Friday, April 1, 2011

SHM Meets BLW

I don't like to follow any "type" of parenting. I don't like to read parenting books or follow parenting trends, but I do like to find information that supports and guides me on things I think make sense. Enter BLW. Baby Led Weaning. I was a little stressed about being at work and Sonny being home or with the sitter and not having enough milk. Aside from nursing on demand when I am home with Sonny, I pump 5 times a day. Ugh. I don't like it but I do it cause I know it's best.

Anyway, I ran into a doula/lactation consultant I'm friends with and talked to her about my situation and all about Sonny. She said it sounded like he would was ready to eat some food, so I bought some organic yams from Fresh Direct (remember how much I love them), pureed it with breast milk and he loved it.


Then I was talking to another Mom about something and she mentioned that she gave her baby real live adult food from the beginning. I was intrigued. It made sense. Of course I had all the standard questions: What about choking? What about digestion? She told me to check out this website and mentioned the book Baby Led Weaning, which I then bought from Amazon. Although Sonny is not yet 6 months, he showed all the basic signs of being ready. He sits up with no support, he reaches for objects and puts them perfectly in his mouth without jabbing his eye or nose on accident, reaches for the food I am eating and he is super baby. Duh (eye roll).
I was so excited to try this because I knew he would just be thrilled. He was. His delight was not disappointing. At this stage in the game you don't expect that they will actually eat a lot of it. Babies just like to experiment with touch and taste, which then leads them to better eating habits and being more open to different flavors (or so they say).
I bought some organic broccoli (best starter food due to the "handle design") steamed it and set him in his highchair for the first time to join us eating dinner (he also had a few blueberries). He wasted no time guessing what to do with the food, within seconds he had a floret in his hand and them immediately in his mouth.

BOY WAS IT MESSY! I just laughed and loved every second of it. Sonny would smile so big with food all over his face. There was broccoli and blueberry everywhere.





Those pictures are great, but this one is fantastic:
I'm sure I'll blog more about BLW as I discover new things and try different foods. I'm really excited to let Sonny learn about food this way.

3 comments:

  1. You are a mother genius! (both not reading many parenting books and letting him dive into food) And look how into that broccoli he is. He wants to marry it!

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  2. It's so cool to see how much personality they have, even this early. Amelia was totally disinterested in food until nine months. Also, now that Amelia is officially a toddler, June is the cutest baby :)

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  3. Intriguing. I will be looking into this...

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