Just like everything else that has to do with a baby, everyone has their opinion or advice as to what and how to feed your baby. Some moms toil in the kitchen, making homemade baby purees, grinding and freezing the day away. Some moms say SCREW IT and run to the baby food isle and buy jars of ready made puree. There are moms that continue to breastfeed/formula feed and don’t worry about “solids” and there are those few that venture into the “table food” category. I’ve become the latter and I’ll tell you why.
When it came time to give Grady solids at six months, I started to become anxious as to what I was going to feed him. I didn’t want to buy baby food but the stress of making my own puree’s seemed like such a pain. I was pinning recipes from Pinterest late at night and was on the hunt for one of those bullet blenders. I wasn’t really looking forward to the whole process. It seemed like such a hassle.
The first time we fed Grady “solids” was at six months and we gave him rice cereal. Homeboy wasn’t a fan. He hardly ate any of it. We tried it over the next three days and he didn’t want to eat. I was stressing out about it and trying to SHOVE the spoon into his mouth. JUST ONE MORE BITE! I was thinking he NEEDED to be eating this food. Soon, it became stressful for him as well. I blended a banana the following week and once again, tried shoving the spoon into his mouth. He kept trying to grab it and I would pull the spoon away, taking full control of the mealtime.
Over the next few days of trying to take control of the meal situation and getting nowhere, I knew I had to change something. Baby Led Weaning kept popping up in my Pinterest feed but I needed more information. I ordered the book and skimmed the first few chapters. According to the book, I was doing mealtimes completely wrong. For instance:
- mealtimes should be at the dinner table (Grady was in front of the TV which is probably why he wasn’t interested in food)
- the baby should have control of what goes in his mouth (I’m a control freak)
- Baby Led Weaning is about skipping puree’s and giving them regular table food (scary)
- you should be eating WITH the baby (excuse me?)
- babies are not required to actually eat (experimenting and exploring is the name of the game and food before one is just for fun)
- food should be offered an hour after a regular milk feeding (they’re just learning how to eat and you don’t want them starving)
Once I had plenty of information and had a general direction of where to go, I started from scratch. I moved the high chair into the dining room and bought one of those floor mats to catch food that dropped to the floor.
Avocados. He can’t choke on avocados, right? I was FREAKING OUT. I took a VERY ripe avocado and cut it into sticks that he could pick up and grab. He gagged. Several times. He didn’t choke. Just gagged. I was hovering over him and too nervous to actually eat with him. It was a disaster. I think I made HIM nervous and he eventually got frustrated and gave up. I could have just given him pureed food and been done with it but I had made up my mind that I was doing this. I tried again the next day but decided to remain calm. It was a little better and he seemed more interested in the way the avocado sounded in his hand. He ate a few bites and I ate with him, talking about what he was eating, what color it was, etc. My pediatrician is pro baby led weaning and suggested offering single foods for a least three days before offering something else. I offered him an avocado the third day. He ate so much I thought he was going to get sick. The third day he seemed to get the hang of it. He was slowly learning to chew the food and swallow it. Over a month later, avocados are his favorite food. We used to share an avocado together, now he’ll eat a whole one himself!
Starting Baby Led Weaning was terrifying and it took me some time to stop hovering or wanting to dig food out of his mouth I thought was too big. He needed to learn and in order to learn he needed to practice. My trying to control his every move was not helping and once I let go, food has been fun and so much less stressful. We enjoy sitting down to eat as a family! We eat and Grady feeds himself.
Some things I’ve learned along the way:
- don’t try to dig the food out of his mouth (that puts him at greater risk for choking by pushing the food back in his throat)
- if he takes a bite too big, most of the time he’ll spit it out (sometimes he’ll swallow a little bit at a time)
- try single ingredient foods for three days to rule out allergies
- Grady needed super soft foods at first (he cried the first few times he gagged)
- they WILL store food in their mouths like hamsters (it usually comes out during bath time, although last night he sneezed and it went all over the crib)
- have a sippy cup of water or milk to wash down the food
- sometimes you have to introduce a food 10-15 times before they eat it or like it
- it’s okay to offer just a snack (it doesn’t have to be a meal)
- there are times when Grady wants nothing to do with food (and I don’t make him eat if he’s not interested)
- he lets me know when he is done
- you have to watch the SALT!
This is a list of foods that I offered Grady and they are in the order that I offered them. I also made sure they were cut in sticks no thicker than a pen.
- avocado
- banana
- apple slices (steamed)
- carrots (boiled first, but he gagged and cried so then I tried them roasted with cinnamon for him to chew)
- pear
- eggs (scrambled and boiled and quartered)
- sweet potato (both baked and fries)
- cauliflower (boiled and tossed in oregano, garlic powder and parmesan cheese)
- broccoli (boiled)
- green beans
- peaches
- yogurt
- oatmeal with pureed banana, cinnamon and nutmeg
Once we got a few ingredients under our belt, we started with some recipe dishes that we could eat together. If I was able to find the recipe I linked it for you.
- Parmesan Crusted Chicken
- spaghetti and turkey meatballs
- Chicken and Carrot Meatballs
- Sweet Potato Frittata Fritters
- Carrot Stars
- Banana Blueberry Fritters
This was a pretty lengthy post but the whole food thing has been pretty intense for the past month. Going back and looking at it, he’s had quite of bit of food in just a short period of time! I’d love to hear if you’re doing baby led weaning and how it’s going!