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| Munching on that apple with her gummy grin (no teeth yet at 7 months) |
With my first baby, I tried to wrap my head around what the exact right age was to start solids and whether they should be orange veggies or iron fortified cereals...
I'm not proud to say that I started him on cereals at 4.5 months, encouraged by the nurses because of his size and the fact that he was a hungry baby. Food at that age, did not help him sleep through the night. Myth busted! Also, I think it actually did the opposite, because suddenly his little baby tummy was having to digest food and we had many nights of tackling the gripe water in the middle of the night. (We switched to the alcohol free one to ease our guilt). My friend did introduce me to Baby Lead Weaning while my son was still young and we did a lot of BLW, although still mostly all the home made purees.
With my 2nd baby, I was determined to exclusively breastfeed her until 6 months and only then to introduce solids. Here is a really useful introduction to BLW: http://www.babyledweaning.com/
So, I waited until she was 6 months old and had good head control and could sit upright if supported, before offering her food. We watch her carefully and let her feed herself. Before 1 years old, most of their nourishment comes from your milk, so its ok if they just want to squish banana through their fingers or chew on chicken and then spit it out... ;-) They are experiencing different food, textures, tastes etc. so keep it varied and interesting.
Whenever possible, we offer her supper that we are eating (minus the sauce and salt etc). You can still offer flavourful food (garlic, some spices) just don't offer much salt. I read somewhere that half a slice of toast already contains the limit of sodium content for your baby for the whole day... Wow! I'll admit that I let her chew on a stick of biltong (dried meat) and that probably contains her sodium limit for the month, but she loves it so much (she is now 7 months old).
Most of the time, babies will gag before they choke, so their natural reflexes help them not to choke. If she gags, just swipe your finger in her mouth to remove the food. If she chokes, don't smack her on the back (this is what they said at a first aid course), rather watch her cough. Coughing is the most effective way to remove something from your airway, and then swipe your finger from one cheek to the other in her mouth to remove the chunk of food.
I do a mix of BLW, so E starts the day with a milk feed, then she has full-cream plain yoghurt for breakfast (she doesn't like porridge) and then she'll have a chunk of banana for lunch. Other options for lunch are sweet potato/ butternut. I usually steam it, because if its roasted, it tends to be too chewy on the outsides. I have been a bit lazy with making foods for her- so its not very varied for lunch. At school I let them feed her puree sometimes because they are busy and might not watch her carefully enough while she feeds herself.
She has 2 bottles of milk at school too. Then when we get home I let her have a Provita or half a slice of toast to gnaw on or a little bit of bran muffin as a snack. She also loves a chunk of apple to chew on and she can chew it with her gums! Amazing!
For supper I give her either a bit of what we are having, but the plain version (for eg. a few pieces of pasta with some plain cooked chicken and some veg) or else if we are having spicy food or its too saucy, then I just give her some of the veggies (cucumber/ broccoli/ or whatever veg we are having...)
She eats very little in one sitting- imagine like 1-2 tablespoons max and most of that is messed around. ;-)
But she enjoys it so much!
I started with one type of food and one meal per day for about a week when she was 6 months old, then I introduced the yoghurt and she would also have yoghurt at school for breakfast. I introduced a lunch after a week or so of yoghurt. Now I sometimes send a snack (fruit) as well...
BLW is a messy adventure, but I hope it will help her to love her food and not be a picky eater.
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| Enjoying a banana in the sun. I got this amazing bib this week- covers her arms as well! |
