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Weaning is an important experience because it establishes attitudes, approaches and emotional ties to eating, digesting and assimilating foods. Weaning should not be rushed and the digestive system given time to adapt naturally. After approximately eight months, raw 'tastes' can be introduced. A baby should be offered all the milk it wants first, followed by soft solid foods.

sweet potato

Some fruits are ideal foods for weaning such as mashed soft pear, peach, banana etc. Soft Avocado pears and soft sieved tomatoes make a good savoury dish. Whatever can be prepared with a fork and/or coarse sieve and can be handled by the baby on its own is suitable for first tastes. As baby gets older, gradually add other items which are not artificially engineered to be swallowed - ban the food processor in infant feeding! If vegetables cannot be simply steamed and mashed then they cannot be handled by the baby's digestive system. Vegetables which are naturally soft when cooked such as sweet potato, carrot, parsnip are ideal introductory items but I would not recommend including things like runner beans, corn-on-the-cob or cabbage. A spoon of mineral-rich vegetable consommé on mashed carrot, for example, will enhance taste experience. Introduce items one or two at a time, so that any food which the baby does not want can be clearly identified.

carrots [1]

Babies should not be force fed, and rejected foods can be offered again at a later date. Using a favourite food to flavour an unwanted one is not a good idea and goes against natural selection of the appetite. However, making foods interesting by combining tastes is a natural progression to widening food choices. The introduction of a little raw unrefined oil is appropriate with vegetable intake.

Wheat is a difficult food to digest, and should not be offered until back teeth are present. The best grain to start a baby on is a little whole grain rice. This is relatively easily digested and holds water so making its passage through the intestines easier. Bland rice can be made savoury with things like a spoon of vegetable consommé, sieved tomato, a little cold-pressed oil and a sprinkle of unprocessed salt, or made sweet with a little raw honey which contains its natural enzymes or mashed banana or peach etc. Babies should not be allowed to become dehydrated or constipated because of inappropriate feeding, and it should be respected that all babies are individuals in tastes and biochemistry.

Babies needs a small amount of unprocessed salt but should never be given white industrial grade sodium chloride which is physiologically unacceptable to baby or adult. However, unprocessed salt which has constituents and mineral file similar to plasma, mostly slightly grey or pink/beige in colour and slightly moist, is essential for nutrition and water balance. A breast feeding mother should have an adequate salt (unrefined) level to ensure nutritious milk.

Babies can be given whole hard apples, pears, sweet potatoes or carrots to gnaw on when teething, but a supervising adult should always be present to make sure that small pieces do not break off and present a risk of choking.

Items such as fish, meat, eggs and nuts should never be given to babies before they have their full complement of infant back teeth; even then they should be introduced gradually in very small wafer-thin amounts. A baby must be able to thoroughly chew before it can digest such heavy proteins. Fish and eggs, therefore, will be introduced to the diet before meat or nuts. Any animal product offered to a baby should ideally be organic and chemical free. The premature introduction of foreign protein can cause digestive problems and food sensitivities.

Animal fats and hydrogenated vegetable fats (ordinary shop oils, margarine, vegetable suet etc.) should not be eaten by babies or adults, as such fats are lymphatic blockers and considered carcinogenic (can cause cancer). However, babies should never be on a low-fat or fat-free diet. Infants require different foods to adults and should not be put on the so called low-fat, high-fibre fad diets which are supposed to be healthy. They are not, either for adult or child. A right fat diet is the only one which is healthy, i.e. butter, olive and coconut oils for cooking and a full variety of cold-pressed organic oils for mixing with foods and salads etc. Essential fatty acids (which are bountiful in right fats) should be consumed daily. Hemp oil is an excellent food. Oils can also be absorbed through the skin where appropriate.

A weaned infant needs a mixed wholesome diet which includes full cream goats or sheep's milk and plenty of fruit and vegetables. An infant also has 'sweeter' needs than an adult and should not be on a 'diet' if all he/she has is healthy foods. Raw honey is suitable and dried fruits are fine for a baby who can chew them properly. If a baby is of normal weight and fed on wholesome foods, his/her appetite should be the best guide to his/her needs. A growing child will need more in the way of natural sweet foods and children naturally 'binge-eat' when they have growth spurts. These ups and downs are natural in children and should be filled with nourishing, toxic free foods along with plenty of water and adequate unrefined salt. When the body is short of salt, it will crave sugar as a substitute in an attempt to balance water intake. There are natural needs for varying amounts of sweets foods in children, but these must not be a substitute for lack of salt. Ensure adequate water/electrolyte intake.

All babies, like adults, are individuals and so are their nutritional requirements. As adults we should respect the appetites of children and they should not be force fed (provided that intake is not perverted with white salt, sugar, flour and such things as artificial sweeteners etc). If a healthy, well-fed infant does not like a particular food, then that should be respected and that food re-introduced some time in the future. Providing that food intake is not 'junk food' and processed (which perverts appetite), appetite is a natural selection mechanism to choose the foods which contain the nutrients needed. We do not all have to like everything. Remember the saying that 'one man's meat is another man's poison'.

Variety and plenty to choose from will ensure a nutritious intake. A child will be best suited to seasonal foods grown in the local environment, just as adults are. Seasonal changes should be appreciated as our body-clocks require seasonal nutrients. For example, in general, summer fruits are for the summer, autumn vegetables for the autumn, easily stored foods through the winter, e.g. potatoes, root vegetables. Choices mostly based around natural food cycles are part of a good foundation. Icing is a thin veneer over a solid cake. Without the cake, the icing would be sickly but without the icing, the cake would be less enjoyable. Knowledge of food sources and ingredients can bring balance into food choices. For example is chocolate cake a bad choice? The answer is, 'What are the food sources and ingredients?'. This could lead to a conclusive yes or no. The same goes for the icing and for the cake.

No babies thrive on chemicals and pollutants. Everything we and our children eat should be organic if possible. If that is not possible, ensure that the food is not irradiated or microwaved and is washed thoroughly before use (e.g. wash in appropriate vegetable wash). Buy food fresh and use as soon as possible.  Only unrefined sea salt should be used in infant food, along with natural celery salt, according to the unpolluted appetite's calls for it. Excitotoxins (artificial sweeteners, MSG, flavourings etc.), especially when heated, are particularly detrimental to babies' growing brains and nervous systems.[2]

Infants should be given only pure water to drink as the first addition to breast milk. Processed sugar-based syrup liquids are bad for health and teeth - no refined sugar should be given to babies (or be included in adult diets as a regular part of fluid intake).  If you wish to give a baby fruit juice, it should be given freshly squeezed and in tiny sips so that it mixes with saliva in the mouth before being swallowed.  Saliva contains the enzymes to digest it and avoid fermentation further down in the gut.

Some basic knowledge about the nature of food sources and food industry processing will provide a sound foundation for parents to be more confident in making choices about feeding their babies and children.[3]  

References
1.    http://drpatelsdietdotcom.wordpress.com/
2.    Russell Blaylock M.D, Excitotoxins: The Taste That Kills, Health Press, ISBN-10: 9780929173252, 1996.
3.    Jordan S Rubin, The Maker's Diet, Berkley (USA), ISBN: 0-425-20413-8, 2005.

Concluded in Part Three