Where Are All the Premasticators?

Buried in a recent New Yorker story on allergies is this fact: "Some two-thirds of students at a university in China were given premasticated food as infants. Only about 14 percent of American infants receive solid foods in this way."

Only 14 percent...is it just me or is that actually a shockingly high number? I mean, we're talking about parents chewing up food and then spitting it into the mouth of their child.

I was in a cafe this weekend when a woman began breastfeeding, sans Hooter Hider. I was cool with it, of course, and no one would bat an eye at that in Berkeley. But it got me thinking: How come I never see anyone premasticating their baby's food? I mean, if it's happening 14 percent of the time, I should have at least seen it once.

Mostly I want to experience it so I can show how enlightened I am by NOT freaking out.