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| Beanie circa 2008. Excited about cheese. |
Glenn and I talked and I went back and forth. We had mostly given up on trying to get him interested in purees. It just wasn't worth it. I'd rather just nurse since I know Bubby doesn't really need solids during his first year. At first, I wanted to offer purees with more regularity, but now I think we've decided to go with a baby led weaning approach. If you don't know about baby led weaning, it really has nothing to do with weaning from the breast; it's about letting your child be in control of the food they eat. Kelly at KellyNaturally just wrote a great overview of baby led weaning and I encourage you to check it out if you're looking for more information.
He still doesn't eat much, but I'm not worried at all. He is much more interested in real food than the purees. He explores it and, lo and behold, some of it makes its way to his mouth. When I think back now, Beanie was much the same way. We made homemade babyfood, but she wasn't much interested in food at all until she was about a year old. We never pushed babyfood, but it is nice to see Bubby having fun with food now. We'll just keep taking it slow and enjoy our new adventure.
Anyone else practicing baby led weaning? What foods are you giving your little one?
I differentiate between extended breastfeeding until baby is ready to wean (baby led weaning) and introduction of solids in the manner discussed baby-led feeding. Makes more sense to me even if it isn't correct :)
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I'm looking forward to trying this method of food introduction when we have a baby :)
"Makes more sense to me even if it isn't correct"
ReplyDeleteI'll give you that :)
Ethan loved purees. In fact, he spent forever on stage 2 (organic) baby foods because he couldn't handle the texture of anything else. We started offering at 6 months but always let him dictate when and how much, just like with his bottles. He preferred to be fed. Still asks me to feed him sometimes LOL Gabriel is totally different! Hates purees. Wouldn't eat any solids till almost 10 months and then it was small chunks from my plate. He's hit and miss still with eating. And he won't eat anything that isn't seasoned besides fruit. Some of the things he usually likes are cheese (colbyjack), chicken breast (especially w/homemade honey mustard salad dressing), cooked carrots, and Target brand Cheerios (name brand ones have MSG!), pieces of lean ground beef (w/homemade Greek seasoning and homemade honey mustard salad dressing), whole wheat pasta w/olive oil and salt. I'm trying to get him to eat more but so far he's much more interested in cuddling in Mommy's lap and sucking on a bottle! But as far as solids go, he much prefers to feed himself. And yeah, Ethan loves to eat the jars of baby food too LOL
ReplyDeleteI'm doing this too. I have tried both approaches (spoon-feeding and self-feeding) with my youngest and she prefers to feed herself. I've found that it's easiest for me too. I usually prepare the same lunch for all three of my daughters and my youngest eats along with them. My youngest also eats the same dinners that my husband and I eat. Right now she's the least picky of all of my kids.
ReplyDeleteWe did the same thing as Amanda. There were a few times when I cooked Moira's portion a little longer, but usually she was fine with small chunks of whatever we had. She always loved meat, and that was easy to give in baby sized chunks, although I think we waited a while to let her have bacon.
ReplyDeleteI read the Baby-Led Weaning book as well as First Meals (more puree-based). I'm just too lazy to do all the pureeing, so I've offered mashed banana mixed with breast milk and some brown rice cereal. He definitely likes to be the one in control and grabs the spoon and the bowl. Prior to the purees this week, I have offered cooked baby carrots and whole banana...neither of which he managed to get into his mouth. This morning, we had gluten and dairy-free pancakes and I gave Li Li a chunk (without syrup of course)and he loved it! I don't think much of any got swallowed, but he really enjoyed eating. Hopefully he will stop waking every 2 hours at night to nurse!
ReplyDeleteWe offered some purees to Evelyn at about six months, but she declined our offer :). She led the way we practiced baby led weaning. Our plan is to let Henry lead the way too!
ReplyDeleteTotally adorable baby pic!!
ReplyDeleteThought about you when I made these. They were the perfect healthy finger food for Gabriel and he loved them! http://cmlhealth.blogspot.com/2010/12/meat-veggie-meat-cheats.html
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