Kathryn Orlinsky

> Actually, many cultures will pre-chew the infant's food and deposit it in his
> mouth---the origin of the kiss. Animals will do this too---to a further
> degree---and regurgitate the partially digested food for their young. So,
> really, no blenders were needed! :-) (ever wonder why your dog licks your
> face?)

True. But that's still a lot more work than breastfeeding. I don't
doubt that toddlers were given other foods as well as human milk, I just
can't see a mother spending her day chewing and spitting enough food to
support a child when she could just put him to the breast. The same
goes for making oatmeal or mush. Why would she provide all her child's
calories in this labor intensive manor if she didn't have to? Nobody is
claiming that these babies didn't touch foods other than human milk, but
I don't think they would have been completely weaned from their mothers'
milk until they could eat the same food as the rest of the family.

As for the age of weaning in mammals, perhaps I was mistaken about the
second set of teeth. But they certainly don't wean until the first set
is fully in and the infant can eat solids.

--
Kathy Orlinsky
mailto:kathyorlinsky@...

[email protected]

In a message dated 1/15/02 1:37:41 PM, kathyorlinsky@... writes:

<< I just
can't see a mother spending her day chewing and spitting enough food to
support a child when she could just put him to the breast >>

Can you see a mother spending her day and night cleaning and filling bottles
with formula instead of just putting him to the breast?


And who are these hypothetical other mothers? Today babies are being born in
every country, to people of every language, in the whole world. Not all have
any options for bottle, but I doubt ANY will be exclusively breastfed until
they have a bunch of teeth.

Sandra

Sharon Rudd

Moses (DS3) was almost 3 months old when we went on
our Japanese sojourn.

I didn't know the language, was quite "poor", had no
blender, no access to familiar baby-foods. I chewed
rice for him at about 5 months. And
chewed(peeled)apples. I mashed bananas with fork. I
chewed other stuff for him as he got older. The hard
part was not swallowing the juice (from the apples,
other fruit). He called a bite of apple an
"ummmba-um". I did this at home, in private so as not
to gross out anyone. DS1(8) and DS2(5) didn't think
anything of it, one way or the other. Ya' just do what
ya' gotta do, whatever your cultural background.

SOS

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Karen Matlock

Just FYI: my grandmother (born 1900) told me once that she was proud of the
fact that she never chewed for her babies. Other moms would, she said, and
they'd line up the little balls of pre-chewed food on the edges of their
plates, and then would pop them in the babies' mouths when they were hungry.
This would have been late 1920's and early 1930's.

She also said that as the oldest of twelve, she'd hoped to have the first
grandchild. The Christmas after my aunt was born, however, three of her
sisters and her mother all had new babies! Two months ago, on her 101st
birthday, she sang my daughter a song her daddy used to sing to her... sorry
to ramble, but it's fascinating talking with her and I wish I had learned
more when she could have told me.

Mattie


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gruvystarchild

"Maybe when kids aren't nursed they crave sweets?"

My biggest sweet tooth was nursed 19 months....so I think genetics
has a lot to do with it also.

Ren

[email protected]

My biggest sweet tooth is 38 months and still nursing!


~Elissa Cleaveland
"It is nothing short of a miracle that the modern methods of instruction
have
not yet entirely strangled the holy curiosity of inquiry." A. Einstein


Jacqui Martin

My biggest sweet tooth is 4 1/2 and still nursing...

Jacqui

My biggest sweet tooth is 38 months and still nursing!





[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

In a message dated 8/14/02 10:50:50 PM Central Daylight Time,
[email protected] writes:

<<
I have one breast-and-bottle fed and one strictly breastfed, and both of
them are as picky as one could imagine. >>
Pam

My oldest was only breastfed four months (I was young and didn't know better,
poor guy) and he will eat a huge variety of foods. My next was breastfed 19
months and has always been VERY picky and craves sweets. Number three was
breastfed two years and eats almost anything......
Then we've got baby boy who is nursing a LOT at 18 months and is very, very
picky about his solids as of yet. I am guessing he will nurse for a much
longer time than the rest of them.
Hopefully the pickiness won't last. I think breastfeeding does expose them
to a lot of different tastes, and of course it's best anyway.
But genetics has a lot to do with it also.

Ren

Sharon Rudd

> But genetics has a lot to do with it also.
>
> Ren
>
How is your back, Ren?

Sharon of the Swamp

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birdiebutt2001

My biggest sweet tooth is 29 and still... er... well i guess that's
not techniically nursing id it ;)


> My biggest sweet tooth is 4 1/2 and still nursing...
>
> Jacqui
>
> My biggest sweet tooth is 38 months and still nursing!
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

[email protected]

In a message dated 11/22/02 10:36:19 PM, joylyn@... writes:

<< Then she spoke.

Good for you!

I must have looked confused because she went on, Good for you for

breastfeeding. So many moms are not breastfeeding today. >>

When Kirby was a baby, we went to a family reuinion in Texas. He was four
months old.

It was in a big hall, and there were 120 people or so in there at the time.

When he wanted to nurse, I carried him back to the farthest wall from where
most people were, and I nursed him while reading a bulletin board and from a
distance others probably thought I was just rocking him to sleep, or whatever.

My grandmother, who was 82 or so, came back there and looked at the bulletin
board too. It was a kind of "leaning on a truck" moment (as in
http://sandradodd.com/truck)
and she said, "Good for you."

Same thing.<g>

But her next statement was "I don't know WHY those other mothers won't FEED
THEIR BABIES." There were two other infants in the room, both being bottle
fed.

I really liked what you wrote. Good story, Joylyn.

I was at the Wyoming branch of the library one day here, when Kirby was
little. Not walking, but bigger. Maybe nine months? I should look it up,
if I wrote it down.

An older woman kept looking at him and watching us, and finally she asked me
how old he was. I told her. She said her daughter had married and was
living in Norway, I think she said (a Scandinavian country) and had had a
baby boy that age, but she, the grandmother, hadn't gotten to see him yet,
and was having a hard time imagining how big he was, and might not get to see
him for another year. She seemed really sad. When we said goodbye and
parted, I thought... I turned back quickly and said "Would you like to hold
him?"

She just lit up and was SO happy to have that surrogate moment. It was sweet
for me to watch her be so happy to hold Kirby in place of one she wouldn't
get to hold at that age.

Sandra