Feeding time at the zoo!

I'm clearly not much cop at this blogging stuff as it's been over a month since I last blogged! This is due to a combination of a lack of inspiration, an elderly laptop being slow and annoying and a Kraken that seems to require much more attention all of a sudden. My lovely twitter friend, @Mrsfinn86 suggested that I blogged about our recent adventures in the world of weaning, a process we've recently started with the Kraken.
After speaking to my rather nice health visitor, we decided that we wanted to try the approach called 'Baby Led Weaning', rather than traditional weaning. The main principle of BLW is that you don't give purees but instead give your child a range of appropriate foods to self feed with. The child is in control of how much or how little they eat, and you just let them get on with it. A much more detailed explanation of the process can be found here at the Baby Led Weaning website, a great site to check out if you're interested in BLW. I'm not going to debate traditional v BLW, as my personal view is that we do whatever is right for us and our child as individuals. As long as your babies get fed, and you're not giving them pureed Maccy D's at 4 months, or BLW with popping candy, whatever works for you and your baby is fabulous. 

BLW appealed to me for a few reasons. As I've breastfeed The Kraken on demand, I'm used to the idea of allowing my baby to control his own milk intake and am quite comfortable with trusting his instincts when it comes to food. Being frank, I'm also a bit lazy. The opportunity to bypass years of "Open wide 'cos here comes the choo choo train..." was too good to pass. It also meant that I would get out of cooking and pureeing veg especially for his tea. I was given a number of books written by a rather famous expert on weaning foods, and while the recipes looked nice, they also looked massively labour intensive. When I go back to work in a few months, my spare time will be minimal, and I want to spend that time with The Kraken, rather than preparing food especially for him. BLW felt like quite a laid back process, and I'm always drawn to the path of least resistance.

We began weaning when The Kraken was 5 months old. The BLW resources suggest that you wait till 6 months, and till a child displays a number of signs that indicate they are ready to wean, the main one being that the child is able to sit properly unsupported. We started a little bit early, as he was sitting quite comfortably unaided, and I was getting sick of him trying to steal and eat my food. In the words of Joey from Friends, MUMMY DOESN'T SHARE FOOD. We decided to leave out gluten and meat until he was older as they are harder to digest, and started with soft, easily digested vegetable pieces. His first 'official' food was roasted sweet potato wedges.

NOMZ

As you can see, they blew his tiny little mind. It was so much fun seeing him explore the taste and texture for the first time. Sweet potato is an ideal first food, as it's not too strongly flavoured and has a firm but easily chewed texture. We've since progressed onto lots of different food - his current favourite is red pepper, which surprised me, as I thought it might be too bitter for him.

Fangs for dinner, Mum. 

Having experienced a few weeks of BLW, my advice/observations to anyone wanting to try it out would be:

* It's messy. Embrace it. I don't even bother with a bib - it just annoys him and distracts him from the food. Just accept that you will have to change their clothes after a meal. You will find food in the oddest of places. We've had broccoli in his belly button, which scared the bejeezles out of me. I thought he had gangrene for an awful moment. I've found that stripping him to his vest, and placing a plasticated sheet underneath his high chair keeps the mess to a minimum. We're going to invest in an apron style bib for when he gets older, as I don't think I'll be able to strip him to his undies when we go out for meals...

* Don't worry if they don't appear to actually eat anything after 20 minutes of carrot abuse. It's a learning process, where they are developing motor and feeding skills rather than an exercise in filling them up. My mum swears that babies actually have the ability to absorb nutrients through their skin and hair for the first few years of their lives...however, you will be surprised at how much they actually manage to swallow, despite them appearing to wear most of it. Which leads me onto the next point:

* Nappies will become a lot more...interesting. There will be evidence of how much they managed to eat. And if you've given them banana, there will be weird little black worms in their poo. It's just the seeds that they haven't managed to digest, and perfectly normal. Don't do what I did, and panic that your child has some form of tropical threadworm disease.

* Don't freak out if they gag! Gagging isn't choking, it's a completely normal mechanism and a baby's gag reflex kicks in far closer to the front of the mouth than in adults. As they become more adept at managing feeding, this will pass. The Kraken is as greedy as his mother, and tried to cram in as much as he could the first few times and ended up gagging. After a few mealtimes of this, he soon got the idea and he's never gagged since.

* Enjoy the social mealtime. I love sitting down as a family at the table for tea, and sharing a meal together. We all eat at the same time, and eat the same thing, rather than me feeding the baby separately then attempting to eat my own tea later. The Kraken is so sociable and chatty at meal times, and it's quickly become our favourite part of the day. We've even had a big meal at my friend's house, where The Kraken had a selection of the same veg that we had to try. He loved being with everyone, and it was very special being able to have him fully participate in that social event despite being so young.

* Don't overthink what you feed them, just use your common sense. So long as it's soft enough for them to mush in their gums, and of a size they can easily grab, it's fine. We've found that pieces big enough for him to grab in his fist but with a bit still sticking out work best. My personal 'rules' are - no salt or processed sugar, no gluten too early, nothing too small that could pose a choking risk, like nuts, and nothing too 'wet' as he struggles to hold it. Things we've tried that have worked well are banana, sweet potato, broccoli on the stem, cauliflower, carrot, sprouts, baby corn, roasted peppers and avocado. He liked cucumber, but it was far too slippy for him to hold. Be creative with what you put on toast as well. I mashed a banana onto unbuttered toast and sliced it to make finger sized banana toasties. He adores these, and sucks the banana out of the centre. Also, food pieces make excellent teething toys straight from the fridge.

* Your own eating habits will probably change. I'm much more conscious about making healthier eating choices, and very aware that The Kraken is learning about food with us as his role models. I now make the effort to buy more fresh veg and fruit each week, and we're eating a much more balanced diet. The Kraken will only eat something if he can see that it's something we're eating too, so I'm trying to make sure we eat well.

* It's fun. I know that sounds odd, but we've enjoyed it so much. The Kraken gets giddy as a kipper when we put him in his high chair as he knows that means food time. It's exciting seeing him explore food, and we've noticed a very rapid development of his physical skills. He's not just eating, he's developing his hand-eye co-ordination, his fine motor-skills, spatial awareness and learning about tastes and textures in a way that's totally child-led exploration. Plus he's getting the ultimate reward for using these skills - a gobful of food!

If you want to learn more about BLW and the theory behind it, then the Gill Rapley book 'Baby Led Weaning' is the BLW bible, and there are many online support/advice groups which I found invaluable.I'd love to hear how you weaned your children - what approach did you take?

Ignore the messy kitchen and focus on the cute baby!