Sun, May-28-17, 00:40
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Plan: Muscle Centric
Stats: 238/153/160
BF:
Progress: 109%
Location: UK
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Babies are spoon‑fed a dollop of obesity
Quote:
From The Times
London, UK
28 May, 2017
Babies are spoon‑fed a dollop of obesity
Research suggests infants who are forced to eat are more likely to become overweight than those who feed themselves
Babies who are spoon-fed by their parents are more likely to end up overweight or even obese, a new book claims.
By contrast, those allowed to feed themselves a range of solid foods from the age of six months, a process known as baby-led weaning, are trim, healthy and adventurous eaters.
The author, Amy Brown, an expert in infant feeding and associate professor at Swansea University, says parents should let their babies feed themselves from the age of six months, eating the same as older siblings. There are, however, some key exceptions such as carrot sticks, apple slices, grapes or cherry tomatoes, which could stick in a baby’s throat.
She admitted that letting babies feed themselves could be messy, but this was part of the learning process. “Kids need to learn about food. They need to find out, ‘What happens if I squash this or drop it on the floor?’”
The book, Why Starting Solids Matters, published next week, includes research papers, including a study of 300 babies in the UK that shows that more than twice as many babies spoon-fed from the age of six months were overweight by the time they were toddlers compared with babies allowed to feed themselves from an array of “finger foods”.
Only 8% who fed themselves solid foods were overweight by the time they were aged two compared with 19% in the spoon-fed sample group. The average difference in weight was 1kg.
The book says babies allowed to feed themselves stopped eating when they were full and were therefore less likely to overeat. The research findings were independent of other factors such as birth weight, weaning age, breastfeeding and the mother’s background.
Brown adds that parents who want to spoon-feed children should be careful not to force them to finish a jar of food. “Let them eat as little as they want. A jar of baby food is too big for what a little baby needs. When you are waving the spoon around and saying ‘Here comes the big aeroplane — let’s finish it’, if they clamp their mouth shut, forget about it. They will not starve.”
NHS weaning guidelines say babies should be offered soft finger foods that they can self-feed alongside spoon-fed purees from six months old.
Elizabeth Carter, a mother of two from Scunthorpe, said her daughter, Catherine, 2, started feeding herself solid food from the age of six months. Her second daughter, Annie, who is eight months, is already tackling meat and potatoes.
The changing way we feed infants
1960s Dr Benjamin Spock recommends letting babies feed themselves from as young an age as possible. Urges parents to trust themselves, and think: “You know more than you think you do”
1970s With the advent of commercial baby foods, babies are spoon-fed from jars from four months or even younger
2000 The Department of Health recommends a mixture of purees and finger foods for babies from the age of six months
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https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/...brown-g8k2qmwpr |
But I'm a pretty relaxed parent and food was not something I ever wanted to fight over so I gave up pretty quickly and let my kids learn to feed themselves (unfortunately, that mostly meant Cheerios and those gross little hot dogs meant for babies). 
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