I prechewed food for my two youngest, and I'm not sure how it started, but boy did it make my life easier!! Less to carry on days out, less mess at the table,no need to prepare other meals. They're 2 and 4 now and have excellent teeth, robust immune systems and eat ANYTHING.
Definitely threw my in-laws family for a loop, though, who had a similar aged babe atThanksgiving dinner who was eating rice cereal while my kid had everything on my plate-- I suppose puling chewed food from your mouth IS impolite ;)
I have to admit my BLW got sloppier with each child. It’s just a god damn mess and with other children needing me I just can’t be bothered. And as to pre-mastication… I use scissors 😆 didn’t even occur to me, but I found that cut up vegetables are more palatable to kids so I did it. I also didn’t want to feel stuck making meatballs- who has time for that?? (or drumsticks/beef strips that aren’t meant to be ingested at first) if I want a very young baby to eat meat. So I take my food, cut it up, and serve.
You're totally right - this is a big challenge with BLW. The amount of mess is very off-putting, and the food waste of this method means that it's not common in traditional cultures. Babies will chew on a thing (like a piece of vegetable or meat), but they aren't given free rein to paint the walls with stew! :D
And yes - scissors will definitely get you to the small hard particle stage! Much more texture than with a blender. :)
So I had lunch with my Chinese mother the other day and she told me her own mother practiced premastication! How cool is that. I had to finally try it with my mouth, and it works so much better than scissors and spoon feeding it. Still a little grossed out but baby loves it! She ate so much chicken today.
Thank you for sharing! It gets less gross over time! :D
And amazing to hear about your grandmother. There are many cultural behaviours that we leave behind us and then realise that perhaps we should rediscover them. :) I'm glad your baby is enjoying it!
I wonder whether institutional childcare (nurseries) played a part in the disappearance of premastication from WEIRD cultures? Partly because it feels more strange to have someone else pre-chew your child's food and partly because one carer couldn't keep up with doing that for eight kids all at once? I remember back when I had a weaning kid reading something about how the bacteria transferred by this process can rot their teeth - which I presume is total nonsense, or at the very least minimal in relation to the huge benefits of the bacteria transferred for your baby's gut...
And this is observational not interventional, so clearly there are all the caveats of correlation not causation, but it is another piece of data to consider in the bigger picture. :)
Great writeup! Is there any concern about excessive sodium intake with pre-chewed food? I'm afraid a lot of the food I eat would be too salty for my baby. Perhaps if it was diluted with some unseasoned starche element (like rice) it could work?
High salt intake for a long time increases the production of a chemical called fructose in the body's cells (though less than eating sugar does - more here: https://guenbradbury.substack.com/p/the-biggest-return-on-investment?r=4bpym1 ). One of the consequences of this is raised blood pressure and worse metabolic health. This is one of the reasons that we're advised not to feed babies on salt. Additionally, a high salt diet for babies increases their preference for salty foods.
Usually, the foods that you might prechew to mechanically break them down are minimally processed foods (think raw vegetables, nuts, tough meat, etc.). These are unlikely to have sugar added. Sometimes, you might prechew food that is hot to cool it down, and cooked food is more likely to be salted. So perhaps only prechew raw food or meat that is cooked without salt? Or add the salt to your own food on your plate and prechew a separate portion for your baby? I was never 100% salt free with my babies because I wanted them to eat a diverse range of foods, but I was more conscious with the young ones than the older ones. :)
Reading this article reminded me of how I was fed as a child. My mum chewed whatever she was eating and fed it to me, as her mum did to her (my late grandma was born in India). I had completely forgotten about that part of my upbringing until now. I’m currently weaning my first-born so this has come at the perfect time!
Thank you for sharing your experience! Sometimes, it's actually hard to remember something that seems so commonplace, and so it's easy for those memories to get displaced by advice and guidance from others. I'm so glad that this has come at a relevant time. :)
I've ended up doing this with my second baby just because I was worried she wasn't getting enough food otherwise. I never seemed to have time to get her just the right thing. But as soon as I started just sharing my food it got a lot easier.
I prechewed food for my two youngest, and I'm not sure how it started, but boy did it make my life easier!! Less to carry on days out, less mess at the table,no need to prepare other meals. They're 2 and 4 now and have excellent teeth, robust immune systems and eat ANYTHING.
Definitely threw my in-laws family for a loop, though, who had a similar aged babe atThanksgiving dinner who was eating rice cereal while my kid had everything on my plate-- I suppose puling chewed food from your mouth IS impolite ;)
:D such a great story! I was never that brave!!!!
