Wednesday, July 31, 2013

BLW

I briefly mentioned we started Drew on solid foods. I wanted to blog about it a little more since it's a little different than the traditional baby food route.

Trent has had food aversions from the get-go. I don't know if it's because I waited to introduce table food for a long time. {Like his teachers at school told me 'Um, he needs to be eating real food.' Oops.} Or maybe it's his tongue thrust. Or maybe it's just his personality. Or maybe genetics since Brent and I aren't ones to chow down on veggies. {Understatement of the year.}

Um...Drew...you're missing the point here!

Anywho... I don't remember where I read it, but once I read about Baby Led Weaning, I knew it was what I wanted to try with Drew. 

Essentially, you don't spoon-feed your baby purees, you give them table food and let them feed themselves. Since we believe breast milk gives Drew the vast majority of her calories and nutrients, food is just for fun right now. So it's a learning experience for her - what it feels like, what it tastes like, how to get it into her mouth, when she wants to stop. 

And let me tell you, she is having a blast!
I am just now noticing she always uses her left hand... Hmmm...

So far, she has tried bananas, sweet potatoes, avocado, apricot (peeled), scrambled eggs, apple (peeled), grapes, pears (peeled), and carrots. She hasn't turned her nose up at anything! She is also getting better at getting the food into her mouth and chewing. At first, she would just kind of hold it in her mouth and then it would squish out - so funny.

It is super messy {but seriously a baby covered in food is too adorable to mind} but also super easy. I don't have to remember to buy her separate food or take the time to make purees then freeze them, etc. {And our freezer is so full of breast milk, there's not room for purees!} I just pull stuff out of the fridge and give it to her. And the principle is really that you could give your baby whatever you want, but I want to really focus on fruits and veggies with her for awhile to see if we can establish a better relationship than Trent has...

So there you have it. My latest 'hippie' adventure in parenting!


3 comments:

Dee Stephens said...

I just did a post about this for the Jr. League of Charlotte blog. It should post in the next week or so.
Stay tuned!

Jaclyn said...

We did BLW with Jacob and loved it! We tried to start him on cereal and purees like his brother, but he didn't like them. I fianlly found out about BLW and it was great! So much easier than making him his own food. I did have to educate his day care about it because they were nervous, but once they saw it, they loved it since they didn't have to spoon feed him like the others.

Anonymous said...

So you're one of those do as I say and not as I do parents..... - B