Feeding Contraption for Convenience Doesn’t Make the Cut

When I came across this new invention that made it on to Shark Tank recently, my first thought was “huh”. The “Beebo’s industry-leading technology holds your baby’s bottle for you, allowing you to use your free hand without restriction.” When describing what the Beebo does, the biggest draw for parents is that it is “hands-free”.  According to the manual found online, here are some of the perks: “Hands free feeding lets you: Read a book to your baby. Answer the phone. Use the remote.” Digging into what these perks actually mean is what got me, though.  Let’s take them one at a time. Read a book to your baby. Yes, reading to your baby is a good thing. But where are your eyes when you are reading? On the book. NOT on your baby. When you are feeding a baby, especially a newborn, it is very important to pay attention to their cues and signals. Is the flow too fast? Do they need a break? When the bottle is tilted continuously like this contraption does, the baby does not have control over the flow of the milk, so the milk can flow more quickly than your baby can swallow, increasing the risk of choking or aspiration (liquid in the lungs). If the baby falls asleep while the bottle is still in her mouth and you aren’t looking at her (because you are reading a book or looking at the TV/phone), she is at risk for aspiration as well because the milk keeps flowing into her mouth and she isn’t actively swallowing. Making the feeding the priority creates the opportunity to...

Milk is Food: Improving Appetite for Toddlers with Picky Eating

Lately, we’ve been getting questions from parents whose toddlers are struggling with poor appetite for solid foods but eagerly take a bottle or want to nurse around the clock. Cow’s milk (or a milk alternative) is a recommended part of a toddler’s overall diet, and many toddlers continue taking formula or breast milk into the second year of life. Some children may need a more fortified liquid supplement like Pediasure if growth has been poor. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that low-fat/reduced-fat milk not be started before 2 years of age, and at age two, toddlers need approximately two cups of dairy per day. (And if your child prefers whole fat dairy, serve what he likes. There is no compelling evidence that low fat dairy reduces the risk of being overweight down the road.) A common problem with milk occurs when the amount he consumes or the timing of consumption interferes with appetite for other foods. Not only can nutritional variety suffer, but crucial early experiences eating a variety of foods can be missed. Whatever type of milk we are talking about, it is digested in the same way as food, and contains filling fat and protein. There’s only so much room in that toddler tummy! Let’s be honest. We all prefer the path of least resistance, and children are no different. Drinking most of their calories is just easier for some children. The comfort of being in mom’s arms, the soothing nature of sucking, and the ease of just swallowing- and not having to chew- are all reasons why some toddlers can have trouble transitioning to a more...

Chew on This: Considerations for Development of Oral Skills in Extreme Picky Eaters

When I evaluate a toddler that hasn’t made the transition to table food, one of the first questions I ask is “Did he mouth on toys/hands/lovies as an infant?” If the answer is yes, I always ask how much and how that child compared to other children in the home with regard to mouthing and early acceptance of oral play. However, more often than you would think, I hear from parents that these children with extreme aversion to texture in their food did not mouth at all. They blithely say “We didn’t have to baby-proof!”, unaware that their well-behaved infant’s choice to leave that paperclip on the floor is at least part of why he hasn’t moved on from pureed foods. I recently saw an older toddler who fit this description exactly—to the extreme. When observing her oral motor skills without food, there were no noticeable deficiencies. Lateral tongue movement was present, she could open and close her mouth in mock chewing, was able to blow a kiss, and kept her tongue in her mouth where it is supposed to be. No outward signs that this child had never had one bite of actual food. Not one bite swallowed. Theirs was a successful breast feeding dyad, but that was the only sustenance she got, and not from lack of trying on the parents’ part. So why couldn’t this child learn to eat? Interestingly, the family had many older siblings who had mouthed as infants, accepted spoon feedings of purees without incident, and had no trouble learning to eat the family foods. So it wasn’t what the parents had or...

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