What have you put in your baby's mouth? - Page 2

[Adaline'sMama]

Originally Posted by karika

Baby's virgin gut should be protected. By letting your children have anything besides breastmilk, you are changing the bacteria that live in their gut.


I know you are not feeding your child solids. You are giving tastes. But that changes the baby's gut flora forever. One molecule of this or that seriously has that much effect. It may also be predisposing the tastebuds to foods that are not necessarily healthy (OP said they were not foods she intended to feed LO later)

Neat article. I'd never heard that before. However, I read lots of articles that prove this or that scientifically and I don't always do what someone else thinks is the best thing to do. We typically do what we feel is right after a little research. I dont make people wash their hands before holding her, I don't vaccinate for everything, and we live in a general store where DD comes into contact with the general public all day evey day. I do appreciate you sharing that information though. And I totally understand that you feel the need to share because you have strong feelings about it. I probably never would have found that article if you hadn't posted it here. But, I'm probably not going to stop sticking stuff in my kid's mouth.


That being said, we eat a pretty much all organic vegetarian diet. I said I wasnt planning feeding her these things, as in Im not going to put salt or sugar in her baby food. However, if DD grows up to be predisposed to liking avacados, protien drinks, salad dressing, and juice, I won't have any problem with that.

[2boyzmama]

Like Karika, I was very concerned with the Virgin Gut, so Gavin had nothing but breastmilk until his 6th month when we finally broke down and gave him teething tablets and motrin one night. Then, since his virgin gut was gone, we started with single ingredient foods, some BLW style, some spoon-fed. He's 8 months now, and he's had:

Carrots
Squash
Sweet Potato
Avocado (didn't like it)
Banana
Mango
Applesauce

All home made. My older two have allergies/intolerances to dairy, soy, and gluten so I'm kind of paranoid about those ingredients and won't give him those for a while. I was just thinking that it might be time to introduce some meats, I might do that this weekend if I cook something and remember to take some pieces out before I add any spices or sauce. I might also introduce some oatmeal soon, and maybe brown rice, but I'm staying away from gluten.

[Bebe's Mom]

bebe is 8 1/2 months, she has had avocado, sweet potato, potato, chicken, french fries, pear sauce, green beans, chocolate cake, cheerios, pancakes, french toast and her current fave, raisin bread/toast. She had some ice cream once, she liked it and it had no ill effects. We gave her some tofu yesterday, she liked it so much we bought some more!

[rhiOrion]

Originally Posted by 1blueheron

oh...I forgot, dog hair too

Plus some cat hair for good measure

[rlmueller]

Yum

BM--especially caffeinated and salsa'd (I love coffee and spicy food)
Dog hair
Cat hair
She sucked on a baby carrot yesterday as she is seriously pawing at my plate and all of my food!

[Sharlla]

we waited until 4 months but so far she has had

teething cookie (not ready for that)
banana bread (OMG she loved it!)
sweet potatoes
pees
watermelon
banana
avocado
avocado pudding
carrots
prunes
apple juice
baby oatmeal
apple sauce
mango
banana Popsicle (that's her papa's fault, i didn't make a big deal about it)

She most definitely wanted to eat. before we started her on solids she was draining my stashed milk. It would only be a matter of days and we would be completely out and I would most likely have to supplement with formula. Now that she's sleeping through the night I have been able to build my stash back up thank goodness

[holliebug]

Breast milk
Formula (low supply despite trying everything)
Pear (his favorite other than bm/form so far)
Sweet Potato
Banana
Avocado (only one he didn't like at all!)

That's it for now

Oh he has also sipped water from my cup.

[elmh23]

Ds will be 4 months on Monday and has

breastmilk
gripe water
humphreys cherry teething tablets (loves those!)
cat hair at a friends
dog spit (the dog loves licking him and he always opens his mouth during!)
a lick of cheeto and strawberry (older brother helped him with that!)

[hildare]

Originally Posted by karika

Baby's virgin gut should be protected. By letting your children have anything besides breastmilk, you are changing the bacteria that live in their gut.
http://www.breastfeed.com/articles/i...-risks-3451/2/ (para mine)
"When babies are born, they have sterile gastrointestinal tracts. If babies are exclusively breastfed, they develop a natural healthy gut flora.... This means that the major flora in breastfed babies has reduced numbers of bad types of bacteria and increased numbers of good bacteria. Formula-fed babies (or any 'foreign' introduction) have increased numbers of bad bacteria, leaving them at more risk for illness."

http://www.kellymom.com/nutrition/so...ay-solids.html


"From birth until somewhere between four and six months of age, babies possess what is often referred to as an "open gut." 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.This is great for your breastfed baby as it allows beneficial antibodies in breastmilk to pass more directly into baby's bloodstream, but it also means that large proteins from other foods (which may predispose baby to allergies) and disease-causing pathogens can pass right through, too. "

