To think this baby should be on some solids by now

[tuttuttut]

A friend of mine has a 9.5 month old ds who is exclusively breastfed. He has not had anything else pass his lips yet. She is a brilliant mother (she is attachment parenting - probably not relevent though)

Please tell me if i'm wrong and i'll stop worrying but i really thought at this age babies need solids due to there iron levels depleting. Also i thought solids help with speech development because of the chewing?

Everytime i see her i casually ask if he's had any solids yet and she says "i don't think he's ready". He has no sn by the way.

I have suggested BLW as i thought this would suit them but still no. Is this not as 'bad' as mother's thinking their baby is ready at 4 months really?

Tori with all due respect, you are posting about the potential negatives involved with late weaning, yet despite guidelines and research clearly showing issues with early weaning, you still weaned your DD at 13 weeks ? did I read your earlier post correctly ?

I'm sure welliemum will be quick to point out that the levels of iron in breast milk may be 'low' as conventially tested, however they are 100% bio-available to a baby's body - which in laymans terms means that ALL the iron in breastmilk is absorbed.

I'm not sure what the percentage figure for formula / cows milk is off the top of my head, but I'm sure it's a far lower percentage that has the ability to be absorbed by the human body, in which case there would be a requirement for additional iron in the diet.

However I would also like to point out, everybody gets extremely hung up on levels of Iron, Calcium etc. In reality, all vitamins and minerals have a synergistic effect and require each other to be efficiently absorbed, for example you can have all the calcium under the sun but you're not going to utilise it correctly without decent levels of Magnesium and at least 15 mins in the sun each day to allow for Vitamin D absorption. Plus, our requirements for these different micronutrients change on a daily basis. So for example tomorrow, my DS may catch a cold, at which point his requirement for Vit A, C and Zinc will increase dramatically, however today he may have needed very little depending on our diet. Because I am still breastfeeding, my body will be providing him with an awful lot of those micronutrients, as will the OP's friends.

puffylovett, haven't you got a lovely 'way' about you.

oops was that a bit aggressive, sorry

No, I mean you do have a lovely 'way' about you

ooh my first on MN !!!!

for example you can have all the calcium under the sun

I love it! Was that deliberate?

Anyway, there was just a post on the BLW Yahoo Group from a lactation specialist (if she's around here I hope she doesn't mind me doing this) I think it's appropriate to this discussion.

"Dairy is the worst about preventing uptake of iron.

"We had a staff meeting yesterday (I'm a specialist consultant for the health department) and one of the things we went over was an article by Dr Hale stating that iron isn't as necessary for infants as was once thought. It is imperative they have enough for fetal development and continued developement up until around 6 months, but beyond 6 months they don't need as much as was believed. The reason babies are born with a 6 month store and that BM is so "low" in iron, he says, is because nature intended for the GI tract to relativel iron free to prevent the overgrowth of harmful flora. Bifidus bacteria, a necessary bacteria, doesn't require iron. Hemoglobin levels naturally fall over the first 2 months of life.

"He goes on to say he believes the iron in infant formulas is part of the reason BFd babies have higher IQs. Infants on low-iron formulas also score higher later in life.

"So, bottom line is that babies don't need as much iron as was thought. It is possible that levels considered anemic are actually just fine!"

Tinksmum, of COURSE !!

well well well would ya believe it.

I would love to get a copy of that article if you can get hold of a link ?

actually forget it, I think I may have it on Medscape

Sorry, that was an email on BLW group, that was all she said. If you do find it, please share

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11339160

from Pubmed

cpj.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/20/10/625

this from New York Dept of Pediatrics Syracuse State Uni

Dr Hale's article from June 2008.

puffylovett the firstbn article you cited states clearly that breast milk is adequate for the first 6 months and that after this it would need dietary supplement. i.e. a baby at 9.5mths would need extra dietary supplement to ingest an adequate amount.

PS it also says that iron deficiency prevention measures are to avoid unfortified formula and cows milk, prolonged breast feeding and the introduction of iron-fortified and vitamin-c fortified weaning foods at approximately 6 mths.
How does that contradict what I have said?

tori32,
Why is prolonged breastfeeding so evil? There is evidence that extended breastfeeding makes children brighter and healthier.

I have a friend who breastfed her daughter until 5 years old. The little girl is extremely bright. I only breastfed my son until 33 months old and there is no evidence it harmed him.

