From: ashley@osc.edu (Ashley Burns)
Subject: Summary: Fine Art of Introducing Solids
Keywords: infant feeding
Organization: The Ohio Supercomputer Center
Date: Mon, 28 Dec 1992 21:22:05 GMT

Well, Austin is finally eating things fairly regularly. This is a
summary of responses to my questions posted, um, about six weeks ago
(!). I have to attribute the delay in posting this to procrastination
and avoidance of the subject. After a week of eating vegetables okay,
Austin (then 4 months, now 5.25 months) refused to eat anything but
milk/formula. At that time he wouldn't eat cereal at all (I tried dry
rice and dry oatmeal cereal), but now he submits to canned rice cereal
with fruit. That's a big no-no in some people's books because it may
get him accustomed to sweet things. But that's what we're feeding him.
He gained less than a pound in two months, which worried me at the
time. I'm happy to announce that in the last two weeks his food intake
(in terms of formula) has increased by 8 oz per day, in addition to his
solid fare!

Austin has a strange habit: he has to have his thumb in his mouth any
time the spoon is not in his mouth! I tap his palm with the spoon, he
removes the thumb just long enough to take the bite, and then he
sticks his thumb back in. Surprisingly, very little food oozes out.

My first question was about technique: is there a trick to getting food
off a spoon and into their mouths? Specifically, do they suck off
the spoon, as my mother said her children did (and implied Austin 
should)? 

A slight majority of people who responded (5) said their babies never
sucked off the spoon. Most people tip the end of the spoon up when
removing it from the baby's mouth so the upper lip scrapes off the
contents. One person used infant feeding gadgets like big syringes that
dispense food with much success for a few months. I think this is a
great idea and if I could have found them in my local stores :-( I
would have tried them. Several people complained about the mess; and
according to some it got worse when the baby started exploring his/her
food:-).

My second question was how much food to give.

Everyone said the first food was just a supplement, and not to decrease
milk/formula yet. Several commented that 35 oz, which is what Austin
was drinking, approximately (I was estimating based on what I could
pump--I was breastfeeding), was a LOT. If that was a lot, I wonder why
he was not gaining weight. Several things I have read outside of
misc.kids, where the real info comes from:-), say that a baby eats
about 3 times as many fluid ounces as its weight in pounds. That would 
put Austin at 48 oz daily (and now even more)!

During the last two weeks he has been eating 40-45 oz. per day, in
5 feedings. I guess we feed him less often than most others, judging 
by the schedules posted recently. One of the variables is that he
just never asks for food. He complains plenty, but a bottle rarely
helps:-). The first day he started eating, he ate 17 oz. in 7 hours
at our daycare provider's house (not really that much for an average
baby, but he had never had more than 8 oz during that period). She 
seriously thought he was sick.

One person forwarded a very sensible, well put together, summary
on infant feeding. 

Thanks to all who have responded to my questions about infant weight
and feeding. I apologize for not summarizing promptly. Feeding issues 
just were overwhelming me!

--Ashley Burns, ashley@osc.edu
Newsgroups: misc.kids,soc.men,alt.atheism,alt.sex.wizards