Starting Solids – A Developmental Perspective

By Cozette Laubser |

It is a cold and miserable day outside, I am longing to head out towards my favourite coffee shop where I will smell freshly baked goods and the aroma of a good, strong cup of coffee. Mmmmm it is like a celebration on a plate!

Eating is one of life’s greatest pleasures – it feeds the body and it feeds the soul, especially, if what is being served is attractive, smells good and is enjoyed alongside your favourite people.

Eating has so many complexities – it involves nutrition, chemistry, sensory experiences, muscle coordination, relaxation, bonding, and is central to so many memories! In short, eating is so much more than just putting food into your body.

For the purposes of this article, we will focus on eating as a developmental skill; like all skills, a baby’s eating skills develop best with guidance, repetition, and over time.

ENSURING PHYSICAL READINESS FOR STARTING SOLIDS

Physical development follows a distinct sequence – from top to bottom, called cephalon-caudal, and from inside out, called proximo-distal.

THE MOUTH AREA

De Jager says, “Introducing solids is a huge leap for your baby. Her readiness depends on the development of her tongue; if she is ready, she will ‘lap it up’ (like a dog laps up water) meaning her tongue will move backwards pushing the food into her mouth. If she’s not “lapping” her food, it means she will be pushing her tongue forward, pushing the food out of her mouth; she will not be eating and will be hungry. Feeding is closely related to speaking. A baby needs to co-ordinate the muscles of the lips, tongue and cheeks with swallowing and breathing in order to eat successfully. When you introduce solids – and in time, different textures – you are giving a little one a wonderful opportunity to develop the mechanics necessary for beautiful articulation one day.

THE CORE

In an article titled, Starting Solids: The Importance of Sitting Unassisted, the author, mentions the great importance of sitting:

…Thus, for your baby’s best success at feeding, wait until your baby is sitting with minimal assistance on the floor before offering any food. Sitting propped in a Bumbo chair is not the same as unassisted sitting on the floor, and unfortunately use of these propping chairs doesn’t help develop sitting skills.

Sitting up without support is important as it means baby is significantly more likely to ingest food without choking, and equally important – it frees up the hands!

THE HANDS

At around 6 months of age, the thumb starts to separate from the other 4 fingers. A great sign that baby is ready to start to self-feed!

Self-feeding develops hand-eye coordination. They eyes see the food, the hands reach for the food and the eyes continue to direct the hand to the mouth. Thus, eating isn’t just an intricate multi-sensory experience but also builds motor skills. In fact, eating develops sensory-motor skills.

The hands and language centers of the brain are on the same neurological pathway. As baby develops grasping, baby also develops the language capabilities of the brain. Dr Melodie de Jager

MEALTIMES OFFER DEVELOPMENTAL DATES

When mealtimes are approached mindfully, it becomes an opportunity to pause and enjoy a developmental date with your baby.

To loosely paraphrase the words of Child Psycholigist Adriano Milani Comparetti,

Developmental dates are moments of focused contact between parent and baby, when you lovingly and gently wake up the senses and muscles, engage the brain, and introduce baby to the world around him.

In her book, Brain development, milestones and learning, Dr Melodie de Jager says,

Whatever your baby experiences, is fed to the brain via the senses and help to create rich and multi-sensory maps of the body and the environment. It is the combination of sensory wiring, and the wiring of the muscles that play the leading role in brain development.

Thus, eating together isn’t just an opportunity to spend time with your baby, but an opportunity to build the brain too!

EATING AS A MULTI-SENSORY EXPERIENCE

In an article titled, Designing Multisensory Food Experiences, the authors note,

Every meal opens up a magnificent sensual world of colours, shapes, smells, textures, and sounds. By taking into account such cues, it is possible to improve the enjoyment of our food.

Multi-sensory experiences are experiences using your senses of touch, movement, smell, taste, hearing, and sight. Eating involves them all!

A few interesting facts about smell and taste:

• Babies develop the ability to taste and smell before they are born. Food flavors can pass through the placenta and into the amniotic fluid (Spahn et al 2019). Studies indicate that newborns are more accepting of flavours they have encountered during gestation.
• Research shows that breastfed infants are more likely to accept new foods, and more likely to have varied diets as they get older. For instance, research suggests that infants are less likely to become picky eaters later in life (Forestell 2017).
• The longer babies breastfeed, the more likely they are to consume vegetables during early childhood (de Wild et al 2018).
• The sense of smell has a hotline to the emotional part of the brain. Not only will the quality time together boost the emotional brain, but doing so while enjoying foods that smell good will intensify this experience.
• If a toddler is over- or under-sensitive to smell this may influence eating habits, affect relationships, and surprisingly, potty training later.

LET’S MAKE THE MOST OF MEAL TIMES

RECOGNISE MEALTIMES AS A BRAIN BOOSTING EXPERIENCE:

• Hands before spoons!
• Explore, experiment, and play with food.
• Experience a variety of textures.
• Eat the rainbow. The more variety and colour, the better!
• Stick with whole foods. Choose foods that require minimal preparation, are naturally soft, yet firm enough to handle with your fingers. Some of our family favourites include large pieces of cucumber, banana, gem squash, avocado and scrambled egg.
• Gradually introduce food which offer more texture and resistance.

 

RECOGNISE MEAL TIMES AS AN EMOTIONAL AND SOCIAL EXPERIENCE:

• Eat together. Whether snacking on a fruit or eating a full meal, eat together. When baby see’s you eat it will activate their mirror neurons to do the same.
• Eat in a dedicated place. Eating is about so much more than just nutrition; it is an opportunity to rest and bond as a family. Make sure your eating area is functional and makes conversation around the table easy.

For the older siblings:

• Encourage them to choose a table mat, bowl, plate and spoon or fork. This is math!
• Play the name game – name the food, texture, colour and temperature. This is science!
• Involve the children in cooking – it is a wonderful way to encourage healthy eating as healthy meals require preparation.
• Cook and bake traditional recipes together – it is a fantastic way to teach them about their culture and heritage.

IN CONCLUSION

Starting solids is so much more than just ingesting food. It is an opportunity to enrich your baby’s sensory world, develop their motor skills and encourage habits that will serve their health and emotional wellbeing for a long time to come. Starting solids extends an invitation to start a family ritual of resting, bonding and digesting together.

 

de Jager, M. 2017. Play Learn Grow. Johannesburg: Mind Moves Institute Publishing.

de Jager, M. 2019. Brain development, milestones and learning. Johannesburg: Mind Moves Institute Publishing.

https://parentingscience.com/flavors-in-breast-milk/