I had a friend stay recently. I was totally blown away by watching her little 10 month old eating. Tiny hadn't been interested in food until 8 months, and yet just 2 months later, here she was, munching on butter chicken and steamed snow peas and carrot with the rest of the family!!
Tab told me about "baby-led weaning", where you basically let your baby play with food instead of mashing it all for them, and they just learn to chew and then swallow. They may play for quite a while before actually eating, but as they are getting all their nutrition from breastmilk (or formula), it is just about experiencing food.
I was so totally impressed by Tiny, that I decided to give it a go. Pretty much whenever Cooper grabs for my food, I just let him, to see what he does with it. Food he has tried so far:
- apricots (probably his fave, although not if it is mashed... must be whole)
- yoghurt
- sweet potato (both mashed and in chunks - didn't like it either way)
- mashed potato (liked it plain, not so much with garlic and chives, lol)
- steamed carrot sticks and beans (great for holding, sucking and gumming, but couldn't actually eat... sooked a bit about that, so we gave him yoghurt afterwards)
- raisin toast (loved it)
- white bread (didn't mind it. Was at a party, peeled it off my sandwich for him... not sure what was in the sandwich (some kind of paste puree type thing) but he got a little red mark and a tiny bit of eczema on the side of his face after that... oops :-/ )
- kiwi fruit (um, yeah, I know now that is prob in the category of strawberries as far as allergies go and will avoid for a while)
- watermelon
- sausage (absolutely loved that! Give the man some meat!)
I think that's about it. It is so much fun to watch his face as he experiences the different temperatures, tastes and textures. He is really enjoying the food experience, as are we!
*Disclaimer... I thought about not posting this, as some people may be horrified at me letting a 5 month old chomp on all kinds of whole food, but this blog is primarily for me to remember what it's like while Cooper is little. So I'm recording the memories here for me. If you're horrified, don't read it! :)
I did BLW with T too. Sooo much fun. Check this out, if you haven't already: http://www.babyledweaning.com/
ReplyDeleteGo Cooper!! Love your disclaimer btw. Addie picks sweet potato out of anything unlessitis mashed - and she'll eat it, weirdo!! Glad Cooper is enjoying it so much. Addie would like to go stay at his house again she told me.
ReplyDeleteHey Martina, I have had a quick look at that site... I should read a little more though :)
ReplyDeleteTab... aaawww... tell Addie she is welcome any time! Cooper's bath times just aren't as much fun without her here, lol!
As to the disclaimer, yeah, in my sleep-deprived state, I don't think my response would be very pretty if someone tried to tell me off or tell me how to do it, so I'm just warning ahead of time! ;) And I really don't want to forget what things were like, but I know I will, so I have to write it all down.
We did BLW too. Absolutely love it. Some fun ones to try are lamb cutlets and whole stone fruits (watching closely to extract the stone when it is visible, if they get that far). She knows what she wants better than I possibly could.
ReplyDeleteAmy.