Before I go into what he ate on Tuesday I wanted to give a quick over view of baby led weaning. Mainly becuase I see the same questions coming up on forums and I think understanding the theory will help. I would highly recommend looking up the Baby Led Weaning Cookbook by Gill Rapley because this goes into more detail - but basically:
Baby Led Weaning is:
- Offering solid foods to your baby and letting them explore / taste them at their own pace
- A great way to introduce your baby to the food you as a family eat normally
- A chance for your baby to join in at mealtimes
- Allowing your baby to determine the amount of food they eat
- Trusting your baby to lead on when to reduce milk feeeds
Baby Led Weaning is NOT:
- worrying about quantity eaten or time taken to eat
- spoon feeding your baby purees whilst offering finger foods (this is TRADITIONAL weaning)
- (to eat a purée your baby just essentially sucks and swallows, like they do with their milk. BLW is about teaching them to be able to chew solid food before they swallow)
- Stressing about how much milk/food they "should" be having - your baby will not allow themselves to starve so please don't worry about this!
And finally what are the benefits of baby led weaning? Well, just as your baby will walk, talk etc when they are ready. - your baby will start to develop their hand eye coordination, chewing skills, moving the food around their mouth etc in their own time. And when they have the required skills they will start to swallow food! My daughter had a great pincer grip at 9 months - all because she loved blueberries so much!!
It's said that BLW helps with speech and I can see why - a baby who has learnt to control their tongue to eat will be able to use that control to speak. Although now my 3 year old has verbal diarrhoea I'm not sure this is a benefit...
Yes, gagging is a bit scary - but it's normal!! And natural and it's your baby's way of stopping themselves from choking - so go with it and trust your baby. As hard as it may, be smile at them and encourage them when they are gagging the food out of their mouths - they will soon get the hang of it! And you will feel calmer as time goes on too.
Ok, I don't want to rant so here's what he had on Tuesday!
Morning was quite calm so I made some pancakes (recipe from the baby led weaning cookbook app) - they were very easy to make and pretty yummy!
They went down very well! And we shared a peach afterwards!
He preferred the peach half to the peach slices as it was easier to hold!
In the afternoon we shared some melon pieces and some pineapple. He managed to gum pieces off all three - which made their way back out of his mouth! I mentioned at the beginning that baby will get used to eating the kind of food your family eats normally - and this is where I found another benefit. Pre baby led weaning with my daughter - fruit would be bought, sit in the fruit bowl for a week and then be thrown in the bin only to be replaced by more "ornamental" fruit. Occasionally I would take some fruit on a trip to my work - where it would sit on my desk and then be thrown in the bin...
While doing baby led weaning with Annabel and in an attempt to set a good example - we actually ate the fruit!! Seriously. She is now a fruit fiend and I find I am eating more fruit too. So when I say what you normally eat - you might find you start making healthier choices and that can only be a good thing right!?
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