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!