stuffing the turkey is like spoon-feeding a baby who isn't ready...

Happy Thanksgiving! I am grateful to all of you who read, comment and give me feedback. I am grateful that I found this work for the peace and health of my own family and for my clients who trust me to come into your homes and share your stories. I learn from you and your little ones the most. Thank you.So, I was shoving stuffing into the bird this morning and using the spoon and scraping the stuffing into the cavity by the top part of the bird. It reminded me of feeding of course.I remember learning to feed infants when I was around 12 from the ladies at the church nursery where I volunteered, or from the moms I babysat for. I loved kiddos. I remember learning all these great tricks for getting kids to finish bottles (but that is another post on how to ignore cues form the child and overfeed with a bottle.)So, how to feed solids to an infant? The scraping trick is how I learned. The babes (often 3-4 months old) were usually in a bouncy seat like the one pictured above and I would put food on the spoon, put it in the mouth and scrape the food in using the top gums or the upper lip. Much of the food was then ejected, which I then was taught to scrape up with the spoon and stick back in until the jar was empty. Most of the kids did just fine and it was pleasant enough, but I remember in one daycare where I worked a colleague was particluarly aggressive with the spoon and I knew even as a teen that it was not OK as she forcefed the struggling and crying baby who probably just was not ready and did not like her cues being so aggressively ignored.Anyhow. I know better now. I probably started my little one a few weeks early (mostly out of boredom I suspect.) I learned about developmentally appropriate feeding and the Division of Responsibilitly only long after starting solids.So, if you are scraping food into your child using their gums or upper lip, he is probably not ready. If most of the food is being ejected (tongue thrust reflex) he is probably not ready. If it becomes a battle where you have to distract, play games, do airplanes etc to "get the food in" he might not be ready.When do you start solids? When your child shows physical signs of readiness. See this photo for contrast. When your little one can sit up steadily, when she can open her mouth in anticipation of the spoon, when her lips close around the spoon and most stays in her mouth. Many children already want to "do it myself" at this age and will grab and pull the spoon in (my M did this at 5 months.) (I'll be giving the Baby-led Weaning a close read in the months to come which seems to advocate skipping spoon feeding...) Many children can feed themselves far sooner than parents realize. In Ellyn Satter's lovely training videos, eight month old Elsa eats the same foods her family does, feeding them all to herself with her little palmar grasp... (Ellyn's new video will be coming soon! Stay posted!Remember, you still follow the DOR. You will feed your little one following her lead. She may eat only a few bites as most of her nutrition is still coming from breast or bottle. What she is learning is to feel good about eating, to taste, to play, to enjoy your company, to watch you eat and be ready for the transition to meals and snacks with structure.For a more thorough explanation, Child of Mine is an excellent resource. (by Ellyn Satter)Well, off to baste the turkey. Have a great day! Who taught you how to feed your little ones? Do you trust what they told you? How did it work?