Carlos González explains how to start complementary feeding

Continuing with the interview conducted to Carlos Gonzalez In Criatures, we offer you a new video in which he talks about the complementary feeding and how to offer it.

Contrary to what is usually done, which is to offer a guideline of recommendations, the pediatrician is guided by a single premise: make it easy.

It is evident that, whatever is done, start with the fruit or vegetables, be crushed or not, make a 200 ml porridge or be offered only a couple of tablespoons, the baby who starts eating will end up , in adulthood, eating alone, without boobs or bottles.

Food is a necessity, but not the only need

This means that it is not necessary, nor recommended, to turn the meal time into an almost worldwide event. The ideal is to offer food, in the presentation that we prefer, and that each child gets accustomed to it little by little, at his own pace.

We have already said on other occasions that babies come standard with a very precise self-regulating mechanism that works like a charm to allow them to grow with the energy they need: hunger.

Allowing them to listen to their hunger, and therefore to eat when they need it and not to do it when they don't need it, is the best way for a child to grow up without eating problems.

Food is a necessity, the fuel to grow and live and a moment that can be pleasant. If the parents begin to distrust the hunger of the children, if we try to convince them to eat more, if we begin to condition them, threaten them or deceive them, all we will be doing is buying ballots so that the child ends up, eventually, taking some aversion to those foods with which dad and mom most insisted, in addition to transforming the meal time into a simple act of nutrition (without enjoying it).

Let the child eat only uncrushed food

I remember it was in a talk about Carlos Gonzalez when I first heard the words "baby led weaning". I was so surprised at the concept that I started researching it.

It is a way of feeding children in which they avoid getting accustomed to eating the crushed food, since it is taken into account that months later they will have to get used to the crushed ones to get used to more solid food.

Bearing in mind that babies, sooner or later (say in a period between six and eight months), are able to take food and bring it to their mouths to gradually get to know it, sucking it, wetting it, softening it, biting it and swallowing it, it is a way of feeding the children plausible, practical (it is not necessary to make two totally different meals and allows the child to eat anywhere without having to take prepared food or buy baby food) and more autonomous, since it is the same child who learns according to their rhythms and preferences and the same child who feeds.

But the purees are not so bad

Of course not, adults still drink purees, right? There are mothers who prefer to puree because they give them more security or because they eat faster and more.

Everyone who does it as he thinks best. As we said, whatever is done, the child will eat. When she is a little older (10-12 months), she starts to let our food touch (or she gets a little on the high chair) and will gradually get to know her and bring her to her mouth. This will prevent them from getting too used to crushing and rejecting any solid even with 4 or 5 years.

What if this happened?

It is not the end of the world, of course. The crushed food has the same nutrients as the same food without crushing, so that at the nutritional level the child will not have any deficit caused by eating this way.

The only problem is the hassle of always having to shred everything. Personally, I would not do anything, because over the years the child will end up eating solid food, although professional attention can also be sought if eating like this creates anguish in the family or even in the child.

In summary

Sheets and guides with recommendations on complementary feeding there are hundreds and thousands and they usually work almost all because the child grows, matures and ends up eating as adults around them do.

The problem is not that they exist, but that there are those who take them to the letter (or there are those who explain them as if they had to be taken to the letter). While food is offered from a logical age and separated by a few days to assess possible allergies, the chances of success are high.

In any case, there are always subsections and small tips that can be taken into account about each food, which are what we are playing these days in our "Special Infant Feeding".

Video | Criatures.cat
Photo | Flickr - Sami Keinänen
In Babies and more | Carlos González explains how long to breastfeed a baby, Complementary feeding: "Baby-led Weaning", Carlos González and "A gift for a lifetime", "We must completely change our production system." Interview with Carlos González