"Treats!"

As a feeding specialist I generally don't advise using food rewards or "treats" because it causes kids to covet these food items and see other foods (usually healthy foods) as less desirable. BUT! I think I found a way around this. (I started this when my daughter was around a year so maybe an older child would be less inclined to cooperate with this technique...and yet it still works well for us at 2 years!) I walk around with a healthy snack and don't offer any to my daughter. I wait until she shows some interest then I tell her it's a special snack- a "treat!" I say. If she's still interested, which she always is, I say, "ok I'll share with you." Then I share my health food item with her. She is hooked every time. Totally drawn in and excited to try what I've got. That may be some roasted butternut squash, or fresh snap peas, or seaweed. Sometimes it is something the average person would consider more of a "treat," like chocolate covered sunflower seeds, or blackberries but not always. Sometimes it's home roasted pumpkin seeds with sea salt, garlic and cumin. A really "treat" in my book.

Case in point: the other day her very special "treat" was freeze dried sardines.  She loved these "chips" and carried around a small bowel of them for a while. (Yup, she is naked, outside, in an Honest Co box, eating sardines.  That's how we roll.)

This might not be my very finest feeding advice, but I'm curious to hear if this little gem works for you! We really need to get away from junk food and sugary desserts being synonymous with "treat" and teach kids that delicious, home cooked or store bought but healthy foods can qualify as a "special treat."

Baby Led Eating, 8 months

Why babies throw food on the ground...and what to do about it!

You make a delicious looking meal, you sit down to eat it with your lovely baby, and splat!  She throws half-or all- of it on the floor.  This is a very frustrating but common issue (especially with 10-18 month olds). 

There are really a few reasons babies/toddlers throw food: 

1. They are just experimenting with gravity and cause/effect- "It's so fun to watch food fall and see what happens when it hit the floor." 

2. They are interested in the response it elicits from you- "Yay!  Mama gasped then jumped up!" or "Wow, I got a bunch of new stuff when I did that!" 

3. They are not hungry/are done with the meal- "I'm bored and full, I don't want this food in front of me anymore." 

4. They don't like that food- "Maybe if I throw this stuff on the flood, I'll get the crackers I wanted." 

5. They are frustrated about something to do with the food- "This is just too hard to eat" or "I can't figure out how to pick this up." 

Sometimes it's a combo of a few of these reasons. For all of these scenarios, the initial response will be the same: a firm redirection "food stays on the table" or a simple "no."  However, the secondary response kind of depends on why the child is doing it.

I

f it's #1 or 2, I suggest saying the "no" or the line about food staying on the table, then ignore. If they throw the food again, I'd ask if they are "all done" and let them know you won't allow them to do that: "if you throw food again you're all done." If they throw again, meal ends. You can also have them help you clean it up at that point but you must be firm on meal being all done. No snacks after, no bottle or cup of milk right after, no walking around with food in their hands- just done.  

If it's more like #3 or 4, I'd still go through the routine I just mentioned but I'd also do a few other things. 
- consider how often you're providing snacks throughout the day and possibly cut back, especially right around mealtimes. We tend to over-snack our kids and often that decreases their hunger motivation at mealtimes. Some kids do fine eating every 2-3 hours, some eat best when fed every 3-4 hours.  

-consider offering the cup of water or milk at the end of the meal so your child isn't filling up on the liquids then throwing the food 

-start with less food on the plate/tray so they don't have lots of extra to throw. It's probably better for them to ask for more than have an abundance to toss around. 

-if you suspect they are throwing because they don't like the food, remind them that "this is what we are eating at this meal and there are no other options. 

If it continues, stop the meal, clear the food, and don't offer any other foods until the next meal. You want to help them understand that they can't order up new foods from you by throwing what you already offered them on the floor.  

 If it's more likely #5, start with the "no" line, then see if your babe just needs help. Sometimes my daughter pushes the food off the table when she's frustrated that she can't easily pick it up or she keeps spilling it or it's too resistive for her to chew. In all of those instances, if I help her pick it up to feed herself or I break the food up a bit or dip the resistive food in a sauce to soften it, often that's all it takes for her to continue happily eating.

