Please Don't Feed the Baby

Yes, I know my baby shows interest in your food. But, PLEASE don’t let him taste it. And please don’t get offended. I have chosen to wait to give my baby anything but breast milk until he has teeth. By waiting am allowing his tiny digestive system to mature. “If solids are started before a baby's system is ready to handle them, they are poorly digested and may cause unpleasant reactions (digestive upset, gas, constipation, etc.). Protein digestion is incomplete in infancy. Gastric acid and pepsin are secreted at birth and increase toward adult values over the following 3 to 4 months. The pancreatic enzyme amylase does not reach adequate levels for digestion of starches until around 6 months, and carbohydrate enzymes such as maltase, isomaltase, and sucrase do not reach adult levels until around 7 months. Young infants also have low levels of lipase and bile salts, so fat digestion does not reach adult levels until 6-9 months.”(kellymom.com). Also, by waiting I am hoping to protect my little one from nasty allergies later in life. Until babies are around 6 months old their guts are open. This means that the spaces between the cells of the small intestines will readily allow intact macromolecules, including whole proteins and pathogens, to pass directly into the bloodstream.
Giving baby solids won’t help sleep longer. By giving him anything more than breast milk can cause more issues than it is worth. It can give him a bellyache and causes his digestion to go into overdrive. Do exactly the opposite of what I wanted. A baby that is awake, A LOT.
Believe or not it is actually catching on. There is quite of few different organizations that have all agreed that is a good idea to wait until baby is at least 6 months. This means baby get exclusively breast milk nothing else. Here they are:
• World Health Organization
• UNICEF
• US Department of Health & Human Services
• American Academy of Pediatrics
• American Academy of Family Physicians
• American Dietetic Association
• Australian National Health and Medical Research Council
• Royal Australian College of General Practitioners
• Health Canada

So, please before you try to make me feel bad because I don’t want him to eat a popsicle or your jello do a little research. Just imagine this way what would happen if I gave your dog food it wasn’t use to. Yup a pretty gruesome thought.