Copied from LWAB forum (written by ME 13 Oct 11)
I have been using baby-led weaning (www.babyledweaning.com) with my son and had to share since we are loving it!! BLW is basically introducing babies to actual solid food at the age of 6 months, and skipping purees and spoon feeding entirely.
I began rice cereal at 5 months with my son, as advised by my pediatrician, since he was spitting up a lot. I have always for some reason felt uncomfortable about the whole cereal thing in general. We tried, he hated the spoon, but didn't seem to mind the cereal. But I am a firm believer in "help me to do it myself' and so the spoon-feeding, although cute and of course, a major milestone complete with video footage, was something that did not quite seem right to me. Why couldn't we figure out a way for my fully capable child to ENJOY mealtimes, and be treated like one of the rest of us at the table, instead of having a spoon full of unidentifiable food put in his mouth for him and the excess wiped off his face with said spoon? Enter - BLW. It just makes sense. Read the book - it's about 11 bucks on e-readers and is available at amazon.ca or chapters. It is a super quick and easy read, and I promise you too will see that this method of feeding your child just makes sense.
So far, after about a week and a half of BLW, my son has had chunks of turkey, green beans, cucumber, apple slices, sweet potato, pita bread, toast fingers, celery, broccoli, cauliflower, cheese, and chicken. Maybe a few I am forgetting. He LOVES it. At this stage not a lot actually goes down his throat but he is learning quickly and it is really a very fascinating learning processes to witness.
Just to update on the BLW since C is now 7 months -- he still LOVES it!! I tried spoon-feeding him some yogurt the other day and he wasn't having any of it - I ended up having to load the spoon and he would shove it in his mouth, over and over. Too funny. Tonight he ate (with serious gusto!) half an avocado and half an orange, some spaghetti sauce with extra lean ground beef, and his favourite - a salt-free organic rice cake with organic hummus. Yum! (And a bath night for sure :-)He also drinks water by himself out of shot glasses (he began drinking water from our glasses at meals and I tried a sippy cup, which he was not interested in. He wanted my glass instead.) So, shot glasses have solved that problem. They are heavy enough and the right size for his little hands, and although I sometimes have to tip the glass slightly so he can feel the water on his lips, generally he does very well all on his own. Amazing!
ReplyDelete