Having thought more about this weaning thing, and read more stuff on the internet, I’ve changed my mind about feeding Ingrid solids.

Ingrid liked the taste of carrots, but wasn’t that interested in them as food. So I guess she can live on milk for another while. We’ll try again in a month or so.


Addendum:
Why? Basically because I think she wasn’t really ready for solids. I wanted to try this because I was interested in seeing how she would react, not because I urgently want her to eat “real food”. The reaction told me that it was probably a bit too early.

I also read more about the official recommendations. The recommended earliest starting times ranged from 4 to 6 months, but no one ever said why. I got the impression that the recommendations focused on “breast milk is good” rather than “solids are bad”, so introducing solids alongside breast milk didn’t seem like a bad idea. Now I stumbled upon an article that actually explained what happens in babies’ guts, and that made up my mind.

Some studies suggest that waiting until 6 months gives a baby’s digestive system more time to mature. Some enzymes that break down foods don’t reach adequate levels until 6 or 7 months of age. Babies are also born with what is a called ‘open gut’ – this means the spaces between the cells of the small intestines will allow intact macromolecules to pass directly into the blood stream. This allows the beneficial antibodies of breastmilk to pass more directly into a baby’s bloodstream. But it also means that large proteins from other foods (which may lead to allergies) and disease-causing pathogens can pass right through too. This open gut closes anywhere between 4 and 6 months of age – but without looking inside your child’s intestines, you won’t know when it’s closed, so it’s best to wait. This applies to breastfed and formula fed babies.

I couldn’t find any more solid sources – all the articles I came across were about pigs, calves or rats. And because the audience for those is rather narrow, they were all very technical. If you know of any articles about the development of the human digestive system, I’d be interested!