Remember, the more fuss you make over it, generally the more power it gives the behavior. The behavior will pass sooner than you think!

Feeding Readiness, Engagment, and"All Done" Signs with a Baby

This is definitely its own long topic but I am being lazy. So I thought I'd just post these two videos which I think highlight the difference between when a baby is actively interested and engaged in a feeding compared to when she or he is done. It's so important to honor those "all done" cues because it helps foster a sense of reciprocity and connectedness between parent and baby, as well as a feeling of safety around meal times that she will be listened to when she tells you she's had enough. Also, it lays the foundation of your child being able to rely on his own sense of hunger and satiety without over-eating or needing an adult to tell him when to stop or eat more.  Additionally, acknowledging those "all done" cues as just that, communication, instead of bad behavior, can help keep us parents from getting man, which ultimately prevent those behaviors from becoming power struggles.

This first video highlights feeding readiness and engagement.  Note how she leans towards the spoon and opens her mouth.  Pretty obvious that she's into the meal and wants more food:

The second video highlights the same baby (my baby!) at the end of a different meal where she is clearly disinterested in continuing feeding.  Note how she makes it perfectly clear that she is no longer interest in eating her meal:

While it can seem very frustrating to stop a meal when there is still food left, or worse, when your baby has not eaten anything, it shows respect and that he or she is heard and understood.  Start with explaining the situation, such as "it looks like you are all done." Or, if it's more behavioral than that, consider, "food stays on the table.  If you throw your food on the ground, the meal will end." If the behavior continues, most likely the child is done eating (or bored or tired but clearly not motivated to eat and therefore most likely not too hungry.)  Honor the communication and avoid getting upset or making a big deal out of it.  Just start your "all done" routine, such as you and baby wiping the table, wiping hands and face, then getting out of the high chair.  Know that your baby will get another chance to eat soon.  Move on and enjoy the next activity with your baby!

Easy Toddler Food Crafts: Beets

Many adults don't like beets so convincing kids to try beets can be tough to say the least.  But the more exposure a person (or child) has to a food, the more likely he or she is to eat it.  So get started with a fun, beet-y food craft so that by by the time you introduce beets in a meal, they will be familar to your child and connected to a fun memory!

Beets have such a beautiful color, what better way to craft with them than to paint or stamp:

I realize that licking the beet is not the most sanitary thing to do but it is a great way to get a child to taste the beet without the pressure of telling them to taste it.  Often the child will look at you like you're crazy at first and hesitate for a moment.  But when the kiddo decides that it looks really really fun to stamp, and he doesn't want to be left behind, often he'll just go for it!  I wait until after the kiddo has licked the beet a few times before I ask him or her what it tastes like.  

Put Picky Past You- Serving Size Guide Plate

Need an easy serving size guide to remind yourself and your kiddos about the food groups?  These plates are a fun reminder to include a big portion of vegetables at each meal! 

  

Similar plate can be purchased here: http://www.superhealthykids.com/healthy-kids-plates/product/choose-myplate-for-kids-4-section-plate.php

Picky Eating 101: Importance of mealtime routines

It's pretty common to hear about sleep routines. Pretty much all of my mama-friends recommended using sleep/bedtime routines to help my daughter become a better sleeper at first. And they come highly recommended for good reason: they work! All humans, but infants and toddlers especially thrive on habits, routines, and consistent expectations (nap schedule, anyone?) For some reason though, we dont hear as often about feeding or mealtime routines.

We often fly by the seat of our stressed-out pants when it comes to mealtime- pulling whatever we have out of the fridge and trying to get something on the table...anything! Then we feel surprised and defeated when our kids act up, act defiantly and show refusal behaviors at the table. But having positive mealtimes is do-able and having consistent expectations and routines can play a big role in this process.

