Going forward with Baby-Led Weaning @ 6 months!

james is getting better and better at eating. Meaning that I think just about a week or two ago, he actually successful bit off, chewed, and swallowed his first chunk of banana after over a month of attempts.

Since he and I were sick, there was almost a week where I didn't bother trying to give him any food at all. So at this point he's not replacing ANY breastfeeding calories with food calories. But his food and eating skills are definitely improving.

I'm holding off a lot because I originally didn't want to give him anything that he'd originally tested as sensitive to (even though we have gotten most things treated now with AAT), but that is a LOT LOT LOT of stuff, so I'm thinking now I might just avoid the obvious things, otherwise we will not really be able to share our food with him very often at all.

So anyway, up until now I've been VERY exploratory with baby-led weaning--meaning I only usually give him small amounts of food, and definitely not every day. I think at this point he has "tried":

Banana
Avocado
Broccoli
Asparagus
Hummus
Potato Chips (I know I'm awful)
Rye Crackers
Spinach
Rice
Apple
Pear

But literally with all of these things over the last month and a half, I would bet he's actually digested less than 2 tablespoons of food TOTAL. And that one of those was in the last week . . . (and honestly I don't think he's done more than lick apple and pear . . . )

So I got a little nervous actually when he ate this first bite of banana, and then for like an entire week I barely gave him anything. Nervous like, I take it back, I'm not ready for my baby to eat food! I think it will be hard for me when he decides he'd rather eat food than have a breastfeed, you know?

But I think, now that he's nearly 6 months, I'm "ready" to go forward. And now we've treated a LOT of things with AAT (have to update about that, later), so I also think that I might stop being a little less careful about minor ingredients that he had originally reacted to. I've been doing that with my own diet for awhile now without any negative effects on him, so I think it will be okay. Since wheat is his most serious allergy, I will definitely completely avoid giving him that (and peanuts and other nuts, just because those allergies tend to be serious) for a LONG time, but small amounts of tomato, corn, yeast, etc, inside other foods that I'm using to cook with? I'm going to have to relax on that unless I want to cook him separate meals. And he doesn't want separate meals, I already can tell.

I also might go shopping soon for some little snacks and things that he can eat (since all the normal stuff like Cheerios and Goldfish are out). I'm excited but also, as I talked about yesterday, sad about my boy growing up . . .