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Feeding your baby!
Nisha,
Apparently there are not a lot of macrobiotic parents on this list.
I suggest that you see if you can get in touch with macros offline, either in your locale or further away where you might either be able to consult with a couselor or other parents.
Not everyone in macrobiotics has internet access so you are not tapping into the only or the best place for macrobiotic help (from what I hear, for instance, is though Italy has a large macrobiotic community, they are anti-computer, there, so you can't contact them via the Internet!) or community.
Now, have you tried feeding your baby amasake, yet, and have you consumed much mochi?
Apparently, mochi is very good for nursing mothers.
I'm wondering if you are itching to get your child to eat solids because of your own needs.
Michio Kushi has said that babies need to nurse at least 18 months, but I see that the trend in society because of women's career tracking is to either stop nursing after a few months or to not nurse and put their children on formula.
If a nursing mother is either a single parent or doesn't have a very supportive mate, she might be suffering from exhaustion, isolation, or both.
I feel that the significant other in a paired parenting situation (ideally) should be taking over the feeding and bonding with the baby for at least several hours each day or night to give the primary parent a rest and recuperation.
John Finneran and Cathy Cituk in their "Amazake:naturally delicious, nutritious rice beverage" (ISBN 0890876126) say that one of the best uses for amasake is as baby food, because the complex carbohydrates in brown rice are converted into simple carbohydrates. They say that parents can blend fresh or cooked fruit or cooked vegetables into amasake to make nourishing baby foods. They also say that amasake can be utilized during weaning from breast milk because it is so soothing and nourishing, though it is not to be used as a sustitute for mother's milk.
If you are interested, I can provide the details of the recommended amounts as well as various recipes for making amasake.
Thank you, very much.
Bruce Paine
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