Mealtime routines do not have to be complex.  They are a reflection of your family-values and they help not only your child, but also you and your partner know how your mealtime will flow.  When your mealtime routines become second nature, you have one less thing you need to think about or stress over at meals.  These expectations and routines also help tremendously when you have a picky eater to deal with, as picky eaters often get very stressed out when new/unfamiliar things ocur at mealtimes.  If your child acts up or refuses, you no longer have to worry about what you should do next- it's obvious because you have a set routine, so you will remind your child of the routine and continue on, the same as always.  Also, mealtime stress is decreased for the picky eater because he or she knows when the meal will start, what to expect next, and when the meal will end.  There is no guessing or worrying on their part because they know what the flow will be. Yes, you can always adjust or change the routine (just like with a sleep schedule, which occassionally needs to be modified) but especially at first, you want to be very consistent until the pattern becomes clear to your child and your whole family.

An example of a mealtime routine might be:
1.  Your child sets the table
2.  Everyone washes hands
3.  T.v. gets turned off while everyone sits down
4.  The family says a prayer or thank you to the chef
5.  Everyone at the table serves themself at least a little bit of everything on the table.

6.  You eat for 15 minutes (or you don't eat but you have to sit at the table with everyone else during that time)
7.  Each person gets up, cleans their plate and washes hands
8.  Mealtime is over

You can omit or add as you need to meet the needs of your family.  You can have your child write these steps down or color a copy that you print out, and then post them on the refrigerator for all to see and refer back to in case there is an argument about what comes next (like asking to have the tv on, or wanting to get up and wander during the meal).

Again, these routines can always be changed as needed but the more consistent you are with these, the easier it is for your child to understand what will happen and what his or her role is.

What are your family's mealtime routines?

Baby Led Spoon Feeding

Babies are born learners and explorers. They find joy in exploring and mastering a skill. Babies are driven to do this and will learn and explore with food if we give them the opportunity to do so at their own pace. If we let this joy flourish and let them feel confident and successful, they will have a positive relationship with food that will last a lifetime. This is especially true for the more reticent feeder, who may never eat vigorously for the sheer love of it, but who will learn to eat what she or he needs and enjoy it. It holds true for all babies. Often the more we push them to eat or stop eating, the less likely they are to do so.

With this in mind, I'll offer my tips for baby led spoon feeding. Spoon feeding is primarily an adult let activity and can easily lead to a disconnect between patent and child's communication if we aren't  proactive about being "tuned-in". These tips are focused on making spoon feeding an interactive dance or a conversation. 

- Let your baby take the lead by giving him or her a spoon to hold from the very beginning. 

- Expect the activity to get messy and be ok with that. Mess is fun and it enriches the sensory experience. Your baby is learning a new skill and she can't do it perfectly from the start. If your baby isn't getting messy that means you're controlling the activity and doing it for them, which means your baby is not learning as much and probably not enjoying it as much. 

- Forget about quantity. Let the focus be on exploration and discovery, even if that means that zero amounts of food is actually swallowed or even tasted.

- Try loading the spoon for your baby at first, then just set it on the table, handle towards your baby. Let your baby pick it up and do whatever she or he wants with it!

- If your baby is struggling and appears interested, hold and offer the spoon directly to your baby. Keep the spoon near your baby's mouth and wait. Do not touch your baby's lips or try to put it in his or her mouth. Just wait until your baby opens his or her mouth or leans towards the food. If that never happens, eat the food yourself and let your baby just watch or touch the food if interested. 

- At all meals, try to have your own spoon and bowl of food to eat. Model eating and enjoy a meal with your baby. Babies and children learn best from watching you. They want to do what you're doing. If he is eating applesauce, you should eat applesauce. 

- If your baby is into the food and the activity, re-load the spoon and offer it again. 

- If not, let him or her enjoy time at the table, touching and playing with the food with his or her hands while you eat. Do not stress or worry. Offer a milk feed (breastmilk or formula) instead. 

Encouraging Interest in a Variety of Foods Through Books

While there are only a small handful of studies out there about how to truely get kids to eat and fix picky eating habits, we do know certain things that do not work:

- Forcing, pushing, even just "encouraging" our kiddos to eat certain foods actually makes our children percieve those foods as less desireable and causes them to consume less of them

-Same findings in this study, although, try as I might I can't find the actual study- just a few blogs and online journals talking about the study.  Here is one of them.

- Giving rewards for trying new foods (such as tv time or dessert) also causes our children to see the new food as less desireable.

