Don't know if anyone saw this, but I thought it was really interesteing. Scientists are proposing that neaderthals weaned much sooner than previously thought--introducing solids at 7 months and ceasing breastfeeding at 1.2 years.
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Interesting.
A few things that stuck out to me....
1. Generally parent led weaning involves some sort of fits & crying (especially through the night), I wouldn't think it very wise for our species to have a crying baby and intentionally not console it due to weaning when we were still in the elements.... crying baby seems like a ticket for food for some animals. lol
2. It showed an abrupt change... maybe the mother died & so the child was unable to nurse?
3. If they did wean earlier I wonder why we as a species began nursing longer... & why only reference the aap recommendation & not the WHO recommendation of 2 years?
4. How do we know that the barium testing is reliable? It said they were worried that the marker had been destroyed... what if it had been in some sense, maybe something else interfered (like the other suggestion of incorporated elements).Definitely seems like there are alot of other aspects to consider before making a conclusive statement, but interesting nonetheless! =)
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The fact that weaning was apparently abrupt likely means that the mother died, so it doesn't really say anything about typical age of weaning in this population.
And I'm with the skeptical guy - barium markers of this type really haven't been used in a generation, for good reason. I'm surprised they published this report too.
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