The world health organisation recommend breastfeeding a child until the age of two or for longer if the mother desires. It is recommended that a baby is exclusively breastfed for 6 months and that breastmilk forms the main part of a baby's diet for the first year.

I shall be back later with some links.

i find it really interesting tori, that you weaned your baby at 13 weeks, are so adamant that breastfeeding is somehow harmful or not necessary, but has dismissed all resaerch, evidence and opinion that early weaning is potentially harmful

if a baby is weaned early on puree, how does that lack of chewing help their development and speech? surely weaning at 6 motnsh or so when theyu can chew is better

And one thing occured to me how can weaning at 6 months be so important if milk is to be the main source of nourishment for the first 12 months? I would have thought if it were that important we would be told to drop the milk and shove in the food but we aren't.

Here is a page with lots of interesting links. Not all the websites are breastfeeding nutter websites.

www.kellymom.com/nutrition/solids/delay-solids.html

I assume that UNICEF are fairly well balanced.

benefits of extended breastfeeding

It's not the breastfeeding for the first 6 months we're discussing guys, it's the effects of potential iron deficiency in the OP's friend as she hasn't weaned yet and her DC is 9 mths old.

Tori32 - the part of the pubmed article that most interested me was this bit - Despite much research, there are many areas of uncertainty regarding iron supplementation of infants, including that: 1. The optimal age for introducing iron-fortified supplemental foods is poorly defined and should be further evaluated. 2. The natural history of iron deficiency and iron-deficiency anemia during the first year of life is unclear, as are the possible long-term effects of this, especially on developmental outcome. 3. The biologic variability among infants and among their mothers that allows many infants who do not receive iron-fortified foods to prevent iron deficiency while receiving only human milk throughout the first year of life is intriguing and warrants additional study. 4. The iron requirements of small-for-gestational-age, term infants are unknown. Their iron requirements are likely to be higher than those of average term infants, but whether iron supplements are required is unclear. 5. The optimum amount of dietary iron in the weaning diet needs to be further defined. Similarly, the optimal source and amount of iron in infant formulas given to infants who receive a mixture of human milk and formula is unclear

and this part Although iron deficiency is a significant nutritional problem worldwide, most of the adverse effects of iron deficiency in this age group are hypothetical and rely on extrapolation from animal studies

and most especially, this part Given this uncertainty, it seems prudent to use the lowest dose of iron that prevents iron-deficiency anemia. Currently, the best evidence is that this is achieved by prolonged breastfeeding

oh bugger i cocked up the itallics

and the second article looks directly at infants between 7.5-12 months old exclusively breastfed and found no iron deficiency - here -

Serum ferritin and erythrocyte porphyrin concentrations were measured in seven Peruvian infants, who ranged in age from 7.5-12.0 months (mean: 9.3 months), who had been exclusively breast-fed all their lives. No infant had evidence of iron deficiency as reflected by a reduced serum ferritin, or an increased erythrocyte porphyrin. Mean serum ferritin and erythrocyte por phyrin values in these seven infants were similar to those of 40 nonanemic, noniron-deficient U.S. infants who ranged in age from 9 to 12 months, on a mixed diet. These findings illustrate that exclusively breast-feeding an infant for at least 9 months of life meets the iron requirements of the full-term infant.

lulumama and reallytired I have in no way suggested that breastfeeding is harmful or evil, infact I am myself still breastfeeding my 4mth old. The facts are there that breastmilk does not provide enough iron on its own after 6mths of age, which is why babies should start weaning at approximately that age.
I weaned my child early because she was constantly hungry with just milk- feeding almost every hour to 1.5hrs with no respite or longer periods between feeds since birth. I found that my dd1 was becoming increasingly jealous of the time I had to spend feeding and was not getting much attention from me. This was unfair on her.
The only other solution to my problem would have been to switch to formula which I didn't want to do, as I wanted to carry on breastfeeding

I am and at the venom in your posts because clearly you only read what you want to and assume that I am anti-bre4astfeeding, which is clearly not the case.

The issue has never been about the OPs friend still breastfeeding, just the lack of solids being offered at 9.5mths.

puffylovett you missed out the rest of the sentence because in the 'it is prudent section it goes on to say introduce iron fortified and vitamin c fortified weaning foods at 6mths

I have never said that the OPs friend should stop bf, just that solids should be started earlier than 9.5mths.