Baby led weaning is going spectacularly. We hit the one month mark of solids and our confidence started to waver that this way of feeding him was even going to work because he didn’t seem to actually be consuming much. He would gnaw a little and when a piece went in his mouth his facial expression the very definition of horrified. He would thrust his tongue out until the food was good and gone, landing back on the tray (you’re welcome).
We decided to stick with it, though and not even a week later OBaby’s eating skill was clearly making leaps and bounds of progress. The look of horror is mostly gone (unless it’s a new food) and he actually swallows every now and again (as evidenced by poop changes (you’re welcome)).
Our very favorite foods are banana, peaches, pears, avocado, egg, and toast. Well, those are our favorites because those are the staples right now. Everything that he’s tried 3 times or more has become a favorite, especially last week.
This way of feeding OBaby has been good for our whole family. Sure it’s more convenient than having to spoon feed him, but I am also being challenged to use the food he eats at least part of our meal (with the exception of egg so far). This makes me serve a salad with avocado on it, when I might have otherwise rushed to just plate up the entree. We’ve had pears and peaches with dinner more times this month than we have since he was born. I feel like being so intentional about his healthy eating habits has had a directly positive effect on ours.
Isn’t baby lead weaning great? I don’t serve my son processed foods, so I end up serving DanO and myself unprocessed foods, too. Goodness all around.
We’re doing a bit of a solid foods hiatus right now to let his throat heal, but we’ll be back at it when he’s back at it.
This just made my morning! What an adorable little tyke, I’m praying he feels better soon! I think the avocado shmear is really what takes the cake here. You should market that to Noah’s bagels ;) …or whatever bagel place reigns there.
My little one loves avocado as well! I still puree and spoon feed my babe though, how does OBaby deal with the large chunks? Does he take small bites? I would love to try giving mine whole pieces like that, but I just get so worried that he will shove the whole thing in his mouth and choke!
I have eaten 7 avocados in three days, and the little one hasn’t gotten a single bite…haha…I love them too much!
I’ll be honest, I hate the mess with baby led weaning. So, I don’t really feed him much food…is that sad or what?
How fun! I don’t think I’ll ever get over his many, many adorable expressions.
I think I want an avocado now…
My kids had avocado today too!
Oh and I just noticed, he is wearing the same sweater he was wearing when he first tried out the hight chair. Crazy thing to notice, but I am a crazy fan:))
Joshua is obsessed with avocados! so much that we gave it to him for over a week because he could not get enough of it!
you have inspired me to try this with my little guy! i think it will be great to share the ,eal time with him rather than feed him then us. here is another instance where reading mommy blogs has opened my eyes to all things baby and natural. thank you from me and my little man!
banana, peaches, pears, avocado, egg, and toast are my favorites too… that and loaded baked potatos & oreos… lol
Cute! I still can’t convince my daughter to eat avocados!
Avocado is one of the best foods EVER. And he’s so cute eating it…
I’ve enjoyed reading your blog tonight! Great stuff. I was just turned on to the concept of baby led weaning this week. We’ve got several months before Everly is ready for solids – but I’m so happy to see it working well for your family. I’ll be checking in to see how things progress for your little man.
Best,
M
Yum! How fun! I’ll bet being intentional about meals makes you feel very accomplished!
hey, I’m new to your blog (my mother inlaw sent me the link, actually. she’s also speaking at the casual bloggers conference) and just love this post. I recently told my husband that one of the first foods I want to give our son is avocado. for some reason he thinks that’s weird. I don’t know why. but I was just interested in your baby led weaning strategy. how old is your baby? my little guy is just a little over five months, so I’m just starting to think about the introduction of solids. I know I want to give him real foods (I try to not eat processed foods, so why would I give that to my son?) but don’t know if I should go the pureed route or just start letting him eat things himself when he’s ready.
Hi Anna!
I love baby lead weaning (I think it’s kind of a misnomer – more like baby lead eating). OBaby is 7.5 months now, but we have been putting food in front of him since he was 6 mo. The link in this post has a little bit more about why we chose to do BLW, and in the comments of that post, a BLW advocate and author left some great advice and LINKS to more resources. I recommend checking that out. Originally, I was going to make out baby food because, like you, I didn’t want to serve OBaby processed stuff. Then I came across BLW and we haven’t looked back! Best of luck!
Who is your MIL speaking @ CBC, by the way?
-AllisonO
my MIL is marty halverson
I’ll definitely have to check out those links. thanks!