I have to admit my BLW got sloppier with each child. It’s just a god damn mess and with other children needing me I just can’t be bothered. And as to pre-mastication… I use scissors 😆 didn’t even occur to me, but I found that cut up vegetables are more palatable to kids so I did it. I also didn’t want to feel stuck making meatballs- who has time for that?? (or drumsticks/beef strips that aren’t meant to be ingested at first) if I want a very young baby to eat meat. So I take my food, cut it up, and serve.
You're totally right - this is a big challenge with BLW. The amount of mess is very off-putting, and the food waste of this method means that it's not common in traditional cultures. Babies will chew on a thing (like a piece of vegetable or meat), but they aren't given free rein to paint the walls with stew! :D
And yes - scissors will definitely get you to the small hard particle stage! Much more texture than with a blender. :)
So I had lunch with my Chinese mother the other day and she told me her own mother practiced premastication! How cool is that. I had to finally try it with my mouth, and it works so much better than scissors and spoon feeding it. Still a little grossed out but baby loves it! She ate so much chicken today.
Thank you for sharing! It gets less gross over time! :D
And amazing to hear about your grandmother. There are many cultural behaviours that we leave behind us and then realise that perhaps we should rediscover them. :) I'm glad your baby is enjoying it!
I wonder whether institutional childcare (nurseries) played a part in the disappearance of premastication from WEIRD cultures? Partly because it feels more strange to have someone else pre-chew your child's food and partly because one carer couldn't keep up with doing that for eight kids all at once? I remember back when I had a weaning kid reading something about how the bacteria transferred by this process can rot their teeth - which I presume is total nonsense, or at the very least minimal in relation to the huge benefits of the bacteria transferred for your baby's gut...
Such a great point - I hadn't considered that. It is obviously very different in childcare settings. The staff would end up with jaws of steel! :D
So you're right - there is evidence that Strep mutans can be transmitted by pre-chewing, but, counterintuitively, that children fed premasticated food are less likely to have caries (which is what we really care about). This really surprised some researchers: “Unexpectedly, the proportion of children with caries was significantly greater in children who were not fed premasticated food by their mothers (4.8% vs. 0.7%, p=0.03). https://fortuneonline.org/articles/parity-maternalchild-oral-interactions-and-early-childhood-caries-ecc-among-northern-nigerian-hausa-children.html"
And this is observational not interventional, so clearly there are all the caveats of correlation not causation, but it is another piece of data to consider in the bigger picture. :)
Great writeup! Is there any concern about excessive sodium intake with pre-chewed food? I'm afraid a lot of the food I eat would be too salty for my baby. Perhaps if it was diluted with some unseasoned starche element (like rice) it could work?
Great question!
High salt intake for a long time increases the production of a chemical called fructose in the body's cells (though less than eating sugar does - more here: https://guenbradbury.substack.com/p/the-biggest-return-on-investment?r=4bpym1 ). One of the consequences of this is raised blood pressure and worse metabolic health. This is one of the reasons that we're advised not to feed babies on salt. Additionally, a high salt diet for babies increases their preference for salty foods.
Usually, the foods that you might prechew to mechanically break them down are minimally processed foods (think raw vegetables, nuts, tough meat, etc.). These are unlikely to have sugar added. Sometimes, you might prechew food that is hot to cool it down, and cooked food is more likely to be salted. So perhaps only prechew raw food or meat that is cooked without salt? Or add the salt to your own food on your plate and prechew a separate portion for your baby? I was never 100% salt free with my babies because I wanted them to eat a diverse range of foods, but I was more conscious with the young ones than the older ones. :)
Reading this article reminded me of how I was fed as a child. My mum chewed whatever she was eating and fed it to me, as her mum did to her (my late grandma was born in India). I had completely forgotten about that part of my upbringing until now. I’m currently weaning my first-born so this has come at the perfect time!
Thank you for sharing your experience! Sometimes, it's actually hard to remember something that seems so commonplace, and so it's easy for those memories to get displaced by advice and guidance from others. I'm so glad that this has come at a relevant time. :)
I've ended up doing this with my second baby just because I was worried she wasn't getting enough food otherwise. I never seemed to have time to get her just the right thing. But as soon as I started just sharing my food it got a lot easier.
Yeah, it's much less mess and effort than the other alternatives! And it's very easy to use it or not use it depending on the context of the meal...