Expert questions pureed baby food

By Laura Lee Davies

Gill Rapley, who is the deputy director of Unicef's Baby Friendly initiative, claims that feeding babies mushed up food from a spoon is not nautral and not needed, even when they are first weaning on to 'solids'.

'Baby-Led Weaning'
Although some experts have greeted her words with caution, Rapley says that parents have been coming to her claiming their babies are picky eaters who are unwilling to move onto second-stage foods (those with bits in), or that the babies are constipated.
In agreement with all current weaning advice, Rapley, says babies should only be given milk for their first six months. However, where most people expect to mash up a baby's first 'solids' to help the baby eat them more easily, Rapley champions the Baby-Led Weaning (BLW) programme and believes that at six months babies are capable of moving straight onto foods which they had to chew, and that giving a baby pureed food could delay the development of their chewing skills.

To mash or not to mash?
Mashing food when a child is first ingesting anything other than milk has been common practice for many generations, and some experts believe this is still an advisable transition as some babies develop their eating skills more quickly than others.
However, even baby food manufacturers offer ready-made baby foods with pieces in them, by the time the baby is seven to 12 months old, and young babies can enjoy first finger foods - some earlier than others - so long as an adult is supervising them at all times.

Although Gill Rapley is the deputy director of Unicef's Baby Friendly policy, Unicef have issued a statement on their website making it clear that the only advice Unicef offers is that it is advisable to give a baby only milk and no solids for the first six months of life. For more about Unicef's statement, visit www.babyfriendly.org.uk.

For ideas about first foods for babies, an explanation of why nowadays it is considered a good idea to wait until six months to wean and for other feeding related articles, go to the FEEDING section of ThinkBaby.

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