Spoon feeding 'makes babies fatter'

azlady7

This article has little to do with "Spoon Feeding"

This study was done on Children that were fed baby food from a jar.

The majority of jarred food is packed with preservatives, sugar, garbage etc.

Although I understand the point of over feeding by what may equate to force feeding with a spoon, this likely has little to do with the results we are seeing.

Try the study again, with home prepared whole foods blended to baby consistency, then compare it to babies who eat "more satiating" carbs such as toast...


Before someone comes in and tells me I'm just advocating this because it's what I do with my child..My child has fed themselves finger foods or with their own spoon from the time they were able to use those little fingers.

this. i made all of my sons baby food from fresh veggies that my grandmother grew (i know everyone cant do this, but I was lucky) and I used a spoon to feed him with AND i wasnt able to breastfeed him since i had a life threating problem that required meds that would have killed him if he drank from me. now considering all of this.....according to what some believe my son should be huge....he is lean, muscular and at an ideal weight at 16 yrs. he works out, hardly drinks soda and prefers salad over fries.....its all about what we teach them as they grow up....

iuangina

I think spoon feeding made me fatter and I'm not a baby. Spoon into ice cream --> ice cream into mouth --> repeat

LauriesTrying2BeFit

i spoon fed my eldest son and found it so much harder to get him to feed himself, my middle child who is now 2 was BLW and he now makes no mess at meal times can use a fork, spoon and sometimes a knife really well and hes cleaner than my 4yr old after a meal!
im currently doing BLW again with my 8month old daughter and shes doing great i only use a spoon for really wet stuff

binariiangel

Come on guys. This just seems like yet another way for us to not take personal responsibility for our own actions. Yes genetics play a part in it, yes our parents probably had SOMETHING to do with it, if you're like me & have been heavy for most of your life, but at the end of the day I'M the one that ate all the chips, I'M the one that drank all the pop, and I'M the one that has to change my eating habits. No one can do it for me, no one can make me eat healthier/make better decisions. It has to be MY choice. Yes my little brother was spoon fed when he was a baby, and up until almost a year ago, he was tiny, though he's started to gain weight, but that's not from being spoon fed. That's from having a MEDICAL condition that has to be treated with a medication that made him feel like he was never full, or never satisfied, but now we're starting to get him back on track, and I'm 99.9% sure that he is not over weight because we made sure he got adequate nutrition when he was a baby.

jnance82

I think spoon feeding made me fatter and I'm not a baby. Spoon into ice cream --> ice cream into mouth --> repeat

Same thing happened to me!!!! My dad worked for an ice cream company when I was a kid and we always had tons of free ice cream. My mom even agrees maybe they let me have a little to much ice cream as a kid, b/c as a result I have had life long issues with my weight. Oh, and BTW I was a breastfed baby. LOL



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WildFlower7

And I am bumping this one because 1. I can tell its a huge debate and 2. I have been wondering a few things with canned baby food vs. me making my own baby food.

So BUMP for a good read later!!

Emilia6909

Thanks to some of the members for not misinterpreting my original post and a Almighty BIG Thanks for the 168 friend requests I received the past hour! Totally Awesome Dudes & Dudettes :bigsmile:

NoAdditives

To get back to the original topic...

I'm not going to actually read the article because I've read similar ones before. And as a parent of three young children I'm well aware of the recent studies saying that we should wait until babies are at least 6 months old before introducing solids, that we should feed a multigrain or brown rice cereal instead of the tradition white rice, etc. all int he hopes of not making our children obese.

My oldest daughter started solids at about 3 months old. She was desperate to eat just like my husband and I did and her tongue thrust reflex was gone. She started on white rice cereal and before she was four months old she was eating some fruits and vegetables. Until she started walking she was chubby. She was in the 50th percentile for height and the 90th or above for weight. Once she started walking those numbers flipped and she's been skinny ever since. And now at 3 1/2 years old she is tall and skinny for her age.