So if we can't talk about these new foods and gently encourage our kids (ok, probably we aren't always being exactly gentle about it anyways and we're often far more than encouraging when we want them to try a bite of something healthy or new or even worse- something you just know they would love if they would just take a bite of it!) well, then what can we do????

For starters, take the battle away from the table.  One of your best weapons--ok, now I'm just being dramatic-- one of your best tools is found on your child's book shelves.  Children's books are super helpful with teaching leasons, encourging desired behavior, and opening a discussion with your child.  This is not groundbreaking stuff here.  Stories have been used for years to help with maners, potty training, preparing for a new sibling, and even for talking about healthy eating.  Books are fun and the focus is off of your child and on an imaginary character.  It also provides a subtle social pressure without need for a real life friend to model the behavior you want: "Charlie and Lola ate a carrot, I wonder if you can too?" Addtionally, it increases your child's exposure to that food so it's not so new (and we know neophobia is a common issue around food- especially in toddlers).

If you're not sure where to start, here is a list of books from the blog Delightful Children's Books (which is great, by the way): 10 Children's Books about Food.  There are a bunch of great books listed and to add to that, I also like The Very Hungry Caterpillar (for young ones), Blueberries for Sal, and Stone Soup.

A nice use of these stories is to pick one you like, read it with your child a few times (at bedtime or wheneven you typically read books) then suggest an activity some other time that incorporates the food that was the focus in your book.  I.e. If you read Stone Soup, make a soup with your child and really let her help prepare it (maybe not chopping with knives but they can probably successfully wash veggies, pour broth into a pot, add pre-measured spices, and stir it all up before you put it on the stove, etc.)  Talk about the story, your own experiences, what you think it might taste like, who you may share it with.  When it is ready, let your child help serve it if you think this can be done safely.  Let your child brag about making it with you to whoever is around to listen.  Even better, take some picutres of you guys making it, serving it, and tasting it, for showing to friends or printing to make your own "book."  In this scenario, not only does the reading help to encourage trying new foods, but research has also shown that kids who help in the kitchen are more likely to eat the items they helped prepare!  Win-win!

Let me know if you have any favorite kids books about food.  I'm always looking for good ones.

Food Is for Fun Until Age 1!

I love this phrase.  It’s catchy, it’s simple, and it’s true.  This is a phrase that has flowy alliteration and a nice little rhyme to it to help you remember, yet sometimes is still so hard to remember.  Like when our babies are learning to eat and barely getting anything in and wasting the food we spent time preparing and throwing that food on the floor, and (argh!) suddenly I’ve totally forgotten this phrase or I just don’t trust it anymore and I’m stressed and I sweetly ask my baby to “just try one more bite” and when she turns her head I follow her mouth with the food, “just to be sure” because maybe if she tasted it again she would see that it’s good and eat a bit more of it so I don’t have to throw it out.  Crazy town!  But then I inhale and we leave the table and maybe today my Birdie takes a good nap so I get to relax and calm down and suddenly my hazy mommy brain clears and my feeding specialist background surfaces again and I return to this phrase.  This is a phrase that is my strong comeback whenever someone questions how my baby is learning to eat, or worse, whenever I get antsy and question how my baby is eating.  “It’s fine!” I tell myself.  “Food is for fun until age one!”

 Ok, so for starters, the same way that we wait for 12-ish months for our babies to build their motor coordination in order to take their first solo steps, it’s important to give our kiddos several months of exploration and practice before we expect them to eat. They have spent the first 4-6 months of their life using very specific oral motor patterns to take the breast or bottle and now we are asking them to manage something completely different.  Compared to those 12-ish months it takes to learn to walk, 6-ish months (from 6 months to one year) to get ready to take larger quantities of solid foods is really not that long actually!  In the mean time, our babies are getting everything they need by way of nutrition and calories, from breastmilk or formula (ok, the only caveat here is iron- some babies may need iron if they are formula fed).  They don’t need anything else until around one year, though many babies will eat plenty more before one year old.  Many won’t though and that’s ok.  One more time: they don’t need anything but your milk or formula until one year, and many babies really won’t eat much besides your milk or formula until one year.  This is so important because when we start to prioritize solid foods for nutrition, it can make us eager and even anxious to get more quantity in them than they can physically handle.  We worry that they won’t gain weight or they won’t grow well or be healthy if they don’t eat a bit more of the foods we are giving.  But pushing more food than our babies want or can handle undermines their ability to listen to their bodies and causes a power struggle.  It can scare them.  It can make them feel like eating is hard and not enjoyable.  When they are scared, stressed, and not having fun, they do not want to eat.  So at the same time that we are stressing about how much they are eating, they are refusing more, and this makes us all the more anxious, setting up a vicious cycle.  Our anxiety makes mealtime more stressful and less enjoyable for us and our babies and babies do not generally perform their best under this type of pressure.  They refuse, we push; when it comes to feeding, baby will always win the power struggle.

