Have you heard “Food before one is just for fun”? I have seen our community members post it in our support group, asserting that all babies need for their first year of life is breastmilk. I feel compelled to clarify that we don’t believe this to be true. Food before one is definitely much more than just for fun, as Jo McKinstry, Accredited Dietician, asserts in her article ‘Food Before One Is Just For Fun’ – Fact or Fiction?
Sally Fallon Morell and Dr. Thomas Cowan, MD, write in their book The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby and Child Care: “Somewhere between the fourth and sixth month, baby should be started on solid food. The exact moment depends on the size and maturity of your infant. Babies who have reached twelve pounds and who are achieving their milestones (see pages 174-79) are probably ready for solid food at age four months. Infants ready for solid food will stop pushing their tongue out when a spoon or bit of food is placed in their mouth–a reflex common in infants that disappears at around four months of age. For less mature babies, wait until five or six months. But by the halfway mark to baby’s first year, he will need solid food in addition to breast milk or [homemade] formula.
The reason is that it is at this time of life when baby runs out of iron, and neither breast milk nor raw milk from another species is likely to provide adequate iron for baby’s needs. One study found that babies exclusively breastfed even for six months were more likely to develop anemia than those introduced to solid foods at four to six months. Exclusive breastfeeding, that is, breastfeeding without any other food for up to a year, is a recent fad. The result is pale, anemic babies who tend to be timid and clingy. In virtually all traditional cultures, baby gets his first solid food by six months, usually liver or other organ meat which the mother has pre-chewed. Liver is the best source of useable iron for baby, along with vitamin B12, and a host of other nutrients, all of which will put color in baby’s cheeks and liveliness in her behavior. The other recommended weaning food is grass-fed egg yolk, loaded with choline, vitamin D and cholesterol, as well as iron, all necessary for baby’s developing brain. The consequences of iron deficiency in children are serious. According to a study published in the Journal of Nutrition, “Infants with chronic, severe iron deficiency have been observed to display increased fearfulness, unhappiness, fatigue, low activity, wariness, solemnity and proximity to the mother during free play, development testing and at home.” Anemic infants who did not receive iron supplementation, “never smiled, never interacted socially, and never showed social referencing.”
When I shared with Sally Fallon Morell that “Food before one is just for fun” was appearing in our community, her response was “Wait until age 1 before solid food?? You have to be kidding!! Babies really need that iron by age 6 months, and I am sorry, letting the baby eat dirt is not the way to do this. Primitive moms chewed liver and gave it to their babies.”
My own recommendations have been based on what parents in our community, mainly mothers, have reported. I summarize in an article titled What I learned from mothers about baby’s first foods., part of which is copied below:
One mother commented, “I would really like to stress that one should watch the baby, not the calendar.” From the feedback I read on Facebook and in the comments on the two posts, it is clear to me that some babies are ready for solids as early as 4 months and some are not really in earnest until one year. They simply aren’t interested or physically prepared. Some vomited the recommend pastured egg yolks they were given time and again, and only in their own time were ready to receive them … and even ask for them as they grew! So perhaps it would behove us to recommend that parents be aware that babies may be ready as early as 4 months, but that for some the recommendation to introduce solids at 6 months is simply not appropriate because baby isn’t ready or willing. I like the notion of recommending that babies be introduced to solids such as egg yolk, liver and cod liver oil by 6 months, but if they aren’t ready, they aren’t ready. Just honor that and try again in a week or two … or more, for some it was months. All along, mothers are encouraged to follow this Recommended Diet for Pregnant and Nursing Mothers.
See our Resources for Baby’s First Solid Foods, and my recent review of Nourished Beginnings.
7 Responses to Food before one is not just for fun.
All 3 of my babies were very clearly interested in food by 4 months happily taking cod liver oil drops off a spoon, and very shortly after a few spoon fulls of yolks with liver and even bone broth. While one of my babies was on homemade formula by 3 months because of my health and milk drying up, my other 2 nursed until age 2, but still had a very clear need to solids before that. By 6 months or so of age they would fully nurse and still be very interested in a few spoonfuls of nourishing, nutrient dense solids. Happy happy babies who slept well within their own personilities too :)
I didn’t know as much about nutrition then as I do now but it always seemed logical to me to breastfeed babies and when you could put a spoonful of food in their mouths and they swallowed it and wanted more that they were ready to eat. Sucking puréed food out of a bottle did not seem natural nor did not feeding a baby that was watching you eat and licking their lips.
With one of my eight children, life was rough, she was hard, and I was overwhelmed, so I took the La Lache League approach and didn’t worry about food until she turned one. She has been our difficult child in all respects and is now 18 yo. All my others were eating some serious food by age one. So this resonates with me.
My daughter refused all offered solid foods consistently until well past the age of one year. She was a cheerful, robustly healthy infant; even chubby from months one through six. after the sixth month, she was so actively cruising, climbing and walking that she stopped being chubby, but she never got poorly-looking, or lost her rounded childish body and face. She was very alert, very investigative of her surroundings, cheery and active and sweet-natured despite being from birth a high-need baby with high sensitivity to environmental factors. (I’d had a very stressful pregnancy and long, challenging delivery, but no interventions.) She was a lousy sleeper, and preferred to be busily engaged in exploring her world. As she continued to grow and had no signs of ill health or developmental delay—to the contrary, she was always hugely in advance of benchmarks in physical capability or mental function—I didn’t worry. Her weight to height ratio was low after she stopped being chubby, but within normal parameters for breastfed babies. At intervals, from about the 4th month, I would offer her a mashed bit of whatever we were eating, but she spat out every bit of it until well past her first birthday. The first thing to meet with approval was mashed avocado. Guacamole, actually. She continued rejecting most foods in any appreciable quantity for some time longer; I don’t recall her consuming more than a single bite of anything until she was nearly three years old. At that point, she began to eat a few bites of most anything, until it looked like a more reasonable amount of solid food was being consumed most days. She weaned herself at a little past four years old. I offer this perspective in support of the idea that we should be informed and paying attention, but also remembering that each child (and each mother-child dyad) is different, and listening to one’s baby/child and one’s intuition can be as important as any other factor. I was at home with her, and thus able to know exactly what was going on all day and night. I could see that she was thriving and developing normally. My situation, and my baby, were different to many others, but also, I believe, not unusual for a high-need/sensitive infant.
Very informative indeed, thank you for this! :) As a dietitian, I agree!
[…] Food before one is not just for fun […]
my son wanted nothing to do with food until about the age of 1. he started eating at about 10 months only because I had to go back to work, but would only eat at day care.
I also recently read an article showing how an increased amount of iron allowed for more pathogens to survive… showing a possibility that a mother’s milk naturally decreases in iron amounts to reduce the possibility of getting sick.
I feel like it really depends on the baby! There was no way my son was eating as a staple before 1 year.