Two months of baby-led weaning

At Pumpkin’s six-month weigh-in, the midwife asked me if we had started weaning.

Well, sort of, I thought to myself, while I brightly said “Yes!” out loud.

At that point, the baby had been stealing bananas from out of my mouth for about a month. We had given her a bit of baby rice and we had also started exposing her to some of the main allergens (like peanuts, gluten and eggs) at around five months – since most of the current research says that there’s a window between four and six months when it’s ideal to introduce those foods to prevent allergies in the future.

Other than that, however, our weaning efforts had been a bit haphazard. A bit of puree here, a bit of baby rice there. Pumpkin seemed mildly interested in the food, but she lost interest pretty quickly and really preferred her bottles.

Maybe my response to the midwife wasn’t as enthusiastic as I’d meant it to sound – or maybe it was too enthusiastic. In any case, she followed up by asking if I’d like some leaflets to read. “Sure,” I said, trying not to sound too desperate. I’d read a few articles online (from trustworthy sources) – but something recommended by a real-life health professional was certainly welcome.

As she handed the papers to me, she pointed at the baby-led-weaning page on top. “Have you heard about baby-led weaning?”

“A little bit,” I replied. A couple of mummy bloggers I followed had mentioned it.

“Well, it’s not for everyone,” she said, “But if it’s something you want to try, it can be a good way to introduce solids – and you don’t have to worry about buying or making purees.”

I looked at the page, intrigued. Baby food was expensive and I’d destroyed a pan in the process of making my first puree.

“Basically, you just give her a little bit of whatever you’re eating,” she added.

I thanked her for the information, put the leaflets in my handbag and headed home. No purees! Just give her some of my food! This sounded perfect. This weaning thing would be a piece of cake.

That night, Daddy-man and I were having gnocchi and red pesto. It seemed like a very posh baby’s first meal, but we went with it.

“Just give her whatever we’re eating,” I repeated the advice over and over in my head – a little BLW mantra – as I strapped Pumpkin into her high chair. She was wearing only a nappy since it was hot out and I didn’t want to deal with pesto stains. Then I scraped some chopped gnocchi onto her tray.

She stared at it for a while, gave me a wry smile and swished her hand through it, sending pieces of pasta flying and covering her hand in sauce. I had expected the process to be messy and I wasn’t too concerned about that. “Just think of it as messy play time,” I told Daddy-man, and I sat down to eat my own dinner.

Moments later, however, Pumpkin burst into tears. I had no idea what was wrong, but looking back, I think she was frustrated because she was hungry and couldn’t actually pick up the food to eat it. I gave her some cuddles, made a bottle and let my own dinner go cold as she guzzled her formula.

Our next dinner time wasn’t any better. In fact, it was a basic repeat of the night before – except that the tension was getting to me as well.

To help Pumpkin calm down (and me too), we went for a walk outside. In the fresh air, the baby quickly quieted and started playing with her pram toys. I pulled out my phone and pleaded to Twitter for help.

The advice I got was fantastic: keep meal times as calm as possible, don’t try BLW when she’s really hungry, have a bottle ready at the end of meal time, give foods that she can hold easily.

I went back inside a little later, got a hug from Daddy-man and ate my once-again cold dinner. I was still feeling frustrated, but I had some good advice to keep me motivated.

The next day, I decided to try BLW at lunch instead of dinner. I started by giving Pumpkin half a bottle. Then I set her on my lap and handed her a piece of rolled-up ham. She loved it and happily gummed at it for a while before it landed on the ground. Then she got the rest of the bottle

Happy with the result, I tried something similar the next day – after having gone to the store and actually bought foods that would work for her. Steamed butternut squash, chopped into sticks.

Once again, I held her in my lap as she ate – she was so happy with it and when she finished it, we shared a graham cracker.

While things went well with her on my lap, meal time in the high chair continued to be a disaster. I finally concluded that she wasn’t comfortable in the big chair and she was having trouble reaching things on the tray.

Researching alternatives, I decided a Bumbo seat with tray might be a good investment. The seat would give her added support and the tray was nice and small. I found one that looked perfect on Gumtree for £10 and arranged to pick it up a few days later.

