Baby Foods and EC

Let Your Baby Feed Themselves
With Baby Led Weaning

Starting baby food is a super exciting time.. how will it effect your baby?  Discover how Elimination Communication can help you do this at the right pace for your baby.

Baby Led Weaning is a way of introducing homemade family foods that allows you to support your baby's natural instincts about which foods they eat.

Combined with EC you can notice signs as to whether your baby is ready for the various foods and food combinations, and what you can do to ease the transition.

Once your baby is older than six months, you can see if they are ready to begin eating, as they'll let you know, by picking it up and eating it themselves! Throughout the anthological record, it has been noted that babies began eating foods other than breast milk between 6 months and two years, so it is really only now that evidence based science has caught up and confirmed six months plus as the right time to introduce solids to baby.

Luckily there are some built in ways to help you make the introduction of family foods easy on the digestive system of your baby... their natural instincts!

It is also called Baby Led Weaning, but I prefer baby-led solids as a description of starting solids with baby leading the way, by trusting baby's in-built natural instincts.

Skip the purees and mush to have fun with table foods! You'll be able to use your best homemade recipes when starting baby on solid foods.

The evidence for this is in the result of too-soon solids on the digestive system, on allergy levels, and you can read more about why to delay solids to at least six months here. It's really helpful to know about the open gut of a young baby and the impact that starting baby foods too early can have on their digestion, and ongoing effects. The original resource on the topic of a baby- led introduction of solids can be found here.

Here's the list from that site which I found useful, and it was all we needed. You'll find they are common sense - what you'd do as a Mom anyway.

DOs and DON'Ts for baby-led introduction of solids

• DO offer your baby the chance to participate whenever anyone else in the family is eating. You can begin to do this towards the end of the sixth month. Around this time most babies start showing an interest in watching you.

• DO ensure that your baby is supported in an upright position while he is experimenting with food. In the early days you can sit him on your lap, facing the table. Once he is beginning to show skill at picking food up he will almost certainly be mature enough to sit, with minimal support, in a high chair.

• DO start by offering food that is baby-fist-sized, preferably chip-shaped. As far as possible, and provided they are suitable, offer him the same food that you are eating, so that he feels part of what is going on.

• DO offer a variety of food. There is no need to limit your babies experience with food any more than you do with toys.

• DON'T hurry your baby. Allow him to direct the pace of what he is doing. In particular, don't be tempted to 'help' him by putting things in his mouth for him.

• DON'T expect your baby to eat any food on the first few occasions. Once he has discovered that these new toys taste nice, he will begin to chew and, later, swallow.

• DON'T expect a young baby to eat all of each piece of food - remember that he won't yet have developed the ability to get at food inside his fist.

• DO try rejected food again later - babies often change their minds and later accept food they originally turned down.

• DON'T leave your baby on his own with food.

• DON'T offer food that presents an obvious danger, such as peanuts.

• DON'T offer 'fast' food, ready meals or food that has added salt or sugar.

• DO offer water from a cup but don't worry if your baby shows no interest in it. A breastfed baby is likely to continue for some time to get all the drink he needs from the breast.

• DO be prepared for the mess! A clean plastic sheet on the floor under the high chair will protect your carpet and make cleaning up easier. It will also enable you to give back food that has been dropped, so that less is wasted. (You will be pleasantly surprised at how quickly your baby learns to eat with very little mess!)

• DO continue to allow your baby to breastfeed whenever he wants, for as long as he wants. Expect his feeding pattern to change as he starts to eat more of the other food.

• DO discuss this method of weaning with your health advisers before embarking on it, especially if you are bottle feeding, or have a family history of food intolerance, allergy or digestive problems.

• DO enjoy watching your baby learn about food - and develop his skills with his hands and mouth in the process!

Interesting insights from doing baby-led solids with my baby:

- He had a slow introduction - he didn't eat anything until 7.5 months, and would only eat a small amount - far less than what the baby books would say, yet he'd be perfectly happy eating for about five minutes or so, then that would be it! As Kelly says, most references on baby food are geared towards babies that have weaned early.

