Baby Led Weaning - Weaning the easy way: Week 1

See, this is why I like baby led weaning. I'm just not organised enough to do a blog everyday and I'm not organised enough to do traditional weaning everyday!

This week Anya has eaten spaghetti bolognese, sausage mash and beans, cheese sandwiches, sausage casserole, vegemite (very thinly spread) on toast, bananas, broccoli and squash pasta and whoops a little bit of chocolate when she grabbed my hand and wouldn't let go. (All veggie food by the way.)

BLW is as good as I thought it would be. On the days when her sleeps coincide with our meals and I just don't manage to have 2 sit down meals she just has lots of breastmilk. But it doesn't worry me due to the amount of food she eats.

At the moment she puts things in her mouth, chews away (no teeth yet though) and spits most of it out but swallows some of it. She likes banana and mashed potatoes and always laughs and talks when we're having toast in the morning. Sometimes she just has butter and other times she might have a bit of vegemite but she doesn't have a preference yet.

URGH ALERT - I've been checking her nappies to see if she is infact eating any food. There's a bit going in there. Some evidence of bananas being ingested (looks like little brown worms so don't worry if you see this after your baby has eaten bananas!), red pepper, and a little bit of carrot. Her poo is getting less runnier (most breastfed babies' poo is quite runny) but I haven't seen a huge difference.

Apparently this will happen at approximately 8 to 9 months when they start to notice that food fills their tummys and performs a purpose rather than food just being a toy at the moment.

She has taken to BLW really well. She always sits with us at the table and as soon as the food is put on her highchair she grabs it and puts it in her mouth. If she has a selection of food it's interesting to see which ones she picks out. Usually it's the closest thing to her but if she recognises the foods and likes them from last time she'll have them.

The little bit of chocolate she had was a button I was eating. It had melted in my hand and she grabbed my hand and would not let go. It makes me think that we must be born to love chocolate otherwise babies would treat it the same as anything else. Or perhaps she recognises it from my breastmilk as I do tend to eat a lot of it.

And now down to the topic of gagging! She has gagged a few times and even vomited a little bit to bring up a particularly stubborn piece! At first I had to hold myself back as it's not nice to see if you're not used to it but if you watch and don't interfere you see that the babies do perfectly well on their own. There have been times when she's gagged, spat out some food, smiled and happily carried on! My mum hates the gagging and has to turn her head away. But seeing her bring up the food restores my faith that she'll do fine on her own as she does what nature intended her to do.

First try of banana

Not quite sure!

Very puzzled now

Mushroom stroganoff. She didn't like the mushroom and very quickly threw it to the side of her tray.

We had potato wedges too and she loved these, though this was her first proper meal and she did gag a bit on the wedges.

Trying to get hold of the pasta. A look of determination on her face.

Success.

Veggie sausage, squashed baked beans and mashed potato. I squashed the beans for two reasons - 1. she wouldn't have been able to pick them up and 2 - I thought they posed a small choking hazard.