So what does motivate babies to eat and what do we do with our babies between now and a year to encourage strong eating habits?  For starters, we model.  We let our babies watch us eat and we eat as large a variety of foods as we can to show them that food is safe and delicious and wonderful.  Babies want whatever we have.  They want to do whatever we are doing, so modeling the behavior and skills you want them to have is key to setting up life-long positive eating habits.  At the same time, we safely and slowly help them work on improving their oral motor skills and adjust to new oral sensory experiences by giving them real food- bites of the same foods we eat (see Baby Led Weaning for more in depth info on what this looks like).  Yes, there are some foods that we eat that our baby can’t/shouldn’t have (ie- honey, raw nuts, super salty foods).  But on the whole from 6 months on, our babies can usually have al least a part of almost everything we eat. (Having chicken and roasted veggies? Your baby can munch on small pieces of chicken or hold and gnaw on most roasted veggies).  Yes, you will need to provide very close supervision- but who let’s their 6 month old eat without supervison?  And, yes, giving them some of your food can be really tough to watch because most babies can’t really chew and swallow very much (if any at all) of the foods we normally eat.  It can feel like it’s not working because they didn’t really swallow anything!  But then we remember that they are getting everything they need from our milk and formula and we recall that “food is for fun until age one!” and it helps us relax.  When we relax, it’s easier to see that, in fact our baby learned way more about food and eating when given regular food.  They are doing exactly what they should be doing- mouthing, tasting, exploring, moving their muscles, and learning from each mouthful…but not necessarily swallowing.  And when we relax, they do too. Then they can enjoy the exploration and that’s the best way for them to learn.

The Problem with Purees

Actually, that’s a pretty loaded title, more for effect and attention grabbing…the problem is not with purees so much as with the practice of introducing only purees as first foods and for those first few months of feeding.  Of course, every baby is different and all approaches and suggestions should be thoughtfully considered based on your baby's skill level, development, and interest, as well as your own skill set.

As it happens, ​​I actually quite like purees- humus, yogurt, applesauce, butternut squash soup...the list goes on! But, after seeing parents introducing only purees for several months of feeding, and hearing the anxiety in parents voices when they worry over why their baby is refusing, and the confusion over how to know when their baby might be ready to move towards more "solid" foods, I feel like I'd like to get the word out there about why the prevailing method of introducing solids (rice cereal and only purees from 6-8 months) might not be the best idea for many babies and why parents might consider introducing some true solid foods from the start (after 6 months of age).  My goal with this post is to help parents understand why other approaches should be considered and what the benefits of those approaches are, as well as the draw backs.  I think the benefits of purees is clear: easy to control how much food goes into the baby's mouth with each bite, not too messy, easy to manage with baby's current sucking patterns, nothing to "choke" on. (Though babies can actually choke on purees, and this may cause a lung infection, purees won't block their airways entirely, so I think parents don't worry as much about this outcome). Of course, some babies have medical issues that might necessitate a more conservative start.  

Some parents may give only pureed foods here and there for a few days or even a week to ease into the transtion to solids, or may mix it up and introduce some pureed meals, some standard solid food meals.   This practice is not what I am addressing here.  Also, some people and babies love purees and progress fine to other solid foods from a full puree start.  But there are also those babies that sleep through the night almost immediately with no work from their parents, as those that potty train themselves.  I think the babies that do these things are the exception, not the norm so this should be considered when people argue that it worked for them so it will work for you.  

