baby's first foods discussion

[Guest guest]

Hello All -

The following was started several years ago when Vicky York and I were

comparing approaches to first foods for babies. As I'm currently

editing this chapter and others in the Foundations of AYurvedic

Postpartum Care and Training manual, I looked at it again and would love

to hear a vaidya's - or anyone else's experienced commentary on any of

it if you are listening in today.

 

 

Western Natural Foods Model for Food Introduction Plan

 

Submitted by Vicky York, CPD and CLC, for Ayurvedic commentary

 

Introduce one food at a time, allowing a week between foods to establish

the lack of allergy. Eczema, rashes, runny nose, and diaper rashes can

characterize allergies.

 

Ayurvedic commentary: Allergies tend to have their root in poor

digestion (agni), accumulations of incomplete products of digestion

(ama), poor food combining, and yes poor choices. Often eczema and

rashes are related to use of more acid forming foods (not that we

recommend a completely alkaline diet, only to take care and balance).

Citrus, tomato, fermented cheeses, salty chips, chiles and eggs among

some of the big offenders.

 

 

6-9 Months

 

ripe banana, sweet potatoes, avocado ½ tsp 1-2 times a day

 

(Breastfed babies don't need extra iron added to food.)

 

Ayurvedic: avoid starting with sweet taste except for rice, and in

first foods ceremony. You can start with more quantity if you use the

rice and then pulse thin broth recipes as earlier in this chapter,

first. Note that brown ricees are more pitta increasing than white

basmati -better for cold climate. Most green and yellow/orange

vegetables, prepared according to Ayurvedic sequencing and with touch

of ghee and gentle digestive seasonings are good early foods after the

rice and mung have been started. Then can intersperse the banana, yam

and avocado, taking care with food combining and small amounts,

especially if Baby is more kapha. Sweet potatoes are the more mealy,

lighter colored ones and are more vatagenic than the moist sweet yams.

 

9 months

 

add carrots, squash, broccoli, beets, cauliflower, potatoes

 

Ayurvedic: potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower may be best to wait until

now. Can begin diluted cow's milk for vata or pitta babies now or

before, according to recipe guidelines and food combining issues. Can

begin goat milk similarly best reserved for kapha babies.

 

10 Months

 

add pears, all berries; cut in half, apricots, kiwi, cherries; cut in

half, peaches, applesauce.

 

Ayurvedic: we can use stewed fruits earlier as long as Baby's

appetite for grain, pulse and vegetables has been established, and as

long as they are not acidic, and later the raw purees. When Baby can

sort of chew, soft pieces of cooked fruits (or veggies) can be given to

hold and self feed while Mama is giving most of it in puree, on a spoon.

Less food goes on floor, face and clothes this way if Baby is occupied.

 

11 Months

 

papaya, string beans, peas, basmati rice, nectarines, artichoke

 

Ayurvedic: perhaps on this list because of American ways of preparing?

Beans and peas can also be gas forming unless properly prepared. Even

rice, unless long cooked (and ghee/very gently seasoned) so it soaks the

moisture it is able before going into Baby's tummy. We will use,

again, ghee, olive oil, cumin, coriander, turmeric, pinch salt for much

different priority to the body with the vegetables. I don't know

why papaya or nectarine are on here. Freshly cooked artichoke is an art

to learn to eat w/o choking, though the heart may be fine earlier.

 

12 Months

 

diluted goats milk, garlic, barley, parsnips, onion ns, honey,

asparagus, spirulina. Consider eliminating dairy products and getting

calcium from: dried white beans, spinach, turnip greens, soybeans,

broccoli, bok choy, figs,

 

salmon, canned with bones, be careful to remove bones.

 

Ayurvedic: These sources of calcium are harder to use w/o gas, and

cow's milk or goat's much easier, properly used. See article at

www.sacredwinow.com <http://www.sacredwinow.com/> for more detail on

Ayurvedic approach to milk, and your nourishing the prime nourisher

chapter here. Barley water from whole grain is given in Chinese

tradition from first week. Just be gradual with densities. Figs and

asparagus is fine early on; the other veg greens need vata reducing

attentions. A small amount of well cooked garlic or onion will support

immune system, digestion, and grounding.

 

15 Months

 

egg yolks, cottage cheese, yogurt, tofu

 

Ayurvedic: Dr. Shrestha reports small amount very gently cooked yolk at

1 year may be used – which can be harder to digest than warm fresh

cheeses. If using cheeses, start with these fresh and soft ones, not

hard cheeses in spite of their appeal to taste and convenience. Given

reports in last few years, we would not use tofu; note the need to long

boil and season it if doing so, to balance vatagenic properties.

