Reading The Island Of Bali, Miguel Covarrubias's book from the 1930's I came across a section about feeding babies. Relating it to my situation I must say its different and interesting to see how Balinese culture deals with feeding a newborn.
He says "At first the child is fed with porridge of boiled rice flour (bubur) or a little palm-sugar and meat from a young coconut. In easy cases the woman recovers the same day and is able to walk and give the breast to the child. They believe that the first milk is 'hard' and indigestible, and before feeding the baby, the mother milks her breast, making the first milk fall on the house wall. The only explanation for this strange idea is the eternal answer that it is custom. Ordinarily, they say, a woman will have 'pains in her insides' for about 3 days, after which time she can perform her usual work. It is not considered that the mother's milk is sufficient for the nourishment of the child; he gives the baby breast every time it cries, but it is also fed with bubur, and even with a banana previously chewed by the mother.
The child is weaned after 3 birthdays (otonan), 2 and a half of our years, when the mother puts a mixture of line and palm-sugar to her nipples; but it is not unusual to see children of 4 being suckled still."
Okay back to the 21st century. Jevon is getting plenty of breast milk, in fact that's all he likes. When we go out he tends to sleep, especially in noisy situations. If he needs a feed we give him the formula milk. I'm sure he’ll get into the nasi campur and bananas in a years time.
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Hi Nick
Our Maija started with rice flour too when we were in Indonesia. She too only accept breast milk which was convenient as we travelled from US-UK-IND when she was 3.5 months old. Now she is 1 year old, she ate a lot of home cooked indonesian food. She likes nasi uduk, opor ayam, semur daging(beef smoor/stew), cap cay and nasi goreng permata though it steamed than fry! Luckily i introduced veggies before meat…
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