Sense check: babies 'need' grains?

[Paaseitjes]

Just back from the clinic and this is bollocks, right? I do give him bread, but he really doesn't need need grain or potatoes 3x per day at 8 months does he?

I've only got a STEM PhD, but the nurses always have me doubting myself. I think this was such dumb advice this time that I can't find anything on Google to refute it because no one ever googled it! She told me to breat feed him less and pulled up the bottle feeding amounts too. I'm not in the UK and the national weaning advice is seriously outdated (start at 4 months!) but this took the biscuit (wholegrain of course).

Yes, in general, as part of weaning your baby should have wheats, oats and grains. Common allergen so good to keep that exposure
3x a day seems a bit much unless that's just how your meals work out to be and baby eats what you eat

solidstarts.com/foods/wheat/

Healthy grains are an excellent food for weaning. 8 months is young for 3 meals a day though.

At 8 months, I’m not sure my DD was having three full meals! She’s 22 months now, so I don’t remember as clearly, but I think at 8 months, it was more that she was breast fed with solids offered twice a day (and often that was a single food so I’d offer her both whole broccoli and pureed broccoli and that would be a “meal”.) Plus, I often offered her my food if appropriate but if she didn’t eat it, I didn’t worry. Once she was 12 months, I did start to drop milk feeds (at a rate of 1 less per month), and replaced them with meals and snacks, until she only had her bed time bottle.

All Diets, no matter how old you are, are more about nutrition over a week or a month. I’ve never been too concerned about what my child eats on an individual day as long as I’ve felt that over a week, it’s been a balanced diet.

Have a look at the First Steps Nutrition website. Excellent quality independent info on weaning.

Thanks! He has some bread most days, often has a bit of my porridge or pancakes with oats, and whatever carb we have with tea. He has maybe also had a pizza crust or two... It's certainly not that I think carbs and grains are evil and I'm making sure he's getting plenty of fibre. I was just a bit taken aback to be told he must eat that much especially when he's so small. I just mixed some couscous into his lunch in paranoia!

I got given a leaflet on how to make pregnancy friendly sandwiches by the midwife, so I shouldn't be surprised! Sandwiches are the staple here. I looked at it blankly, then she looked back at me blankly when I said I didn't eat sandwiches!

You have a STEM PHD you can work this one out. Do not take any advice without checking it against your own common sense first.

Babies need a lot of nutrients and a lot of energy, but can only take small amounts of food. Grains are pretty nutrient poor, compared to animal foods, so there is that. And we seem to have a bit of a bias against fat these days, but the developing brain needs healthy fats, it is practically a blob of fat.
If I were to wean again I would definitely be leaning towards a carnivore baby.

If you fancy a rabbit hole take a look at what happened to Tim Noakes a south African doctor who suggested a whole food based approach to weaning.

Thanks, that's what I think! Breast milk is v high sugar so carbs, calcium, B vitamins and fat are covered, plus I'm taking cod liver oil so he should be ok for DHA. I was focusing on iron and fibre to get his gut bacteria going, plus allergens and vitamin C. Obviously he's trying everything else we're eating to satisfy his curiosity. He stole my consolation cinnamon bin out of my mouth this morning after the clinic which probably makes me a terrible parent. I couldn't find anything about grains in a quick Google, so thought I might be missing something.

It's amazing how contact with the government gets one in a spin. I don't even have anxiety (really not, I'm usually very chilled). DH has hidden the guide book they gave us because it stressed me so much (you should send baby to daycare at 3 months, otherwise it'll get needy and you'll get depression!) We"re foreign first time parents so get extra patronised at the clinic.

My babies are grown up now and were weaned in uK using the advice of the time, which was solids from 4mo. IMO they needed it then, especially DS1 and im not sure hpw modern mums het hungry babies to 6mo without it, but even then we were told to limit grains as they fill up little tummies, not leaving room for the important nutrients.

I think they need a lot of carbs. Whether that's grains or potatoes, I don't know. A bowl of porridge is probably more nutritious than your average supermarket white bread.

Out of curiosity, what country are you in? I'm always interested in how things like this differ place to place!

Also don't overthink it, it sounds like you're doing pretty alright without the nurses advice! My youngest was so, so slow to take to weaning but she got there in the end 😊

Grains are not nutrient poor compared to animal products… where have you got that from? Cereals and pseudocereals (what you’re all calling grains) are good sources of protein (only limited by lysine or tryptophan which can easily be remedied by pairing with beans/legumes or nuts/seeds) and b vitamins, iron, carbohydrate (needed for glucose to fuel the brain! The only other option that passes the blood brain barrier is ketones and over time this is dangerous for the heart).

And animal products in excess are associated with cardiovascular disease, increased cancer, increased bad cholesterol, higher blood pressure…

Id certainly prefer grains over excessive meat and meat products.

They're definitely not nutrient poor, but for an under 1 who only eats a table spoon worth at a time, I think there are better sources of all those nutrients. For me their primary advantage seems to be texture: the couscous addition worked really well because it made the bolognese clumpy so he could grab it, and bread is an excellent vehicle for all sorts of things plus hand eye coordination. I definitely agree with you after 1 though.

@HumberBridge2I'm in the Netherlands. The clinic is actually mystifying me. They're well aware that their advice conflicts with the WHO but it feels almost like they're being recorded and are absolutely not allowed to go off script and must spend the mandated 2 mins convincing me to follow the national advice. Even the paediatricians do it! I guess it improves the quality of the bad ones so you don't get the completely nutty advice that you read about from UK HVs on here, but it feels like talking to a chat bot sometimes. Their default is to show you the website as if a written guideline is going to wow me into submission! I guess they're mostly there for the very struggling parents and to pick up missed sick babies so I'm not really their target market.

I thought the UK guidelines had moved back to start weaning between 4 and 6 months, because leaving it later increases the risk of allergies?

I might not be offering grains or even 3 solid meals a day at 8 months but we weren’t far off. Between some bread and some spuds or pasta, or some porridge at breakfast, it’s not hard and entirely nutritionally appropriate.