Many babies do not do as well with a pureed start and aside from just being stressful for parent and baby, I believe they are slowly building the foundation of picky-eating behavior.  In fact, even some of the babies that appear to do well, eating good amounts of purees from the get-go, I would argue may still end up as picky-eaters because of a full pureed diet during those first crucial months of feeding.  Often we may not see the picky eating behavior show up until the baby is closer to 12 or even 18-24 months.  Yes, this is theoretical, but it is not completely pulled out of thin air.  It’s a theory that is grounded in correlational evidence: right now the primary way food is introduced to our babies is through purees and the rates of parents who describe their children just a few years later as “picky” eaters is estimated to be at high as 50% and at the same time we have up to 1/3 of our nations children falling into the overweight or obese categories (which can also be a direct result of picky eating habits.)  What a baby learns during those first few months of feeding will set a tone and a foundation that will last them for a lifetime (or at least many years until it can be changed.) So, I’d like to think that there might be a better way to introduce solid foods to babies. I’ll go into what that better way might be more later, but for now, I’m going to focus on “the problem with purees” as a way of teaching our babies to eat.  Let’s break it down into different sections: The power struggle problem with purees, the oral motor/oral exploration problem with purees, and the progression problem with purees.

The power struggle: when you give purees, you, the parent, are the one who is in control.  You hold the spoon.  You decide when the bite is offered.  You choose how much food is on the spoon and when the meal is over.  While this of course makes a certain amount of sense (your baby can’t hold a spoon very well and definitely can’t scoop well at 6-8 months) it puts your baby in a passive possition.  This is a big problem because this is a time in their lives when they are so totally and completely interested in doing it themselves and figuring out how to be somewhat independent.  Every single moment during this time in your baby's life, he or she is learning, exploring, searching.  She doesn't do this because you tell her to, she does it becasue she is inherently motivated to do so.  This is wonderful.  It is what drives them to learn to walk or talk and read and it is what drives them to learn to eat.  We, as parents, want to foster this drive.  Do we need to teach them this at every meal? No, probably not.  But when we never given them the opportunity to do anything else but purees, spoon fed by you, you’re spending 1-2 months of precious time (feeding them usually 2-4 times per day, so this a lot of time) dampening their inner drive to explore and telling them, “I do this better than you and you should rely on me to figure this eating business out for you.”  

In the best of situations with spoon feeding, you have a child who is content to sit back and let you feed them.  If that’s the case, there is nothing really wrong with this, some babies are happy being led and they will continue to develop beautifully.  But you are certainly not helping them learn to tap into that inner drive to figure it out for themselves and you are not telling them that you value exploration or intrinsic motivation. In the worst of situations, you have a baby who is not at all content to let you feed them and it becomes a constant battle ground, each and every meal for 1-2 months, setting up a routine of fighting and stress during meal times.  This perception of mealtime as a stressful event where they can get what they want through crying and fighting will persist for a long time- only getting worse when they become toddlers. They are always searching for ways to take back their power at mealtimes and when they are bigger they do this in bigger and more intense ways.  I think this is part of what makes slightly older babies love the squeeze packed purees.  They take the power back!  They get to manipulate the package and feed themsleves, which is what they’ve been wanting all along.  

Babies who refuse spooned purees but will take the squeeze packages highlight two additional problems with giving purees that are not necessarily inherent to the purees but rather are just common practice with purees and therefore an easy trap to fall into:

 1. Spoons: they're hard to avoid with pureed meals, out of habit and concern for social graces and baby's don't manipulate spoons well at first.  However, letting a baby use their hands to feed themselves purees can alleviate some of this power struggle.  

2. Quantity-focused-feeding: It's very easy to measure how much a baby takes when we give purees (1/2 a jar, 8 bites, 4 spoonfulls, etc.) and we tend to want to improve upon the last meal and the one before that.  It's a very easy trap to fall into, but when you focus on gettin in one more bite, or you focus on how much your baby takes, this can make you push your baby outside their comfort and interest zone.  It also causes you to see the feeding as successful or not based on how much the baby took in.  But at first, quantity does not matter at all!  (Not at all- see post "Food is for Fun Until Age One" for details). Your baby is learning and exploring and they will take in and swallow ocassionally but that's not really the goal at first.  Just like they will crawl and cruise before walking, they will lick and gnaw and spit out before learning to swallow.  They don't learn this in a day. If you give purees, keep this in mind and stop looking at quantity as a marker for those first few months!  

