Baby Mush

I broke one of the central tenets of BLW today and fed Ava some baby food. Broccoli, cauliflower and leek in cheese to be specific. I thought it might be good for her to try something different and mushy, and I must say - she loved it! I tried to keep to the BLW theme by letting her feed herself with the spoon, which she did pretty darned well! I loaded it up for her, then she would grab it and ram it in to her mouth. She looked a little surprised there was food on it, but slurped most of it down and sucked on the spoon for a while just to make sure she got it all. Which she didn't, loads still ended up all over her face, in her eye, in her fist, all over the table. But hey, she tried!

Ambitious Baby

I haven't been as regular as I would like to be with Ava's meals, things keep getting in the way with the holidays and visitors and things. But today I got back on track somewhat by giving Ava some zucchini. She took to it like a champ! She slurped vigorously on one piece it, and when she got her hands on another she tried to shove that in her mouth as well. Not sure is she was being ambitious, or very greedy...

She also got to chew on a rice cake for a while. She seemed to like it, but didn't swallow much. As with most things, she just screwed her face up a bit as she chewed on it, then spat it out.

Butternut Squash

I tried to keep the momentum going today with a meal of butternut squash. It is quite sweet, so figured it would be a big hit with Ava, but I think my timing was somewhat off. She was pretty cranky all afternoon, so she spent a bit of time smashing it around before she got tired of it and just started yelling to be freed from the high chair. A little bit made it in to her mouth, but I'm pretty sure none was swallowed this time. However she did an admirable job of smashing it all over her top.

Little Christmas Trees

I decided to give the BLW a rest for a couple of days. Carl's mom came to spend Christmas with us, and little Nut has been going through a horrendous time teething, so I figured there was too much going on to push the whole eating thing. But today we drove his mom to her sister's for a few days, and when we came back, Nut was in such a good mood we decided to give it another go. I steamed some broccoli for both she and I, and we sat down to our first meal together! I think having me next to her eating the same thing made a difference, as she seemed to have a better idea what to with it this time. She got it in her mouth a few times and looked at me like I was trying to poison her, but in the end she had smashed it all over her face, chair, clothes, floor etc and seemed pleased with herself. I have to admit, I'm pretty excited! I feel like we have really started in earnest now, and she loved it.

Our first attempt!

For those of you who don't know what Baby Led Weaning (BLW) is, it basically means you feed your baby proper food instead of purees, cereals etc, and let them feed themselves. They get to decide what they like, don't like and how much they want. It is supposed to result in less fussy children who have somewhat advanced motorskills due to the whole having to get the food in to their own mouths thing. It makes sense to me as a concept, and sounds frankly more messy, fun and relaxed than force feeding a child goop. "Here comes the airplane..." ugh.

I swore upside down and backwards that I would wait the recommended 6 months before starting my little nut on solids...but the highchair came today, and I was so excited to get started that I decided her first meal would happen today. I chopped a carrot in to the recommended chip shapes, and steamed for about 15 minutes until soft enough to mash up with gums. Threw Ava (not literally!) in to her high chair, placed the carrot in front of her, grabbed my camera and....nothing. She sat there and stared at me. Arms pinned down by her side, she showed no interest in the carrot at all. I decided I would help move things along by pretending to chomp on one of the carrots. She shows loads of interest in what I am eating - usually - and tries to grab at it. Not this time however, she continued to just stare. So I waved the carrot aound and put a piece in her hand. She dropped it. I put a piece against her lips so she could taste that it was something yummy. One of the cardinal rules of BLW is that you don't feed your child, they feed themselves...but I was getting desperate here! Eventually we gave up, to try again another day. Maybe she isn't ready, maybe it was just the wrong time of day, maybe I was too excited...who knows. I am not defeated however, and we will try again tomorrow!