Baby-Led Weaning

Worth the Wait

We finally did it! Jellybean had his first solid food and it was.....messy. Granted, I've been given him tastes of bananas, melons, tomatoes, anything I'm eating that hasn't been processed or cooked. But in those situations, I never gave him the food and let him go at it. Waiting until six months was definitely a huge challenge for me. As much as I want to hold on to Jellybean's infancy, I'm eager to introduce the world to him and reach those milestones. At four months, when just about everyone told me he could start eating solids, I started doing research. Although still relatively new, baby led weaning (BLW)  made a lot of sense to me. I know rice cereals and oatmeal has been the first food of choice for decades now and BLW is the new trend, I went with what my instincts told me to do. No amount of research can trump a mother's instinct. And mine was telling me that the "norm" wasn't necessarily "the right way." Two major things made waiting until six months challenging. First, I was impatient. I was  eager to capture those messy food moments and start feeding my kiddo from a spoon. The second was my milk supply was having a hard time keeping up with his GROWING appetite. I reminded myself that my little man's stomach wasn't ready to process real food yet, and waiting was doing him a whole lot of good. I mean, the kid is 18.5lbs from breast milk alone! He wasn't suffering from any nutrition deficit on his strictly breastfed diet, so why should my selfishness every get in the way of his wellbeing? Regarding the breast milk...I had to rely on my frozen stash quite a bit, took fenugreek (not quite sure it worked), upped my oatmeal intake (through oatmeal raisin cookies), and chugged water. When I needed words of encouragement, my sister in law Samantha was there to provide it since she was doing the BLW method too. 

Game Time

I asked Matt to pick up some sweet potatoes and avocadoes from the Whole Foods he lives above in D.C. and bring it down to us. I'm not a stickler for organic foods, but, when it comes to Jellybean, I'll opt for the Whole Foods variety. Bless my husband's heart and all, but he brought Japanese Sweet Potatoes which I couldn't feed Jellybean as a first food. So avocado it was! I sliced the avocado, placed them on his high chair, and eagerly watched as my kiddo did.....NOTHING. All that build up, all that hype, only to watch him just laugh and smile at me. I guess I didn't think about the fact that he wouldn't know what to do with the avocado! I placed the first slice in his hand it he mushed it right up. Nothing went in his mouth. It was pretty anticlimactic to say the least. He definitely had more fun mashing the avocado between his fingers than he did trying to eat it. Eventually, he figured out that what he was mashing actually tasted good and would get a few lucky pieces into that mouth of his. Watching him gum the pieces of green fruit was definitely good entertainment. He's still working on the swallowing part. Out of everyone in the family, I'm pretty sure Abby had the most fun as she waited anxiously for Jellybean to throw avocado from his high chair. It helped make the cleanup process easier though! 

Since Jellybean loves bath time so much, it wasn't that hard to clean him up. This kid of mine could stay in the bath for hours, get al prune like, and still have a big smile on his face. 

Jellybean's first food! 

Cutting them into long strips makes for easier handling. 

Abby stood ready to eat whatever was dropped on the floor. 

He made such a big mess, but it was so much fun! 

Lessons Learned 

1. Do your homework. This seems to be a theme in my posts. I know I harp on following my instincts, but there's something to be said about researching too. I feel like the more data I'm armed with, the better my decisions will be. I read a lot on other moms and their first experiences with BLW and it helped me get a game plan together on how I would introduce Jellybean to his first food. 
2. It will get messy! I found avocado in places I didn't even know avocado could reach. But it was all in good fun and I loved seeing Jellybean's reaction to the texture of smushed up avocado between his fingers. 
3.  I was terrified of him choking, but was reassured during my research that there's a huge difference between gagging and choking. Kiddos will gag in order to prevent the more dangerous choking from happening. And although he'd never experienced solids before, the smooth texture of the avocado made it easy to gum. Their tiny bodies are equipped with everything they need to prevent anything serious from happening so as long as mama kept a good eye on his avocado adventure, he was good to go! 
4.  I'm pretty sure Abby ate more avocado than Jellybean. I read that the first few times are about him getting used to this new experience. Just give it a few more times and he'll learn that most of that fruit is supposed to go in his mouth as opposed to all those other places I kept finding it in! For the first time around, it's all about learning. And I'm more than ok with that. 
5.  Phone, point and shoot, DSLR, you name it, I had it ready! I probably took 200 pictures and way too many videos of the whole event. 
6.  Don't rush them and don't put the food in their mouth for them. Jellybean was in control the whole time and although I was a little bummed that he didn't immediately pick up the spears of avocado and start munching away, we did everything on his terms so he could have full control of the situation. 
7. Don't spend the entire time behind the camera. I've noticed far too many times that parents are so bent on taking pictures and video of everything that they forget to live in the moment and enjoy it with their little one! I  had to be consciously aware of putting the camera down and taking the time to just experience that whole process with my little one. Because really, who needs 50 pictures of the same avocado smeared face? Ok, maybe I do....
8. It's all about the bib. Well, not all about the bib but a good one helps, sort of. The Baby Bjorn ones are easy to clean and caught a lot of the big chunks Jellybean kept throwing around. Honestly, I don't even know why I put a bib on him in the first place. The avocado was EVERYWHERE. I imagine once he gets the hang of eating food, bibs will be more useful. In the meantime, I'm just going to enjoy how adorable he looks wearing one. 
9. Practice makes permanent. I'm so excited to try this again tonight, and tomorrow night, and introduce other foods to him. I've read that it's ok to introduce a new food every day and also read that you should stick the same food for a few days before introducing a new one. We'll probably do a new food item every 2-3 days. Now that I've started, I don't want to stop and regress. My little man has to learn what to do with that avocado, so, in addition to all the other things I have to make time for, BLW is just another one to add on that list. And I'm totally ok with that! 
10. BLW doesn't mean weaning off breast milk. Jellybean will continue to nurse until at least 12 months. I made sure he had a pretty full belly before introducing the avocado to avoid him being too frustrated out of hunger to really enjoy the experience. For these first few months, eating solids won't be about replacing the nourishment I can still provide him. It's about introducing him to new foods, nourishment IN ADDITION TO what I give him from my milk, and working on those fine motor skills that will facilitate the true breast milk weaning process later on.