Learning to Feed Himself

After a solid month of suddenly waking up multiple times a night to nurse and wanting to nurse almost every other hour during the day, I decided we were ready to give solids the old college try.

Our first attempt with a tiny smashed piece of banana required a bath as it triggered his gag reflex and he has a history of losing his lunch if he's congested at the same time. A week later we tried a little bit of unsweetened apple sauce thinking a smoother puree would make it easier. Let's just say we rinse off a lot around here. I'd done a bit of skimming over websites about baby led weaning (what?! Baby led weaving? Wouldn't that be fancy.) and asked all of my hippy friends at Sebastian's school what they knew and decided it was worth trying at least one more time. 

I dragged the vintage high chair up from the basement where I'd been storing it since before I was even pregnant with this boy. I was so hopeful we'd eventually have a third little Denbow that I bought it at the local outdoor flea market without a thought. I'm so thankful I did because steamed carrots wipe right off! 

You'd think I'd given the child a lemon wedge with the faces I was getting.

Sunday showed up to provide moral support. 

She was actually so efficient in keeping the floor carrot-free, I should've just let her lick him clean, too.

I'm not sure he actually ingested much of anything but he didn't gag and lose his lunch so I'm calling this a milestone. We're still primarily breastfeeding and I plan on nursing him at least until his first birthday or longer so we're treating this new venture into baby led weaning as a low pressure, experimental learning time. I'm looking forward to him being able to feed himself and eat most of what we're eating. Also, let's hope this translates into a more satisfied belly so that we both get a bit more sleep.

I'm so thankful for the internet, guys. On any given day at almost any hour I can ask a question about mothering and get such a great amount of feedback that I am either completely enlightened on a new subject or affirmed in something I was already leaning towards or away from. I think this is what it must be like to be in a MOPS group but maybe minus the snacks?

-Rachel

Comments

[Susan]

Great photos! Such a cute baby. My son is only a couple weeks older than yours I think. We're trying BLW also and I'm liking it. We've been doing it for a little over a month now and it still seems hard to tell how much he's actually swallowing, but I can tell he's getting more now that the diapers are consistently different... The book by Gill Rapley on BLW is a fast read too.

[Cait]

What adorable faces! I love the high chair, too. My 7 month old has been having some bone broth most days, but other than that he's only tried a few bites of squash from my plate. I'm hoping he'll sit up on his own soon, otherwise I guess we'll just start. We tried BLW with my oldest, but the gagging scared us off! I love the idea though, and I'm sure we'll intersperse it a bit more again.

[Haley]

That second photo is the best!!! I hope the extra food is helping you get more sleep.

Without all of the mothering resources on the internet, I would be completely clueless.

[a bike on my shirt]

I did the same as him when i was his age! Lovely :*

[Sarah LoCascio]

This has got to be one of my favorite posts you've done. His expressions are so perfect:) Brought a smile

[Hazel]

My daughter is a week or so younger than Smith we are doing BLW so far it's been going well, she wasn't very keen on Banana either! Cauliflower and toast have been big hits so far, tomorrow we are going to try sweet potatoes and butternut squash, I don't know about you but sometimes I find it a struggle to do our food, my two year olds and the babies food without doing three different meals!

[Missi]

Our daughter is turning 1 this week, but we started baby led weaning around 6 months or so, and she was READY! We had a lot of success with mango and sweet potato spears. She wasn't able to get much off those first few days, which I think might have helped with reducing the gag reflex. She would just suck and gnaw while the food became gummy. I really enjoyed the BLW book, as well as Real Food for Mother and Baby.

Also, Smith is SO CUTE!

[Elisabeth]

Such a lovely post! And oh what memories it triggers! We did BLW too with my now four year old twins. It worked wonderfully, easily and very messily ;-). We have a dog too, though, and she helped with the cleaning.
We never followed the rules completely, as sometimes puréed food was easier for us to handle (traveling the 1200 km from Denmark to Austria for example) but on the whole I think it is a wonderful way to introduce solids at your baby's pace.
And it makes for such adorable pictures ;)

[Rebekah Shipper]

My son is now 11 months old and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about BLW. It has developed his fine motor skills much quicker than my older son who I fed the traditional spoon fed/jarred baby foods route. It is so nice to be able to set food down for my whole family and all of us eat at the same time :-). Good luck to you! I wrote all about BLW with some helpful tips and foods to start with. You can find that post here: http://his-girl-friday.com/2014/09/09/my-new-best-friend-baby-led-weaning/

[Jacinta]

Doing a little of both here. Mush from a spoon and BLW. Luckily both are successful. Luckily coz milk feeds are and have been a nightmare from day one :/ I love these pics and my gosh he looks like his daddy!

[Shasta]

I had a problem with my daughter gagging a lot too. She did it even after her first bday. Just keep at it!

[Stacie Ann]

My Mom has a very similar high chair for the grandbabies when they're at her house and my scrawny wiggly bub has a tendency to slowly scoot himself down under the tray a bit and can't scoot himself back up (modern chairs have the bar that goes between the legs so they can't slide down). If you ever have this issue we solved it by taking a dishtowel once he's seated and threading it around his belly and tying it gently (so he's not squished!) behind the back of the chair.

[Bethany]

I did BLW with my daughter and it was so great!! I am so glad we did it with her. She really took to it and before long was eating steak!!

[Kay]

We did BLW too and loved it. I took awhile for my son to actually eat anything though. Maybe 8 or 9 months? I bet Smith is just going through a growth spurt :) Good luck on the move. We were just visiting Springfield. Downtown is looking great :)

[Kelly]

We did BLW with both kids and have loved it! The book was fascinating to me. Also it is a process not an overnight oh they're eating but once ours took off they took off! And they are among the least picky eaters I know