Anne is just over 8 months old now, and we've been doing her introduction to solid foods by the method known as "Baby Led Weaning" since she was 6 months old. I absolutely love it. Anne loves it. She gets so excited at dinner time when we put her in the highchair, often protesting loudly if I don't get her portion of our meal to her quickly enough. If she sees us eating something, she has to have a taste of it. I am confident Anne will never have the typical "white diet" most kids have (pasta, chicken nuggets, etc. only) because she already loves things like broccoli, zucchini, green beans, and eggplant as well as meat like steak and an assortment of fruits, like strawberries, blueberries, bananas, etc. If it's a green veggie, it always goes in her mouth first before anything else on her plate, with no cajoling from us.
Baby Led Weaning (BLW) is a way to introduce solid food without using purees at all, by waiting until your child is 6 months old (instead of 4 months like with traditional puree introduction), and by giving them table food from the get-go. Because of the slightly delayed introduction, BLW might work better with a breastfed baby than a formula-fed baby since the calorie intake is different, but you can do it with either. You let your child feed themselves, which teaches them hand-eye coordination, portion control, how to manipulate the food in their mouth for swallowing, and how to chew. Because they are in control of what they put in their mouth, they're more open to trying new textures, colors, and tastes. Whatever you cook for yourself, you just give your baby a portion of, whole and not pureed, and let them explore the food. Salt, family food allergies, and dangerous foods like honey (botulism) nuts (too hard, actual choking hazard) are things to take into consideration, but for the most part pretty much every food you eat you can feed to your baby.
I found BLW just before Anne turned 4 months old, when we had intended to use purees like most people do. I was going to make her own baby food at home with a blender so I would know it wasn't full of preservatives and other junk I didn't want to feed her. And then I read about BLW, and decided to try this route, partially because I thought I would take the lazy route and not have to make her food. I can't tell you how glad I am that we did it. (though it being less work is debatable, considering the mess it makes and the forethought I have to put into preparing meals she can manage to pick up with her fingers).
In the beginning, Anne gagged fairly frequently, as the book about BLW explains will happen and is normal. It's simply her body's way of letting her know she stuffed too much food in her mouth. A baby's gag reflex is much farther forward on their tongues than an adult, which actually helps prevent choking (the #1 fear of any parent giving their baby solid food). She has never choked, though I will say the gagging sound is very disconcerting until you get used to it and my heart *might* have stopped beating a couple of times while I held my breath and waited for her to work it out by herself. Also in the beginning, it's mostly play and exploration more than eating, but babies get very little nutrition from solid foods until they're about a year old. Most of their nutrition comes from breastmilk or formula, so it doesn't matter how much she's eating or not eating as long as she's drinking enough milk. In the beginning, it's all about learning how to handle the food first.
When Anne was about 7 months old, she started drinking more milk at daycare than I could pump, but we weren't ready to send solid food yet because she was still gagging off and on and we weren't comfortable with the teachers being the ones to monitor her while she ate. So I did send some purees, some baby oatmeal cereal, and baby yogurt for about 2 weeks until I felt like she was better at moving the food around in her mouth and swallowing. I think she's had two servings of peas and carrots each, and that's it for the purees. I do still send the baby cereal and yogurt, but I don't consider those to be purees so much because yogurt is a normal food even for adults and the cereal has a slightly mushier texture than regular oatmeal. But she gets solid table food for lunch.
It seems like almost overnight she's suddenly started really eating and not just playing with her food and spitting most of it out. Over this past weekend she ate strawberries, blueberries and tomatoes, chomped on a piece of steak, and bit into corn on the cob while I held it up to her mouth for her. I think having that upper tooth is really helping because she can bite into more things now. But she's chewing and swallowing, and not gagging anymore, and she's gotten much better at the pincer grasp for picking up little pieces of food. It's fun to watch her pick up something small and manipulate it in her hand until she can get it into a position good for putting it in her mouth. Watching her eat is amazing.
If we've eaten it, she's had a taste of it, or at least it's been offered to her. Some things she's completely ignored (like lima beans...maybe she takes after Kristian, who hates them. lol) but most of it she at least tries. I ordered Panang Curry on Friday from Chin Chin and gave her some of the potatoes, veggies, and meat out of it. She loved it. How many parents who do traditional puree introduction can say their child loved curry at 8 months old?
I look forward to her learning how to use utensils, but in the meantime it's fun to watch her manipulate the food in her hands. At least until she flings it to the floor anyway. ;-)
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