My son started on solids at about 5 months when I gave up on cereal and fed him bananas instead. He was eating whole jars of food immediately. (He also was drinking 6 ounces bottles a few days after he was born.) He was always in the 90th percentiles for both height and weight. But he's not fat, he's just huge all the way around (especially his head). He'll be 2 in April and he's already wearing 3T clothes.

My youngest is only 5 weeks old so she obviously isn't eating any solids yet. But she'll start those at about 4 months since she's growing fast (she's gained almost 3 pounds since she was born) and is always hungry.

Did spoon feeding make my babies fat? No. Has it led them to be overweight as kids? No. Are healthy eating habits keeping them at healthy weights? Yes. My kids eat lots of fruits and vegetables (and love them), good protein, whole grains and while they do eat more dairy than I'd like, the calcium is good for them. They spend lots of time running around (even indoors) and love playing. What happens when they're babies does set up their life-long habits, so we need to make sure they're good habits. But, the foods we eat while pregnant, formula vs. breastmilk, the type of solids babies eat, none of it has a huge impact on how are kids will turn out as adults. Just make sure they eat healthy, nutritionally balanced foods and give them opportunities for physical activity and they'll be just fine.

theoddlittleduck

My oldest refused food at 6 months, refused at 7 months and went directly onto finger foods at 8 months.

My second however got a hold of a home made sugar cookie at 5.5 months and promptly ate half of it before I noticed. I figured she was ready to eat by then. She had a mix of purees and finger foods.

Both kids are fine, both are healthy, both seem intelligent at this point. The youngest breastfed until 20 months, and I'm still nursing my 19 month old. I do feel that breastfeeding is ideal, but understand that it's not an option for some moms and babies. As long as a child is loved and nurtured they will thrive.

Collinsky

I am not going to read all the responses - there are a million of them and it seems that most of them aren't about the OP anyway.

With my firstborn, we did delayed solids and safe, healthy table foods rather than purees/jarred baby food and baby cereals. She started solids around 9-10 months. My second clearly wanted to eat sooner, and I felt like I had to fight her off the food starting around 7 months. (I didn't fight her on it. I let her eat.) With my third, I discovered the concept of baby led solids, and I am SO glad for it. Just following his lead was so much easier than intentionally, purposefully delaying solids as long as possible. (If you've never heard of delayed solids, there's probably a ton of info online. There were compelling reasons for it, but looking back now I think that it was more of a backlash to the "you should feed your baby as soon as humanly possible!" and then having problems caused by putting food into an immature gut.)

Needless to say, my three youngest were all allowed to explore food freely from the age of interest/readiness. That is usually around 6-7 months. (Sometimes a bit younger, and sometimes not for 12 months. Babies' guts mature at different rates, no shocker there.)

I believe in waiting for the external markers of "readiness" - the tongue thrust reflex has disappeared and baby is sitting unsupported with good head control, and, like many believers in BLW, I also think the ability to self-feed is an important marker. (Naturally, some babies have delays where waiting for self-feeding to occur would be detrimental. That's certainly a different kind of situation.)

It's also important to note that BLW is largely something done by breastfeeding moms (although not exclusively - there are some who believe in the "baby led" principles who weren't able to breastfeed). There are different recommendations for formula fed babies as far as when to start solids - I believe that for formula fed babies, it can be as early as 4-5 months according to the AAP. The AAP rec for breastfed babies is to continue exclusive breastfeeding until 6 months. Obviously there are different things to take into account. And if you're starting solids at 4 months, you are almost certainly spoon feeding since most babies that age aren't able to self-feed very successfully at all. It's just a whole different situation.

My kids were exposed to a lot of different tastes and textures in their first year of life, and I think that that is actually the most beneficial part of BLW, and its' something that doesn't have to be limited to BLW. My kids are healthy active kids, and they're great eaters, who will try lots of different kinds of food -- but it's not a cure-all. My 5 yo is quite a bit like other 5 yos, in that he's decided to be really particular about what he eats these days. LOL None of them are overweight, but then again, I was underweight myself until I was in my 20s, and I was formula fed from about 8 weeks on.

