Starting solids linked to diabetes?

Re: Starting solids linked to diabetes?

• Rose120 member

  July 2013

  I think I feel the same way. Starting solids early can lead to all sorts of negative things like childhood obesity, a drop in your milk supply, diabetes, etc.. and there are really no cons to waiting until 6 months. 

   

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• lkm2006 member

  July 2013

  I feed my kids when they are ready [within the recommended time frame].
  
  I would rather encourage my child's development and allow them to start solids when they show the proper signs of being ready. IMO I just think its silly to ignore your child's readiness say at 5 and a half months because you have this magical deadline of 6 months.
  
  I agree with the PP that I think we are a society of information overload. Of course, I'm so thankful for the knowledge and safety information but sometimes I think we just have way too much.

   

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• Telebell member

  July 2013

  PeanutR1:

  With all the studies in the world today, it actually makes me want to ignore them more. "This causes cancer, no it prevents it, it will make you stronger, no it weakens bones"

  im in the old school camp of: in past generations, when foods were started earlier, I don't know of many people who had allergies. Now they are rampant.  Disagree with me if you will, but I call them as I see them. I was saying the same thing about living in too clean of a world, and then I found out it had a name: the hygiene hypothesis.  I say if your babe acts ready...feed them. Every kid is different. And on the diabetes, I think it relies more on yr adult diet and genetics than if you waited 2 more weeks to have mashed bananas.  

   

  All of this. The link to the actual study is broken, but I would bet my right arm that it's not the kind of study that demonstrates causation.  They probably asked parents when they started feeding solids and then looked for what kinds of outcomes the kids have.  The blog post mentioned briefly that there was also a correlation between race/ethnicity and timing of solids introduction --> diabetes.  What other kinds of correlations with diabetes in the kids were there, I wonder?  Socioeconomic status or education of the parent? Weight of the parents?  The kinds of food being fed? How much TV the family watches? 

  I was just chatting with my daughter's pediatrician about this: he hates it when people do these kinds of studies, because the press reports on them without really reading them, and parents get needlessly scared.  If you want to prove that introducing foods at 3 months CAUSES diabetes, then you have to take a whole bunch of parents, divide them into 2 or more groups randomly, and then TELL them when to start feeding their kids food, and tell them what to feed them.  Then you see how the kids do.  

   You can't do that study because it won't pass hospital ethics board muster.  It's also harder, more expensive, and takes more time.  

  But at the end of the discussion, my pedi was like, "she does have 83.75 years on average to eat solids, so there's no real need to start at the earliest moment."

  Anyways, rant over! :-) 

  
  

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• sararn2004

  July 2013

  I would have to read how this study was conducted and even then I'd be incredibly skeptical. Diabetes is rampant in todays society because people would rather be sedentary and chow down, and then instead of controlling their diabetes or pre diabetes with diet and exercise they take meds...so many illnesses we see in the ER are lifestyle related. It's sad.

  

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