Long Overdue Update

Sorry people, it has been a longggggg time since i've posted anything on Abigail's solids progression. This girl is into all sorts of things now. Cabbage rolls, blueberry pie, spaghetti, toast, any and all fruit, rice, pancakes, the works. The only things that she has not had to date have been straight eggs, milk, peanut butter. Yes, she's had honey. She liked it. I think peanut butter is next on the list for us. Lucy started having it around 7-8 months on her toast in the morning. Here are some pictures to play a bit of catch up. I'll try to do another video sometime soon. Abigail is also now crawling backwards and drinks water out of her sippy cup. Smart little thing she is!

All Systems Go!

Abbie has been eating all sorts of things lately. The list of foods she has now tried includes.. corn on the cob, peaches, cucumber, roasted potatoes, roasted asparagus, bread roll, vegan butter (on bread), banana, and pasta tossed in pesto. We've pretty much stopped doing the Oatmeal cereal and decided to just go for it! She's a tiny girl, but man is she keen to eat. So adorable. She has also learned to sit up completely on her own as of last week so we are all systems go with BLW. Here are some pictures of our recent food adventures.

Peaches

Nothing quite like a fresh peach on a hot summer day..

Tonight, Abigail enjoyed her very first peach. I cut it into long thin chunks so she could hold onto it more easily. When first starting to eat solids, babies can only eat what sticks out of the top or bottom of their fists. They don't yet have the coordination to open their fist and eat out of it. That is why it's important to cut things into long strips, like the shape of fries. You will notice that if it's not long enough, baby will just get frustrated.

One huge difference between giving purees and BLW is that BLW encourages a child to learn to chew and keep food in their mouth and then swallow. When giving purees it's mostly just about getting them to swallow it. Babies who have been breastfed will naturally find it a little easier to get the hang of chewing simply because their jaws are using to having to work harder to get milk than bottle fed babes.

What a simple joy, to enjoy a lovely fresh peach as God intended it! Abigail will now know that a peach looks, feels and tastes like a peach and not just the same as every other fruit. I know it may sound like I'm a little intense about not giving purees...and I sort of am. I really think that in the same way we would rather enjoy fresh fruit, vegetables, grains and lean meats in their truest form than all pureed up, our babes are no different. If we can teach them from an early age that food is to be enjoyed in all colours, textures, shapes, sizes and tastes, then they are more likely to be good eaters who enjoy variety. Variety is the spice of life people! :)

Here is my little peach eating a peach..

To Cereal or not to Cereal

When we started Baby Led Weaning with Lucy, we didn't know a single other family who had done it with their children. We were excited to have stumbled upon such a great resource for our family, but also nervous that we would do it wrong and Lucy would end up starving and unable to express that to us. Enter baby cereal. We decided that along with letting her explore food at her own pace we would give her a bit of baby cereal each day (usually at breakfast time or supper time) until we felt she was getting the hang of the whole eating thing. Now, for some Baby Led Weaners that may be a faux pas but we were fine doing it this way because it allowed us to relax and not worry so much about how much she was or wasn't eating on her own.

There is no right or wrong way to introduce solids in my mind. Do what works for you and your baby. It may be a little of column A, a little of column B and that's okay. There will, of course, always be Doctors and books that have their recommendations but at the end of the day, this is your child and you know them best.

Here, for your viewing pleasure is little Abigail eating some oatmeal cereal for the 3rd or 4th time. If you are wondering why I give her oatmeal vs. rice cereal it is because I feel that oatmeal cereal has more nutritional value than rice cereal..it also tastes way better in my opinion. Here is our little cutie..

Getting started

I first came across the Baby Led Weaning concept when our first daughter Lucy was 4-5 months old. I was so excited at the prospect of her beginning solids that I decided to do a bit of research to see what it would entail on my part and what I would need to get started once she was ready.

Baby Led Weaning is really just forgetting about purees and spoon feeding and letting your baby feed him/her self. It means that from the very first time your baby experiences solids, they will in fact BE solids.

BLW allows a child to control their intake of solid food as they become accustomed to chewing and swallowing. As they get better at chewing and eating their food, they will be getting more food into them and will naturally wean themselves off of the breast/bottle one feed at a time. If your baby was premature or if there are major food allergies in your family you should speak to your family doctor before attempting this.

Baby Led Weaning will require a few things from you as a parent. Firstly, patience. Your baby is not going to start eating everything in front of them right off the bat. The first few months are really about discovery and play. They will spend lots of time in their high chair just playing with food, licking it, handling it and staring at it. It took Lucy until she was about 9 months old before she discovered, "If I eat this, it will fill my belly" Then it was on!

The next thing you are going to need to do is relax. If you are someone who needs to be in control and know when your baby will eat, how much they will eat and what they will eat...this may not be for you. This approach is all about them deciding what and how much they will eat. They will be eating meals with the family, trying new things and going at their own pace. It can seem a little scary in the moment, but with Lucy being almost 2 now, I can attest to the fact that they do eventually start 'eat eating' their food and pack on the little pounds that we, as mothers crave to see them gain.

Children will not purposely starve themselves, if they are hungry, they will eat. When they are done, they will stop. We don't need to control how much food is going into their bodies. Just because they only ate half of what we were hoping to give them doesn't mean that there is something wrong, maybe they are full, maybe teething and just not interested. Baby Led Weaning gives your baby a chance to figure out when he/she is full and to listen to those signals in their body. My Lucy is a healthy weight, and even when eating a treat like ice cream or a smoothie, will leave it unfinished if she has had enough. Children who haven't learned their bodies signals of being full, may not.

One of the main concerns of new-to-BLW parents is the gagging/choking thing. You can read Gill Rapley's guidelines for BLW here which include info on that. I won't lie, there is a little gagging in the beginning but they quickly get past that. We never had a single choking experience with Lucy and hope it will be the same with Abigail.

Lastly, you will need to have a ton of fun! Introducing food to our children is one of the greatest things we get to do as parents. Food is a wonderful thing!! Offer a variety of colours, textures, tastes, smells..they are sure to develop a healthy love of food. Doing BLW forced us to look at our diet and see that we weren't eating nearly as much fresh fruit and vegetables as we should be. If they are going to eat what we eat, it should be healthy right?

Abigail is just over 5 months old now and very ready to get started with solids. She can almost sit up on her own and she will reach onto my plate and bring food to her mouth. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for some great Baby Led Weaning Abigail adventures and join us here for some good recipes and tips! In the meantime, go buy/order this book! It is a great resource to have on hand and gave me a lot of encouragement when I was just starting out.