From breastmilk to independent eating — Baby Weaning

“When the weaning process has started, when the child can sit and enjoys sitting at the weaning table, the child and his parents develop a new relationship. The child is not fed on the laps of his parents anymore. He is not an infant in the arms. The relationship is now “one in which there are two people instead of one, who can learn to respect each other, to love each other, in a new way”.” (The Joyful Child — Susan Mayclin Stephenson).

When my daughter was five months old, I realised that she was growing so rapidly as a baby that she would demand more milk than I could produce. She would often bite my nipples while suckling. She would put her hands in my plate while I will be eating or grab a fruit from my hand. She would sit by now with support and was quite observant of her surroundings. I knew she needed more nutrition as her physical activity was much more than earlier. However, as my doctor has suggested to offer solids only once she turned six months, I was struggling.

It was only while doing my Birth to Three course that I learnt about the process of weaning. When we hear the term “weaning”, we may misunderstand it assuming it means to stop breastfeeding. In reality, weaning is the process of gradually introducing solid food to eventually replace breastfeeding. It is a process and not something to be done in a haste.

Weaning not only allows the baby to relish the food of their culture, it also makes them capable of eating independently. It is the beginning of a positive detachment that enables the child to develop their feelings of autonomy. Now the child needs suitable food that provides right nutrition to supplement their development — both physically and psychologically.

To achieve this, by the time the weaning starts, the child should have already had the experience of holding a suitable food in their hands and eating by themselves. Unfortunately, although all parents add new foods to the child’s diet during the fifth or sixth month, they often do not change the way in which this food is offered. Most of the time the food is offered in a puree form and many a times fed in bottle. The result is that children become a fussy eater and prefer eating everything in liquid form even when they grow old. Though it is easy to swallow such food, it limits experiencing the various flavors in their original form.

Preparation for the Weaning

By the third month, the child is already interested in everything around them. Bearing this change in mind, we can try to introduce some new taste experiences. We suggest offering one or two teaspoons of natural seasonal fruit juices. Some of the important things to consider while offering the juice are:

• Offer one hour before nursing the child.
• Offer only when the child is awake, calm and attentive to the life around.
• The size of the spoon must be very small considering the size of the child’s mouth.
• The spoon with the juice must be kept near the child’s mouth and not forced into their mouth. Let the child open their mouth to taste the flavor by themselves.
• They may cringe the first few times but with consistent offering, they will start to develop the taste.
• The juice is only to offer the taste and hence should not be offered more than two to three spoons each day.
• If the child shows interest in the flavor, it may be offered 3–4 spoons twice a day.

Continuing into the fourth month, we can gradually add new food experiences, such as soft fruit or vegetable sticks, small portions of bread/ chapatti/ dosa, etc. It is important to note that these food must be easy to hold and can fit into the child’s mouth. The child could also be offered egg yolk mashed in mother’s milk or boiled or a mashed tender white fish.

At this point, we have reached the stage where we can substitute one feeding with a complete weaning meal. This can be continued for five to six weeks, depending on how the child responds and copes with the new food. As the teeth begins to emerge, from about sixth month, we must keep following things in mind to avoid any adverse reaction:

Serve only a small portion food in the child’s plate. This will ensure less food wastage and hence less frustration for both parent and the child.

• If the child refuses some type of food, let a few days pass before presenting it again. The child’s relationship to food can be spoiled forever if the food is imposed. This can start all kinds of different pathologies related to food.

Allow the child to sit independently on a chair.

• A babyled Highchair can be used alternately for this purpose as well.

A child size cutleries (preferably silverware) must be used for weaning.

• Allow the child to hold the spoon or fork by themselves. However, there is no need to force these things either. If we model them and exhibit good relationship with the child, they will automatically pick up these practices.

By ninth month, the child is capable of tasting variety of solids while sitting independently on their chair. What we need to do is to be consistent, caring and patient while offering these opportunities. Weaning is remarkable time in a child’s life and it can help the advent of a new child, as they progress towards independence.

Below is a beautiful quote by Dr Silvana Montanaro’s from her book ‘Understanding the Human Being’ that stresses on the importance of weaning.

“Human milk can become another kind of dependence which must be shed just like the womb: from the moment of birth, the infant no longer needs to be sustained 24 hours a day by the mother. Now the mother is again changing her role. Of course the child still needs her but in a different way. If we do not understand this, all the physical and psychological impact of weaning is lost.”