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| Yummy sweet potato! |
OK, when it comes to nearly everything, Hunter is the boss, but one of the ideas behind Baby-Led Weaning is that babies let their parents know when they are ready to start eating solids.
The doctor, however, said my baby was ready at his 4 month appointment, and I was like NO WAY! But at Mother's Day brunch (5 months old), we let him suck on a chunk of watermelon, and he loved it. At around that time we started putting him in his Tripp Trapp (a highchair I knew I wanted even before I became pregnant) at the table with us while we ate dinner. We gave him a baby spoon and plate to play with, and he was quite content. Now that he's 6 months old, we've started giving him food, usually some part of whatever I've cooked for dinner for Isaiah and me.
Right now, for Hunter, solids are about exploring textures and flavors and learning to manipulate food. It's probably the one time in his life where it's acceptable to play with his food! I won't go into a huge discussion of BLW here (plus I'm still in the middle of reading the book), but what I've taken away so far is that this approach to solids helps babies practice feeding themselves by chewing and swallowing "adult foods" (rather than being spoon-fed purees), all in preparation for when solids become the primary source of their nutritional needs.
Here's a little log of what he's tried so far. Whether or not he's actually swallowed the food is irrelevant at this point (but let me just say, I've seen some proof that he's swallowed some of these foods).
:) for things he's really liked
:( for not so much
C=cooked
R=raw
Fruits:
-watermelon :) R
-cantaloupe :) R
-honeydew :) R
-plum R
-blueberry R
-apple C & R
-banana :) R
-avocado :( R
Vegetables:
-sweet potato :) C
-zucchini :) :) :) C
-cucumber C & R
-cauliflower C
-green beans C
Other:
-chicken :) C
-egg yolk C
-black bean patty C
He's so cute. I likes his sweet potato.
ReplyDeletewow that is awesome that you are doing blw...i def read about it and toyed around with the idea and even gave him some food to play with. but...honestly, this feeding thing is the one thing that has really stressed me out!! i started making him purees and have been pretty comfortable with that and he loves them - but solid foods freaked me out because he would cough and choke, etc....anyway, long story short, just recently it seems he's fine eating pieces of bread and fruit. i don't know, its like one day he decided he could eat. so now we're cool and gradually introducing other things.
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