Luke has dove MOUTH first into the world of solid food!
Tonight was the first night he got to experience BLW at it’s finest. This was NOT his first encounter with food, however.
Ever since he was a newborn, he would ALWAYS managed to cry and need something just as dinner was ready for our family. I would sit down to eat and “WAHHHHHHHH,” a cry would emerge suddenly from Luke’s mouth. He never failed. It’s true, mommies usually always eat cold dinners.
When Luke turned 5 months old, I decided to see if it was the food that was making him go nutty during dinner time. I occasionally would slip him some apple sauce from big brother’s plate. At first, he looked shocked and then perked up and immediately reached for the spoon, motioning for more and latching onto the spoon with his kung foo-like grip.
This week, I introduced him to watered-down oatmeal (without breast milk). He was up all night with that little experiment. The oatmeal or the water made his little tummy upset.
The next time I tried to give him a proper meal, I prepared Happy Bellied Multi-Grain Cereal by Happy Babies with breast milk. It was a HUGE success. Luke LOVED it.
In the following attempt, I added pear puree from Happy Babies to his cereal.
Today, I realized that I was going about this ALL wrong. I had total forgot my Baby Led Weaning (BLW) success with Austin.
For those of you who don’t know, Baby Led Weaning or BLW means that you let your child feed themselves when they start weaning (at around 6 months). When they show interest in food or start reaching for food then let them have it! Of course, food needs to be age appropriate and start off chopped up into baby bite sized pieces (and preferably steamed to a soft consistency).
No more purees, ice cube trays filled with homemade baby food, no need for those expensive baby food processors, and no rice cereal (which provides little to no nutritional value anyways!). It’s just Luke getting to eat the same meal as the rest of the family!
No more mush (well it may be mush once your little one is through with it), lots more fun!
The best foods to start with using the BLW approach are avocados, butternut squash or sweet potato.
Tonight, Luke got AVOCADO. I can’t say he loved it, but I can say he had fun with it. He got more on his face than he did in his mouth. My messy boy. I keep reminding myself that food before 1 is just for fun and he will get most of his nutrients from my breast milk.
I was glad to introduce avocados tonight because I recently scored a huge bag of 25 avocados for $5 this weekend! Get ready, Luke. It’s about be Avocado-Palooza!
Resources:
1. Solid Food Charts by age:
MY FAVORITE: Solid Food Chart organized by Food Types or the Combined Chart
2. Forbidden Foods that you should wait to introduce to your little one until after a year: honey, peanut butter, tree nuts, citrus or acidic fruits, raw strawberries/blackberries/raspberries, corn, egg whites, whole milk, wheat, grapes, and shellfish.
3. Follow the 4 Day Wait Rule to ensure your child isn’t allergic to the newly-introduced food.
NESTled with Love 