I just started feeding my daughter solid foods last week. Like any gringa mama, I cracked open "What to Expect In the First Year" and gave Elenita the foods recommended in the book one by one. You're supposed to wait three days for each new food to make sure the kid is not allergic, which of course Chileans think is ridiculous, or "exagerada". Anyway, I started with palta (avocado), then squash, apple, banana, and yogurt.
Today I went to my pediatrician and she halted the whole thing in its tracks. First, she couldn't understand my feeding schedule, and she asked me if I was giving Elena "almuerzo". "Almuerzo" is not simply lunch in English. "Almuerzo" refers to a big cooked dish involving and centering around a hunk of meat. So of course the answer was no. Now Elena, at 6 months old, is on a Chilean diet- she is to eat stewed meat with vegetables for lunch everyday. If I had a stronger opinion, I would go against the will of the pediatrician, but I figure when in Chile, do as the Chileans, and eat meat.
I think there are a number of opinions about food and in general about anything related to babies. Finally, the only thing you can do is doing what you think is the best. Now I'm trying with almuerzo with Manuel. Just vegetables, no meat. My pediatrician told me to do so during the first weeks in order to get him used to food. Manuel likes much more the dessert than the lunch though. I'm not sure if I'm going to introduce meat yet. Did you know that anroposophy says that children should'nt eat meat before they can say "I"? Definitely, there is no one truth about this...
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