Monday, April 15, 2013

Fun with baby-led weaning

After many suggestions from friends and family as well as some extensive Google research, we decided to give baby-led weaning a try. Basically, starting around 6 months, or when your child can sit up on his own and has an interest in food, you introduce solid foods to him in finger-food size. At the start, you soften hard foods (like carrots or apples) so he can chew them into bite-size bits without the benefit of teeth for mastication.

Babies don't get spoon-fed purees. The food is placed in front of them and they pick up what they want to eat and feed themselves.

Admittedly, we haven't followed the system perfectly. E didn't seem that interested in picking up food around 6 months but was happy to open his mouth for us to feed him, baby bird-style. And we spoon-fed him applesauce before he was ready to hold a spoon himself. Generally, though, we've been giving him a huge variety of solid foods for more than 2 months now, and he greedily grabs at just about anything we place in front of him.

This also means that if we leave leftovers on a counter and he is placed beside them, he will dive into the styrofoam box for its contents - he had a delicious BBQ sandwich a couple of weeks ago.

He now refuses to eat from our hands - we have to give food to him and he will find a way to maneuver it (at least part of it) into his mouth.

Favorites so far:

- Graham crackers
- Goldfish
- Dried mango
- Edamame
- Dehydrated mango
- Baked or mashed potato
- Peanut butter and jelly
- PIZZA!!
- Pad thai
- BBQ
- Brownies

It's great to just cool a bit of whatever we're eating and place it in front of him. He's also just about figured out how to use a sippy cup, so he can drink water after a particularly salty meal.

Here's some pictures of mealtime with Ethan. Most of these photos were taken just before bathtime with Ethan - this is a delightfully messy process!

Bread

Beurre blanc
 
Avocado?

Pizza

Bacon

Mmmmm, bacon...

Birthday cake

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