Solid food continues to be a fun adventure. We tried banana tonight, and while Curly enjoyed eating it, we’re not entirely sure it agreed with him. He was super cranky for about 20 minutes after eating it, fussing like he does when he’s got a big burp stuck. We wonder if perhaps it made him phlegmy or refluxy.
I got a book on Baby Led Weaning. It was written in England where the term “weaning” refers to the introduction solids, not the stopping of breastfeeding. Basically, it works on the theory that babies should be able to decide the what, when, and how of food. No purees, no spoon feeding. You sit a baby at the family table for meals, offer a variety of foods from whatever you happen to be eating, and let the baby explore on its own. As you might imagine, this makes a great mess, but it is supposed to allow the baby to learn how to be a good eater in terms of healthy choices and feelings of fullness. I find the theory intriguing, but Curly is having so much fun with mushy food and the spoon. I’m a little bit at a loss as to what to offer him to eat with his hands. You see, I’ve pretty much bought into the more mainstream theory of food introduction, where low-allergy, easy to digest foods are offered one at a time with 3-4 day breaks in between offering something new. BLW doesn’t really seem to do that. I mean, if I were to offer Curly food from our plates, he’d be getting couscous and a roasted chicken breast with many spices. We did try to offer him some larger pieces of banana (rolled in rice cereal dust) and sweet potato, but when he tried to pick them up he squished them and got upset that he couldn’t get them into his mouth. I think perhaps picking and choosing from each theory may be our choice for now. Oh, and you can bet that our chihuahua is very happy about the possibility of more food coming her way.
For now, here’s the picture of Curly in his jumper. He still hasn’t gotten it, but he likes it when someone else makes it jump.
Just hanging around
1 In Vermillion 
so so cute! (& sassy)
W isn’t really into the picking things up with his fingers yet so I do spoon feeding. But I like to pretend that he is feeding himself as I just put sweet potato or something on the spoon and he leans forward and eats it off of the spoon. I wish I could dive into the BLW stuff with gusto- but like you I don’t think what I eat for dinner is age appropriate for him.
and did I mention how cute your boy is?!!
Just started baby led weaning with my daughter over the weekend. It so rules!!!
Saturday she had watermelon and carrot
Tonight it was broccoli and acorn squash!
However, this is baby number two for me and my first was not interested in food this early. So as she got older we ended up doing BLW without realizing. But this one was so ready (will be six months on the 29)
PBS likes to pick things up, so even though we do purees for new foods, I let her finger feed foods she has already tolerated. Green beans are easy and so are cooked apple and plum.
He is so adorable, I love the expression on his face! Like you, I’m intrigued by BLW, but my partner is against it because of choking worries and I guess I’m a little nervous myself so I think we’ll go the traditional route. I’m glad it seems to be going well for Curly.
I love BLW in theory but Riley is totally not ready for it. In fact, she only likes food that is totally smooshed to nothing and very runny. We have to add water or milk to everything right now. We load up the spoon and put it in her hand and she self-feeds that way, which I love. It’s super cute.
Riley is also having a hard time with bananas. I don’t know what it is. She gets really painful gas. She does better if we give it to her in the morning (in very small quantities) than at night.
Also, Riley is JUST discovering jumping. It took a few weeks in the jumperoo to get it. We are using it a little while every day to help her put more weight on her feet since she isn’t very interested in that. She is getting much better.
I think it’s important to do what Curly wants in terms of feeding. It seems like he is doing well with spoon feeding and liking it, so go for it. And if later on he wants to feed himself more, then you should go more in that direction. That’s our plan with Riley. She finds BLW to be very annoying. 🙂
Its so fascinating to see how other babies are doing in terms of development compared to our preemies. So far we are not even close to finger foods but the big guy is very interested in what I am eating and pays close attention when I eat in front of him. Our doctor said to start with rice cereal mixed with breastmilk so I will be getting some of that first. Good to know about the bananas though… I will be keeping an eye on any reaction to those when we get there. (By the way, love the reference to Gwen!)
Let me know what he likes and I’ll cook up and can some “baby food” for you guys. Apple butter is already done and you’re getting that anyway 🙂 But we can pretty much puree anything and I can pressure can it safely – although the smallest jars I have (can find) are half pint.
I guess when I look back at what I did with you…. you ate stuff from a spoon that I pureed with the baby food grinder first. It was usually what we were eating. But then the “I do it myself” mode kicked in and you ate stuff with your fingers from the high chair tray in front of you. It was REALLY messy but Rootie was pretty happy.
love your post title! Awesome. Great picture, too, as always!
I’m struggling with this too. We’ve been following the traditional rules as well (basic purees, 3-4 days apart) but I’m starting to do the math and realize it’s going to take him like 15 years to get through all the basic foods if we keep up this pace. Hmm. So when do we start giving him things faster? I’m intrigued by the BLW, finger food, bigger chunk options but I’m unclear as to how this works when the baby doesn’t have teeth yet. We only have one so far – not much help in the mechanical digestion department. I’ll be interested to hear how BLW goes for you, if you start experimenting with it!
My other challenge… sippy cups?! It seems like we should be starting to work on this but all attempts thus far have been complete flops. I guess we’ll just have the only kindergartener with a bottle in his lunchbox. Ha ha!
catching up has been fun! Curly is just as cute as ever. Keep us updated on the food experiences
We started with banana too. He couldn’t hold it and didn’t like the taste. We’ve had MUCH more success with other things (blog post coming) and BB has rapidly become more dexterous. I think the whole “give them what you’re eating” is a bit of a stretch at the start. We roasted or steamed a few things in baton shaped pieces and gave him 2 or 3 to play with whilst we ate our meals over the first month or so. He’s only now getting to try out more meal-like offerings. The things that appeal most to us about BLW are the lack of preparation and militarisation surrounding what foods, when and in what quantity, and being able to feel confident that he’ll be ok on my milk and not feeling pressured to wean as quickly as possible. But that’s just what suits our circumstances. If I was having to pump all the while, or if we were using formula or if BB wasn’t such a stick-everything-in-your-mouth baby, I’m not sure it’d have worked out as well for us. Nothing wrong with a bit of mix and match though. Go with what feels right to you.
We are looking into BLW starting in the next couple of months. I love reding what Curly is up to because it always is like a two minute warning for what we will be seeing next.
He looks like he’s having a blast! I feel no parent should be without a dog to pick up the dropped food!