While there may or not be long-term health benefits in terms of my kids' relationship with food (which isn't just determined in the first year, but is taught long after bottles and breasts have been left behind!) I did find BLW to be an enjoyable, sweet transition to solid foods in our home. There's something about tuning into and responding to my baby's cues that I love; it's more enjoyable to me than trying to artificially create milestones by pushing things. Other people have a different perspective entirely, and as long as their children are loved and well-cared-for, then that's all that matters.

meltygarden

Oh, whatever. Babies need to be fat. Unless the development of brain tissue isn't a big priority.

cyclingben

I should have wore my glasses... I thought it said Spooning makes babies fat...... i was like why would that effect babies?

MummyOfSeven

I have seven children. Five that I gave birth to and twins that I 'inherited' when I married Hubby (and have raised as my own).

When I had my first child twenty years ago, there was no such thing as 'baby led weaning'. It was simple. You started feeding your baby solids when they showed signs of being too hungry for milk alone. You did this with baby rice and a spoon.
In fact, if your baby wasn't on solids by four months old, the health providers were telling you that you were starving your child.

How times change. By the time I had my youngest, five years ago, we were advised not to start him on solids until he was at least six months old or we'd risk damaging his stomach lining.

When I started my children on solids, I rarely used baby food from a jar. I made my own. Mostly, I would puree some of the food that I had made for us, then freeze it in ice cube trays. Once it was frozen, pop it into bags and there you go. Single sized servings ready to go.

I know that a lot of people don't have the time and I'm certainly not bashing them for using jars. I always kept a few in stock for emergencies or trips out and had no qualms about using them.

None of my babies ever gagged or choked on the spoon, because it never got that far into their mouths. The tip of the spoon was pushed just past their bottom lip and the food scooped into their mouths.

Today, of all my children, the only one that is 'fussy' about his food is my youngest. The one that was put on solids at a later stage. The others will eat just about anything.

Every last one of them, from Mr20 to Mr5, are what my grandmother used to call 'Skinny Minnies'. Not an ounce of spare fat between them. They (especially the boys) will eat anything that's not nailed down, they are healthy, they play sports and they are happy.

The only one to gain weight has been my eldest daughter (aged 18) and that didn't happen until *after* she had left home and fell into bad eating habits with her boyfriend. Too much 'convenience food'.

As for breast feeding, I fed all of my children until I couldn't.
Two of my boys were bf for about four months before my milk started drying up and I had no choice but to change to formula.

My daughter was breast fed until just after she turned one. She bit me. Hard. Time for formula.

One of my other boys had a medical condition that, initially, was put down to my breast milk being insufficient. I was medically advised to change to formula and, like most people, took their advice for the health of my child. As it turned out, it had nothing to do with my milk, but by then it was too late and my milk had dried up.

My youngest was the hungriest baby ever. I could feed him for two hours straight and he was still hungry. This time we knew that my milk was fine, he was just always hungry. When you're trying to run a home and look after six kids as well as the baby, you don't have time for two hour feeds. We put him on formula at three months.

There will always be a debate on breast vs formula. As far as I'm concerned? You do what you think is best for your child, regardless of what the latest survey says or what the neighbours think.

[Sorry my reply is so long, the words got away from me!]

Collinsky

Oh, whatever. Babies need to be fat. Unless the development of brain tissue isn't a big priority.

I totally agree, a healthy amount of fat in the diet is necessary for maintenance of brain tissue. However, I want to add as the mama of five babies who were all on the thinner end of the "normal" spectrum, a lack of total chubbiness doesn't necessarily mean a lack of brain tissue development. My kids' brains are just fine. There's not really a correlation between size of the thighs and the health of the brain in the usual course of things.

And honestly, it has very little to do with *babies* being fat, which is healthy and normal and no one should bat an eyelash at it. IMO it's about the development of habits and a relationship with food (like, continuing to eat past the point you would have stopped) that affects obesity later in life.

kimtpa1417

My son was put on rice cereal at 5 days old and i fed him from a spoon then. I didnt feed him jar food he ate mashed food of whatever i cooked for dinner. My son is far from fat healthy as can be and will eat almost anything.