Spoon feeding 'makes babies fatter'

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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.

As often as possible I made my own baby food using real foods in the blender I felt it was better in establishing the texture/taste of real foods rather than what came out of a jar. I know that is not for everyone and I can say I did rely on some of the fruits and cereal mixes for my son to put in his milk (he had enlarged tonsils and did not like the feel of swallowing food) I really prefered home made to jar.

That is so awesome though, I wish I could have done that. I was such a young mom, honestly so stressed out all the time and my depression was the worst it's ever been in my life for the year following my son's birth. I'd like to think if I ever do have another baby I could do something like that.

I will read the article but responding to your post heading.

I will not at all be surprised if this is the case. I practiced "baby led weaning" on my last child and WHAT A DIFFERENCE in his approach to food. I allowed him to eat how he wanted and quantity he wanted, all by himself from the age of 6 months. By this I don't mean that I was irresponsible and would leave him with foods he could choke on.

Did you know that when we spoon feed a baby and they gag, it's not because the don't like the food. It is because we have pushed the spoon to far back into their mouths. It is a natural reaction for any human being to gag when they have no control over something in their mouths. In some countries where babies are hand fed, the food is placed in the very front of the mouth. Again... age old concept that we tried to out smart.

every human has a gag reflex (well most of them do)

what mother hasn't accidentally put the spoon too far into her baby's mouth? it's hardly a tragedy ok, chill out!

Wow, bashing the breast fed comment lady. Leave her alone already! A comment is just a comment. I'm quite certain she wasn't implying that she was better than anyone, just making a comment.
Where's all this hostility coming from. Go eat a cupcake! LOL =]

Hmm I wonder if I am the only man commenting on this thread....

We are weaning my 7 month old son as we speak and he has finger food and puréed pouches, he has always been in the 50 percentile on the graphs and I really don't think he is going to be obese when he grows older. He has always been breast fed, although it did take a couple of weeks for my wife to start producing her milk properly.

I/we will make sure he leads a healthy active life just like his parents.

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

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.

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!!

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.

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.