Beginning the Feeding of Solid Foods in Infancy. (An excerpt from a seminar on "Common Problem in Pediatrics," Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Pediatrics, October, 1955.)

Abstract

"Discussing the subject of when to initiate solid foods in the diet of infants is a difficult task, and I suspect that I will step on some toes in doing so. As a person who has gone through a good many years of practice, it has been extremely interesting to observe the changes in practice concerning the introduction of solid foods. Thirty-five years ago we did not dare to give a baby solid food until 9 or 10 months of age for fear of killing the baby if it were done prior to this age. I look back with a certain amount of regret when I think of those poor starved little babies. We literally starved them. We were excessively `scientific'—using the percentage method of feeding. Mariott's textbook of 1935 on infant feeding was a very good book. In his text he stated that the right time to give solid food was at 6 months of age. . . . Surveys have revealed the practice of many physicians to be the routine introduction of solid foods by 2 or 3 weeks of age, and the majority of infants being fed all kinds of foods by 4 to 6 weeks. How do we account for this, and is there a need for it? I am sure that this has been a swing of the pendulum, I believe, due to competition, not only among mothers, but also among physicians to see how early they could feed babies solid food, or to see how the infants tolerated it. . . . What are the nutritional needs of a baby? The necessity for vitamins is not great and is easily filled. One of an infant's first requirements for supplementary food is iron, and his stores for this element are sufficient for the first three months of life. Other than for the purpose of filling a baby up, I cannot see any necessity for the introduction of solid foods in the average baby before 3 months of age. How do I make this decision in an individual baby in my own practice? When an infant requires more than a quart of milk-mixture in 24 hours, I begin the feeding of solids. In occasional children, this is necessary at 4 to 8 weeks, but in my experience, this is the exception rather than the rule. . . . It seems to me that we should begin to let the pendulum swing back a little in the other direction to reach normality. . . . Babies are tough little tykes and can stand almost anything within reason, but I cannot, for the life of me, see any nutritional sense to feeding infants all of the solid foods at such an early age as seems to be the current customary practice."