Cross-Cultural Child Rearing

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their children on formula at an early age. Women in the United States are amongst the few that even put their children on bottle formula. “In the West today, solid foods such as rice cereal is introduced during the first four to eight months of age: and from there, a steady progression of mashed and then chunky but soft foods are usually introduced, until eventually the child is ingesting more solid food than milk” (Small p.184). Some women in the Himalayas still breast feed their children after they have learned to walk. Javanese women hardly ever wean their children before they can walk. “ The time of weaning is extremely variable, but few babies are weaned before they can walk at least a little and are fully accustomed to eating solid food. When asked, most mothers say that they weaned their babies at almost fourteen months” (Geertz p.95).
Women there are also not shy about breast- feeding in public like most of those in the United States that keep breast feeding a ...

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first introduced” (Small p.204).
When a child is finally started on foods other than mothers breast milk those vary from culture to culture. For example, in the United States rice cereal is usually the first solid food a child is introduced to. Usually it is dry cereal that is moistened with milk, juice or other liquids. “Complementary feeding usually starts when babies can sit with help, and have good neuromuscular control of the head and neck, which is around four to six months of age” (Novartis P.1). The feeding of semi-solid foods is started around the same time for infants in the Philippines. “Along with breast feeding, the first complementary foods are rice gruel and calamansi ...

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