can't.

2. enough healthy food to eat - insufficient nutrition, particularly insufficient protein, can affect the quality of your milk and make the baby hungrier. Also, getting sufficient fruit and veg helps ensure an adequate supply of milk. Ensure that you are getting enough high protein foods like meat, fish etc, and at least 5 portions of fruit and veg, preferably eight. You need at least an additional 600 calories per day to maintain adequate milk supplies, more if your baby is going through a growth spurt, or is hungrier than average, or is very pukey (they need 600 calories from what they keep down, if they puke up an additional 100 calories during the day you'll need to eat 700 calories additional to what you need for your own body)

3. sufficient rest - having a nap can work wonders for keeping up milk supply. You will naturally have more milk first thing in the morning because you have been sleeping (even if the sleep is broken by baby waking up, feeding etc)

4. somewhere comfy and stress free to feed - being stressed or uncomfortable whilst feeding the baby affects milk supply. If baby is going through a day of making more milk and seems to be constantly feeding, put your feet up and let baby get on with it. You need the extra rest, the washing up can wait. Husbands can massively help their wives with breastfeeding by being sympathetic and helping with chores etc whilst she is feeding, fetching water for her etc.

5. enough suckling from the baby - as mentioned above, it works on supply and demand, the more the baby suckles, the more milk you have the next day. So if baby wants to suckle longer, let him/her and within a day or so you will have more milk and they will not need to suckle for half as long.

More steps that may help maintain exclusive breastfeeding:

1. Express your milk in the morning when you have loads of milk, and either give it to the baby from a bottle for one feed in the night (which your husband or someone else in the family could do whilst you catch up on sleep) - or give it to the baby for the evening feed, which is the time of day when you are tiredest and most likely to have supply problems. - bear in mind though that your body remembers how much suckling was done at different times of day, so if you do this you will need to continue doing the same each day, as you will make even more milk in the morning, and less milk at the times when you give the bottle of expressed milk. Also bear in mind that a breastfed baby will need to learn to feed from a bottle so you have to start doing this from just a few weeks old or he/she will simply refuse the bottle altogether. - also don't give a bottle at all until breastfeeding is properly established (usually thats about 2 weeks old, but if you are having problems breastfeeding then leave it longer) - Giving expressed milk at bedtime after breastfeeding is one step that encourages the baby to sleep longer at night and to learn to sleep through the night from around 3-4 months.

2. You can express small amounts of milk after each feed to speed up the time it takes to increase the milk supply for the next day. The expressed milk can be given during the night as above.

3. If a mother is having breastfeeding problems during the first two weeks after having the baby, there are additional things that could be causing the problem - e.g. not latching on correctly - and she should seek help from a midwife or health visitor who is trained in breastfeeding (most arent, but the ones that are are excellent mashaAllah) or get help from a breastfeeding consultant - see breastfeeding organistions for details.

If all these steps fail to rectify supply problems, then you should supplement with formula, not with food. Food before four months can cause problems - it can trigger severe food allergies in susceptible babies, and also a baby's digestive system, kidneys and liver are not ready for food until at least 4 months (and for some babies not until 6 months). If there is a family history of dairy allergy, get a doctor to perscribe hydrolysed formula - which is still made from cows milk but it undergoes a process to remove the proteins which can cause allergic reactions. Supplementing breastfeeds should be a last resort as it does make supply problems worse.

It is rare for women to be completely unable to maintain milk supply when she has tried all of the above. Of course if this is the case then she must supplement the feeds. However most women who experience supply problems, its a temporary problem caused by something like not getting enough water, or not letting the baby suckle enough, which is very easily rectified.