Day one of baby led weaning. We decided to go down the baby led weaning route. I'm probably not the best source of information on what baby led weaning is, there are books and websites on the subject if you're interested. But it basically means that you skip the long puree stage and instead let your baby choose what and when to eat. The first few months focus on learning about tastes and how to eat, accepting that she might just play with food for a few weeks, rather than worrying about shovelling as much as you can into your baby. She'll be okay, her milk feeds will provide all she needs, so it's allowed to be a long, slow process. You're supposed to provide different foods that she can pick up and chew with her gums, a few options at every meal. I like that there's a huge emphasis on family meals together, and because she's not eating mush Rose will be having the same meals as us from really early on. I also love that food will be seen as something to learn about and share - Rose will know what carrots, broccolli etc is from day one rather than all food being a bright orange bowl of mush. So, Day one...
Breakfast of champions: banana, toast (thought I'd keep the options to a minimum for the first go!)
The first solid meal of Rose's life was SO MUCH FUN! She made me laugh the whole time. She is teething at the moment, so is desperate to chew on anything and everything, which meant that the food VERY quickly made it's way to her mouth. She was so suprised when some toast broke off in her mouth, but she seemed to really enjoy having a good suck...although she made some very funny bleugh faces when she felt crumbs left in her mouth! But it was the banana which was the biggest laugh. I already call her our little monkey, and she looked like an excellent little ape chasing a lump of banana round the highchair-surface...
I was so proud when she managed to first get it in her tiny fists and into her mouth. This face sums up the suprise at how it tasted/felt in her mouth...
For lunch Rose had a rice cake, which was another great success and excellent for sucking, some steamed carrots and some cheese. The cheese was HILARIOUS. In retrospect I maybe should have planned ahead and bought her some mild cheese especially. The carrots were a bit small for her to pick up and eat, so I'll have to make longer ones next time.
Here's her cheese face...
Teatime wasn't such a success, she's generally a bit cranky in the evenings, and showed little interest in her platter of broccoli and sweet potato.
Today, Day Two, we had fairly similar meals. Breakfast was lots of fruit; banana, apple and pear. She took it slowly, but had a go at them all, and again it was just really nice time spent together while I drank some coffee and ate the other half of each of her fruits. Lunch was another go at sweet potato and broccoli, with some toast because I knew she'd be good at holding that from watching her the previous day. She wasn't mad about sweet potato or broccoli, the sweet potato caused her problems holding and she kept squishing it into her hand and them throwing it away. And I don't think she liked the taste of broccoli so we'll have to keep trying that one! For tea I gave her avocado, cucumber and a rice cake. She was great with them all! Like her breakfast she took her time, but it was great watching all her effort picking stuff up and then getting it to her mouth. It's hard to put into words just how smeared in avocado she was by the end. And the mushy mess all tucked into her lap was pretty funny at the end.
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