Babies develop adequate salivary enzymes and pancreatic enzyme to digest starch by 5-6months per research in order to begin digesting starches. Another study shows that all measurements aside, still, a 6-month old’s ability to digest starches is not as efficient as a 1-year old.
“In infants younger than 6 months, amylopectin hydrolysis is incomplete, but in 1-year-old children, amylopectin is rapidly hydrolyzed into glucose, maltose, maltotriose, and branched dextrins.”
This is an irrefutable proof nature gives us that breastmilk is the diet of choice for infants. For busy moms, bottle with pumped breastmilk would be the best we can do for our babies. Yet the most natural way to obtain breastmilk is through direct breastfeeding, which encourages many things including motor and skeletal development.
Researchers discovered more amazing things about breastfeeding. The breastmilk and infant saliva have a synergy it produces to protect the baby.
“During breast-feeding, baby saliva reacts with breastmilk to produce reactive oxygen species, while simultaneously providing growth-promoting nucleotide precursors. Milk thus plays more than a simply nutritional role in mammals, interacting with infant saliva to produce a potent combination of stimulatory and inhibitory metabolites that regulate early oral–and hence gut–microbiota. Consequently, milk-saliva mixing appears to represent unique biochemical synergism which boosts early innate immunity.”
This is further evidence that the baby who is yet to develop the chewing teeth, and also has saliva which does not contain enough enzymes to digest outside food, is meant to have breastmilk for their own health and well-being. The mechanical act of breastfeeding promotes infant stage skeletal growth (jaw, airway, rest of the body) combined with the contents of breastmilk packed with nutrition, even the mixture of saliva and the breastmilk producing an immune boost for the baby… loving bond with the mother… mental emotional security for the baby and mom… it is an undeniably beautiful and perfect design.
Transitioning to toddler phase at minimum after 1-yr of age would then be the most appropriate time the child should be given starches, or additional foods besides breastmilk, per the digestive enzymes available. But what about the mechanical process of digestion besides the enzymes?
The baby develops their first set of molars designed for chewing at around 13-14months of age. The chewing produces the saliva which contain the alpha-amylase enzymes. It would then be logical to wait on solids until baby can chew (13-14 months), then once they can, provide whole hard foods which stimulate chewing and which produce digestive salivary enzymes. This takes mashed slurpy foods out of the picture completely. But one other thing to consider is that the toddler does not have a full set of chewing teeth until 33 months. Would this indicate that breastfeeding should be combined until they are fully capable of being weaned?
The mechanical act of chewing breaks down the food, promotes saliva that pre-digests the food. Combined, it provides nutrition and promotes motor development for toddler stage skeletal growth (jaw, airway, rest of the body) . During this time, the toddler becomes stronger and ready for the next stage. It is yet again an undeniably beautiful and harmonious design.
The guidebook to healthy growth and development has always been inscribed within us. This is the big picture.
Breast pump for moms who cannot directly breastfeed:
Allows to pump while at the desk, no need for a private room:
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I had a patient who was using the One Willow breast pump during her dental visit with me and thought I must let all the moms know! Nutrition from breastmilk is the best and most suitable for a growing infant. Even if direct breastfeeding is a challenge, allowing baby to have mom’s breastmilk by pumping is important to the baby’s healthy growth and development. - Dr Hyun Bang