 

18 months

 

beans, lamb chicken, fish, turkey, beef, kelp, salad greens, rye,

buckwheat

 

Ayurvedic: If using meat in the family, we would start with poultry

soups, then fish. Red meats even harder to digest, and for a little one

approaching the " 2s " , can increase will power and tantrum issues

(pitta foods in general also, this more). Buckwheat and rye prepared

suitable by dosha, season and digestible form can be used much earlier,

although they are more suitable for kapha. A little kelp in small bean

(lentil/dhal) can be used much earlier for nutrients and helping

digestibility. Salad????! Please, no rush.

 

2 years

 

egg white, cows milk, wheat, corn, peanuts, port, shellfish, nuts,

citrus, chocolate, sunflower seeds, peanut butter

 

no sugar, soft drinks

 

no soft drinks

 

no fruit juice, just the fruit

 

wipe teeth after eating

 

Ayurvedic and other input – These tend to be more acid forming

foods, and cooked egg whites pull B-vitamins from the system. Wheat in

the US seems to be creating many problems and may be partly from how

wheat is grown and harvested. Favor unleavened products and explore

whether whole or unbleached works better for your family; King Arthur

brand is apparently properly harvested. Corn tends to increase all 3

doshas – I'd say especially dried, though in season pureed with

ghee, salt and pinch cumin or hing, may be fine sometimes. Nuts are

heavy to chew and digest, and chokables; nut milks may be used much

earlier, especially almond, freshly made, as can small amounts only, of

nut butters. People in general tend to overdo nuts then blame the nuts

instead of the excess. Peanut butter is tamasic - mentally dulling -

not advised for regular use.

 

There is value in freshly stewed fruit/juices especially for vata

weather, body type and vikruti, and for gentle laxative effect now or

earlier. Bottled juices do have their risk to dental health and

candida, though balanced meals with sufficient fats and proteins and not

so acid forming help protect, along with probiotics, healthy digestion

and flora. A touch of lime can be used to season foods much sooner

(much better than salad dressings and vinegar, and we do need some sour

taste).

 

See discussions on combining highest lignan (dark colored) flax oil with

a sulfur bearing protein such as fresh yoghurt, cottage cheese, nut

butters with a little honey and pinches of cardamom or other spices. It

is the authors confirming experience on Dr. Budwig's work that these

are much more nutritious and easy to handle, and less phlegm producing

than the protein source alone. If it were my baby, I'd try these

before regularly introducing the more solid or plain forms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Ysha, in the years since I offered these suggestions for baby's first foods, I

have changed my mind often and have read books citing different suggestions and

am not really sure what I would say. The ayurvedic suggestions you lay out seem

fine. The only thing I took exception to is offering cows milk at 9 months of

age. I would say only breastmilk for at least a year and then I'd offer goats

milk before cows milk. also I would like to add that often babies become

constipated as soon as they are given solid foods. If that happens simply drop

back on the solids and increase the breastmilk. Use breastmilk to dilute any of

the other foods. Also mothers often give the baby large amounts of solid foods,

thus replacing too much breastmilk, and her milk also dries up a little. Babies

can live on straight breastmilk for a year and be very healthy, so the addition

of food at all should only be teaspoons a day; it's more for the fun and

practice. If they are

formula babies, then I would start foods earlier, like 5 months.

Thanks for presenting that nice model of starter foods, Ysha.

 

Vicky York, IBCLC, CPD

Postpartum Care Services

www.vickyyorkdoula.com

 

 

references: www.ikarma.com/user/vmyork

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Hi Vicki -

 

Best I can tell Babies are both very flexible and - can be very sensitive to

these nuances. Perhaps keeping bowels moving well and tummies comfortable and

not gassy are particularly potent indicators mothers can use to help check how

new foods are doing.

 

Several interesting additions to this are worth repeating however.

 

Babies like adults have many layers of enzymes, or agnis in the body governing

layers of tissue creation and processes in addition to the stomach " digestion "

enzymes which may or may not be part of central digestive and elimination signs

most people depend on to know how digestive metabolism is working. And they

have many layers in which impurities can accumulate, aggravate, spread, relocate

to any weak area or function, begin to show sub-acute signs of imbalance, and

begin to manifest into disease symptoms over more or less time just like adults

do. This is the Ayurvedic pathogenesis model (samprapti).

 

Food combining is also a more sensitive issue for babies with their newly

expanded repertoire of functions.

