Why feed babies one new food at a time?

[Elusis]

@kaleberg7

I read an article on this from the 1930s which compared infant practice in the late 19th century, early 20th century and contemporary. The only constant seemed to be “Don’t let your baby eat diaper pins.”

I joke that my mother’s two main priorities were “don’t kill the baby” and “get the baby an education.” Except that I’m not joking. I have attachment issues and had food issues, but Mom was working with the toxic remnants of Family Science/Home Economics circa 1950-1975 and was really doing the best she could.

[WearySky]

This was one thing that was a huge source of confusion for us when we had our first - nurses at the hospital told us that we shouldn’t giving our baby powder formula until he was X months old (I can’t remember the specific age) because it’s not as sterile as the concentrated (or ready to use) stuff. And they told us it was a Health Canada/WHO recommendation, etc etc. We asked our doctor, and she said (I’m paraphrasing here) “Those nurses are idiots. The only babies who should be kept away from powdered formula are immuno-compromised babies, not your giant healthy baby”. (This was after my wife had tried, and failed, to breastfeed him, and I won’t even get into the breastfeeding Nazis at our hospital’s breastfeeding clinic… ugh)

[maggiek]

two main priorities were “don’t kill the baby” and “get the baby an education.”

Add in Chris Rock’s “keep the baby off the pole” and you’ve got the basics covered there.

[Elusis]

I wish that “foster secure attachment” had been on the list as well, though. Would have saved me a LOT of money in therapy and family therapy graduate school loans.

[chgoliz]

@maggiek

It seems, from my perspective, like there’s a lot of really confuddled information going around on this. Some sources tell you that your kid is totally going to get an allergy if you don’t introduce foods in just the correct way, other sources say, “No that’s been disproven”. And it all sort of seems like nobody really knows what’s actually going on.

Exactly.

One of my kids is an example (n=1) of the exact opposite of what you wrote: was exposed to peanuts very early (I didn’t realize my nipple cream was made with peanut oil), developed an allergy (tested by pediatric allergist), and then a few years later was accidentally exposed to peanuts again and was fine. Re-tested with the allergist, and all was well. Apparently she was part of the 5% who get over peanut allergies with time.

Each child is different, so whatever the norms are, whatever the risk factors, you still won’t know if it applies to your kid until you’re actually dealing with it.