The oral motor/oral exploration problem with purees: Around 6 months, babies are used to using a sucking pattern to eat.  They are used to liquids and they cup their tongue and then move it forward and backward, not so much side to side.  Purees fit perfectly within that model of oral motor patterns…but they do not challenge those patterns to progress very much at all.  That is a problem, because our babies are already very good at those patterns and we want them to get better at more mature patterns (tongue lateralization, rotary chewing, bolus formation).  At 6-8 months, babies have very nice protection against choking (very anterior gag reflex, tongue protrusion movements, small tight spaces that make it very difficult for chunks of food to move backwards, etc.) so it’s a great time to help them practice and learn more mature oral motor patterns.  At 6-8 months, babies also have immature fine motor skills that make it more challenging to put small choking hazards in their mouth.  When we give purees for a few months, we do not encourage new patterns, and instead we let our babies grow out of the phase when they have nice protection against choking, then we challenge them to work on more difficult foods.  This is completly backwards to me.  This poor building of oral motor patterns I believe is a huge part of later picky eating.  I can’t tell you how often I see toddlers who are very picky eaters, who, when I look closer at their oral motor skills, are not able to manage resistive and mixed textures with well coordinated oral motor patterns.  So they just don’t!  It’s very smart of them, really.  They know those foods do not feel safe (raw or even partially cooked veggies for example can be very resistive and fiborous, which makes them difficult to swallow safely unless you have solid oral motor skills.) Parents just assume that because their child is now 2 or 3 and they can chew things like chips, that their child has strong oral motor skills.  But this just isn’t the case (chips are pretty easy to chew and break down) and their child is being picky about which foods he or she will eat in part because of that lack of coordinated motor skills.  Getting in there early to teach the foundational skills of eating solids will help your child feel safe with eating a variety of foods. Eating purees will not help with this.  Delaying true "solids" past 8 months will only make it more difficult for your child to learn these skills.

The progression problem with purees: Lastly, when you are giving only purees from 6-8 months, how and when to do you advance to more solid foods?  I see situations all the time where parents have no idea how to get out of the puree pattern and are scared to progress so they just don’t until the child is a year or beyond.  Or they start true "solids" around 8 months but they have no idea what to give so they over challenge.  When you only give purees you have no idea what your baby’s oral motor patterns look like and you really don’t get any good feedback about what solid foods would be good to advance towards.  You also don’t really know which foods your child likes- we so seldom eat just one food at a time (ie- we don’t often eat just kidney beans, we eat chilli, or broccoli as part of a casserole, not just plain broccoli) and parents have no clue which combinations of foods their kids will accept or like after several months of just purees. Additionally, by 8 months a fine pincer grasp has developed (or is emerging) and your child can easily pick up choking-hazard-sized pieces and quickly put them in his mouth.  He is also much faster than a 6 month old at grabbing large amounts of food and shoveling it into his mouth and since he hasn't been practicing for the last 2 months, his mouth will be less likely to have the motor patterns ready to protect his airway from choking.  6 month olds defintely grab handfuls and over-stuff their mouths, don't get me wrong.  But again, they are a bit slower at it, a bit less coordinated and less able to pick up small choking-hazard-sized peices, which gives you more time to help or stop them when you start at 6 months vs 8 months.  It also helps them learn early on not to do this, so that by the time they are a bit older and you are giving more resistive foods in larger quantities, they have the ability to manage them safetly.  

I could go on but I’m going to wrap this one up.  I will probably re-visit this a little later.  And, just for the record now that I’m off my soap box- my Birdie does seem perfectly content to let me feed her a puree every now and again and I must say, it is quick, clean and kind of fun to spoon feed her and watch her scarf down something like yogurt or mashed potatoes!  I just also enjoy watching her explore other foods in addition to purees!