 

INterleaving in further response below, (with your previous notes in perens) -

 

(The only thing I took exception to is offering cows milk at 9 months of age. I

would say only breastmilk for at least a year and then I'd offer goats milk

before cows milk.)

 

What is your experience with this - what quality of milk do your mamas tend to

use (organic or pure ama?). Is it served warm or cool? Has it been boiled? Is

it homogenized? What foods are given with it - I see so commonly, use of salted

cereals, fruits, even meats and vegetables served with milk. All these are

guaranteed problemmakers IMO. All these I know are questions not usually

evaluated in most professionals' assessment of whether milk is serving someone

or some baby or not. Ayurveda finds them significantly impacting the milks

discussion.

 

When asked, I'll advise starting them with the cow's milk formula posted on

another discussion here, or some variation, such as half milk, half water, and

the other ingredients for digestion/nutritional balance and taste. I have seen

an adopted newborn thrive on this cows' milk in the proper formula and use. I

have also seen homogenized milk create problems, which cream top didn't. I've

seen, in a newborn, cow's milk boiled with turmeric, ingested by Mama, clear up

apparent sensitivity to her using cow's milk even when boiled with other spices.

I have seen heavily kapha babies prone to kapha phlegminess with cow's milk

anyway once in a while, though properly prepared it is rare, and vata skinny

minny babies dry up and get tummy aches with goat's milk, as advised would

happen easily from Ayurvedic point of view. Sometimes, overall, cow's milk

seems problematic for Mama and or Baby, though with proper prep, quality and

use, it is usually much more than fine. Nonetheless, I'm quite sure you have

seen more older babies and their reactions to various milk formulations than I

have, and would love to continue the conversation on that basis too.

 

(also I would like to add that often babies become constipated as soon as they

are given solid foods. If that happens simply drop back on the solids and

increase the breastmilk.)

 

What quality of foods are given, and in what combination, temperature, and how

freshly made are they? All these factors can contribute to constipation or good

digestion and use of the new foods. The common practice of buying baby food in

jars (I did it, unknowing the impact. It is so challenging to provide freshly

prepared foods daily!), without seasoning or good fats even for older babies,

often in poor food combinations in a meal, or best ingredients homemade but

frozen or leftover several days (even one day!) is pretty much guaranteed to

contribute to some level of ill health, beginning in Baby's digestive and

elimination systems. It may or may not become visible for some time, but

contributes along with this natural kapha time of life, to susceptibilties to

illnesses.

 

It is also very easy to make the foods more mushy/liquidy/warm and digestible

also adding small amounts of clarified butter. I see this often, that mothers

are being so Western model purist that Baby gets no real support for digestion

or nutritional balance that way.

 

(Use breastmilk to dilute any of the other foods).

 

Using any breast or dairy milk to dilute sour (such as banana or most fruits),

salty, or astringent (such as unripe banana, peas or legumes) creates ama

(incomplete products of digestion and Ayurveda will disagree with such practice.

 

(Also mothers often give the baby large amounts of solid foods, thus replacing

too much breastmilk, and her milk also dries up a little. Babies can live on

straight breastmilk for a year and be very healthy, so the addition of food at

all should only be teaspoons a day; it's more for the fun and practice).

 

Yes, it is such a desire to have more sleep at night.... and it seems many

grandmothers really encourage it too. It is so important to start with liquidy

" solids " first to help baby's system start to make proper enzymes and learn to

handle it, see how they work, and gradually thicken the foods, then gradually

adding one more food at a time in same way, thin first. After 2-3 weeks, a

little gentle digstive seasoning, salt and clarified butter can start to be used

to help also.

 

In our culture, mothers tend to not be healthy enough to provide the satisfying

breast milk for a whole year. Ayurveda does acknowledge it is a natural choice

otherwise, but also we have to look to the mother's condition, and baby's

happiness. I believe Baby should get what they want to eat and not restrict to

how many teaspoons however, as long as the presentation begins thin not heavy

they will want enough breast milk still, and parents pay attention to how Baby's

tummy, bowel and immune health are responding.

 

If they are formula babies, then I would start foods earlier, like 5 months.

 

You are probably right! Formula most babies get has no prana or life force, in

addition to being not the most natural food for their system no matter how

carefully designed.

 

> Thanks for presenting that nice model of starter foods, Ysha.

 

Much credit goes to you for giving such a good outline to work with, Vicky.

Always a delight to share with you!

 

Love,

Ysha

>

> Vicky York, IBCLC, CPD

> Postpartum Care Services

> www.vickyyorkdoula.com