- I would always notice how his body responded - if he got any digestive disturbances, started having any sort of straining to poop, I'd ease back to just milk until it cleared, then try something else, as his body was probably not quite ready for that food.

- Mostly, however, he would do this himself - we'd put out a variety of foods, he'd choose to eat those things that his body could easily manage that age - it wouldn't just come out the other end looking the same! That was a sign he wasn't producing the appropriate enzymes yet for that type of food. Some enzymes aren't produced until they are over eighteen months of age. It was interesting that he really began eating lots and all sorts towards his second birthday, and this was when it would all be 'processed' nicely by his body! It was also curious that by eighteen months I realized he had been independent for doing poops for a while.

- In practicing EC, with the immediate feedback (and I don't mean getting weed on, I mean noticing how it is effecting them) it can be easy to spot signs of food reactions. Here are a list of common symptoms that might mean baby is reacting to a food, whether it is directly or via breastmilk. If it is via breastmilk you can remove or limit them from your diet once identified, or time your eating of them to just after a breastfeed, and what a difference that can make to your ease of EC, and to you and your baby's lives!

Signs of a possible food reaction *

This is a list from the Elimination Communication Yahoo Group - I found it a valuable resource in helping me to realise that my baby was reacting to *too much* wheat in my diet, and later to pineapple (too many salicylates in them for his system) I was able to identify and remove or reduce the offending foods, and thus had a much happier baby! If it wasn't for EC, I may not have known the effect it was having on his little body. As he grew older and stronger he was able to tolerate those foods normally. I was so glad to have found out before any permanent or chronic problem emerged.

* You can do your own research starting at resources such as these:
"Is This Your Child?" Doris Rapp, MD Dr Rapp.com

Her Cookbook "The Whole Foods Allergy Cookbook" Has recipes which have had removed the 8 allergens responsible for 90% of all food allergies.
"Fed Up!" by Sue Dengate. The Food Intolerance Network

There is a Yahoo group called Foodlab run and visited by a large group of Moms (some of whom practice EC) who explore food intolerances, allergies and reactions and share experiences, recipes, support and help pinpoint possible causes. A valuable resource to consider joining if you think your baby may be reacting to a food and you can't work out what it may be.

How will your EC practice help with the start of using 'family table' foods for baby?

• When practicing any amount of EC you will begin immediately developing the awareness of the response of baby's digestion on their elimination patterns - for instance if they start doing a lot more pees, or peeing more often, or if they get constipated or the runs, it is easier to tell when it is in a potty or a bowl, rather than sucked away into a diaper.
  

• You can easily see if their wee is getting smellier or more concentrated due to an imbalance for the same reason, by the scent or color (as close to clear is best) and can scale back their amount of solids or what they are eating accordingly, and then begin once their system clears.
  

• I found EC was a great reassurance for breastfeeding - I always knew he was feeding enough by his patterns and that his wee was nice and pale and odorless. On hot days of course it was more concentrated, and after naps. But, if he began peeing copiously and got stressed or stopped signaling at all, I'd suspect something wasn't agreeing with him at the time, and his system was getting rid of it as fast as possible. So, I'd help him by offering the breast more (he was cue-fed anyway) while reducing the food I suspected was the cause (though he ate what he liked, and would stop eating by his own instincts.)

Learning More About Elimination Communication:

To learn about how using baby sign language can aid in your communication with your baby for pottying and many other ways, read Baby Sign Language and EC.

Resources Supporting Baby-Led Solids That I found Helpful:

Kellymom.com such as Solid foods and the breastfed baby / toddler

World Health Organisation such as Exclusive Breastfeeding for six months

Australian Breastfeeding Association such as Just breast milk, thanks!

Guidelines for implementing a baby-led approach to the introduction of solid foods.

Wikipedia: Baby Led Weaning entry.

A bunch of Mums on the ABA Forum use a baby-led solids approach.

Baby Led Weaning Blog

Baby Led Weaning Yahoo Discussion Group