I know you are not feeding your child solids. You are giving tastes. But that changes the baby's gut flora forever. One molecule of this or that seriously has that much effect. It may also be predisposing the tastebuds to foods that are not necessarily healthy (OP said they were not foods she intended to feed LO later)

While I agree with this, at the same time I don't see the harm in sampling.. Not all food changes gut flora negatively. Some things we eat improve conditions for the flora.
Also, oral vaccines, medication, etc. had already been introduced in OP's situation. In mine, the hospital gave my dd formula -- which I won't ever allow again-- but at that time, they did it without asking & did a second - and third -time, explaining it was 'medically necessary' because her sugar levels were off. I was too out of it to figure out that i could pump till they'd done it a few times.
I think probiotics can help restore flora, & I don't think that the virgin gut thing is quite "all or nothing." Lots of thriving, healthy babies don't have BM at all in their lives for one reason or another. While that's not ideal, as we all know, I think that occasional tastes here and there aren't enough to upset the whole balance of the guts. We're flexible-- that's how humans have survived all this time...

[angelachristin]

My 9 month old only had breast milk until she was 7 months old, NOTHING else, not Tylenol, not even teething tablets or anything. Nothing. I am with the pp above, it is so bittersweet to me starting solids! She has now had avocado, mango, banana, peach, pear (all whole foods, just cut into large soft chunks--I don't do jarred cooked baby food and I don't do baby cereal), some sips of a green smoothie and some of water, and yesterday, cheese for the first time. And a spray of Bach's rescue sleep in her mouth last night because sweet lord, she needed to go to sleep!

ETA: Duh, her actual first food when she turned 7 months was egg yolk, which she ate eagerly and then projectile vomited a few hours later. No more egg yolk until she's a bit older. I didn't see the posts about virgin gut above the first time, but I totally agree with that and it is the main reason I made sure she got nothing but BM until she was 7 months. It may be coincidence, but she has been much healthier than her brother, who was given formula in the hospital and was supplemented for the 1st month of his life, had oral antibiotics several times, Tylenol, etc. all introduced before he was 6/7 months. we all got sick several times this winter and DD had at most a slight hint of a sniffle that went away within hours. I believe that virgin gut is very important and I think it's just awful how the hospital will push formula and then boom, the damage is done and you can't undo it.

[Conifer]

My DS is almost 8 months. He didn't really have anything except BM until after 6 monthes, but now I give him just about anything that isn't overly processed (or atleast my oppinion of overly processed). Basically anything that is in it's somewhat normal state: fruits, veggies, tomato sauce, pasta, eggs etc.

I don't like to give him things that could mess with his tummy. I was big on not giving him anything before 6 months and he only finger feeds himself. He just spits stuff out if I spoon feed him. However, I think his virgin gut was gone, by the mere fact that we have 3 dogs and 3 other kids and my baby puts his fingers and everything else in his mouth. I think he eats lots of bacteria.

[zannster]

No foods here. I never even considered it. But she's had some tea my midwife made (which she hated) and reflux med syrup (which she also hated). I didn't torture her very long with either, since they didn't seem to help much.

[kitteh]

DD is 4.5 months old and we're planning to follow baby led weaning. I'd planned to wait until she was 6 months old to even offer tastes, but this week she's been showing a lot of interest in the after-dinner fruit that DH and I eat, so I let her have a taste of pear and she went NUTS. We have it on video.

"eating" a pear

[hakeber]

"DD is five and half months and jusr recently (the last three weeks) been able to hold herself upright for more than a few seconds. She started joining us at the lunch and dinner table in a highchair (rather than trying to get her to nap during these times so I could have both hands free to cook, serve and eat the meals.) and she has loved being a part of social circle in that way. She has been watching us eat with utter fascination for the last month or so, but started reaching out and graqbbing and trying to get things in her mouth just the last two weeks. Starting Monday she got her first ever taste of anything other than BM...she had Carrot soup pre seasoning (just roasted carrots and garlic squished up with a fork in about 3 tbs of BM, so not pureeed, but a textured mash) LOVED it! Since Monday and seeing no adverse reaction to the carrots she has also tried a few little cubes of avocado, and Banana and BM popsicles. It has been really fun watching her try new flavors, and she seems to enjoy it, but really wants to do it herself, resists being fed, so I have taken to just putting a few tiny cubes of a soft food on her tray and letting her practice her pincer grab, or enjoy my fresh produce facials. She's getting pretty darned good!

I guess we haven't had any issues that required tylenol yet, so these were her first tastes of anything other than Breastmilk. She's a natural like her mama, already gets the spoon in her own mouth by the second or third try.

I do understand the bitter-sweet feeling, but it's also really fun to experiment with flavors, and I enjoy cooking with Breastmilk and simple ingredients. I guess for me I know I would never put anything but BM into my babe's mouth before 4 months anyway (DS never had oral meds before 4.5 mo either), so when they have tried food, I knew they were ready.