The Bumbo turned out to be exactly what we needed. At meal times, I’d clean off the play mat with some Dettol wipes and set the Bumbo right in the middle of it.

Pumpkin was happy to sit in the Bumbo, playing with her food and occasionally sticking bits in her mouth. Plus, if anything when something ended up on the floor (it ALL ended up on the floor), I knew it was landing on a clean surface so I could just give it back to her.

Using the Bumbo meant that tears were mostly gone from meal time and we experimented with all sorts of foods – scrambled eggs and stir-fried vegetables were two popular options for lunch and dinner.

Breakfast was still usually porridge. Mushed up banana also worked well first thing in the morning.

When she got a bit bigger, we started putting her in high chairs at restaurants too.

If she seemed wobbly, we’d put something behind her for a bit of support – the Munchkin nappy changing kit worked really well… but it didn’t stop her from throwing all the food on the floor. Sorry, Wetherspoon’s staff.

The scariest part of BLW, however, was watching the baby take giant mouthfuls of food. At first it was really difficult to resist the urge to reach in her mouth and pull it all out. Sometimes she gagged a little too.

But, it turns out babies are really good at not choking. That doesn’t mean you can leave them unattended – and choking is still a hazard to be worried about – but it took us a long time to calm down about it.

When the play mat was converted to a subfloor for the playpen, we moved the Bumbo to the floor – and just scrubbed the laminate with a Dettol wipe before each meal.

But when she figured out that playing with the Bumbo tray was preferable to actually eating her meals, we knew it was time to try the high chair again.

Feeling a bit on the adventurous side, we made the transition back to the high chair in style – with a meal of pasta and tomato sauce. Once again, she was wearing just a nappy.

She had an absolute blast and I was so relieved. It was certainly an improvement on our first attempts at BLW in the high chair, only a month-or-so earlier. Of course, after she finished ‘eating’ we hand to transfer her straight to the bath and I was finding pieces of pasta on the floor for days.

Now that she’s about 8 1/2 months, baby-led weaning has become the norm. Pumpkin still isn’t a fan of actually eating most food – instead she gnaws on it, squishes it in her fist and drops it on the floor. A few bits do normally get into her though, and each day we see improvements.

She’s really getting good at picking up smaller pieces, as she has perfected her pincer grasp.

 

For a short time a few weeks ago, we did revert back to purees for some meals – just because it seemed like she wasn’t actually eating any food. We opted for quite chunky baby foods and I think it did help her learn how to swallow solids a bit better. Recently, however, she has become little Miss Independent and doesn’t want me to feed her with a spoon at all.

In fact, we’ve had to switch to toast for breakfast because she wouldn’t even take porridge from a spoon – and I really don’t want to deal with a porridge-covered baby, high-chair and house first thing in the morning.

Cold carrot sticks are one of her favourite foods. I think she likes their sweet flavour and bright colour – but more importantly, they’re good to gnaw on to relieve teething pain.

I take carrots with us everywhere we go now, keeping them in a bag with an icepack so they remain cold.

Unlike most other foods, she almost never drops the carrot sticks, and I sometimes have trouble prying the mangled ones out of her little grip.

Although, the choice between carrot stick and sock can be a difficult one.Other favourite foods include beetroot crisps – although these result in dark pink stains all over everything – including the baby. She loves chicken, sweet potato, avocado – even foods I can’t stand like celery and cucumber.

Biscuits are another firm favourite – she’ll actually steal them from me.
Baby-led weaning hasn’t been as easy as I first expected, but once we figured it out it has been a lot of fun.

Pumpkin has gotten to try lots of new foods and we haven’t found anything that she doesn’t like yet. Plus, not having to make or buy purees means I have one less thing to think about (or spend money on).

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Have you tried baby led weaning? What were your experiences? I’d love to hear about them, so please share in the comments below.

Also, I’m going to be writing another post that includes top tips for BLW, so if you have any advice for those new to BLW, please share – I’ll try to include as many suggestions as I can (with credit, of course) in my next post.

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