Not Quite BLW

So I set out with the intention to do BLW, but then I didn't REALLY get what it was--because I wanted my kid to eat healthier than I eat, which doesn't quite work with STRICT BLW (sharing food with baby).

And, as it happened, I got a baby with a million food allergies, and then, constipation issues (to rice, banana, apple, other grains, etc) . . . so he needed to eat mostly a prune/raisin/apricot/peach/squash/beet/carrot/soy yogurt, etc type diet while I am eating like fake mac and cheese and tofu pups and bean tacos and also healthier things, but typically flavored with soy sauce, nutritional yeast, "butter", tchratcha sauce, etc . . . so, he can't eat it.

So this is what we've been doing. Now at nearly 11 months he's been having 3 meals a day. Breakfast at 8 am is the most recent meal addition--we started that third meal maybe a month ago, around 9.5-10 months. He wants to eat by like 7:30 - 8 and I couldn't deal with the mess of letting him self feed. So this is this one meal that I feed him soft food with a spoon and don't let him even help more than one or two seconds per morning . . .

So, 8 am, I feed him unsweentened soy yogurt mixed with diced rehydrated prunes and prune syrup. The prune adds some sweet to the unsweetened yogurt, plus this whole mix gets his sensitive system started out right, so he doesn't get constipated.

Then at noon he eats lunch, and at this point we do let him self-feed, but it's not really what we are eating. He usually eats a few prunes, or sometimes raisins or apricots (all rehydrated--ie, floating in water/syrup and all wet and MESSY but ideal for promoting pooping). And then usually some kind of veggie--grated carrot or beet or daikon, etc--steamed broccoli, asparagus, green, etc--sliced tomato or avocado, etc. And then usually some other kind of whole fresh fruit--slice of mango or kiwi or a whole peach, plum, nectarine--now just starting to give apples and it seems to be going okay (woot).

Repeat a similar style of meal around 4pm--his dinner I suppose. I also try to give him some kind of easy-to-eat protein once a day, like tofu, lentils, hummus, bean soup, etc. He LOVES hummus but I need to make my own because all the brand ones make him react.

And then sometimes he has dinner with us (usually a small amount of a selection of what we are having if we eat before 6:30)--otherwise we eat after he goes to bed.

So I guess as he approaches a year I'm thinking of making that 6:30 meal more significant (and prob changing 4pm dinner to 2-3pm snack). I might even make buckwheat/quinoa cereal with breastmilk (and mixed with prunes/raisins) and let him practice eating with a spoon at that meal/us feeding him.

So that's where we are at! In terms of self-feeding, it's going really well. He loves to eat, he loves all food basically. He'll eat for a half hour, fairly steadily, when he has lunch and dinner. He does the pincer grasp and is really good at eating everything with his hands, including whole unpeeled fruit. Like any 11 month old baby (I would think) he's not great with using spoons/forks, and we aren't great at letting him practice because he's actually more messy than when he uses his hands. Maybe that will be part of "dinner" now, too. He did actually "get" recently the whole putting the spoon/fork in the spoon as a means to eat, so I guess now it's time to practice, hehe.

Sorry for not updating more--james LOVES the computer and he won't let me type when he's awake. And when he's napping there is so much more to do! And in the evening I am so tired, I've been going to bed at like 8 or 9. And sometimes he doesn't fall asleep until 8:30, sooooo yeah. And sorry also if I have been a bad friend/family member in terms of calling back/hanging out. This parenting stuff is totes a full time job!! Mama's tired.

Movie Monday: My First Vlog (Baby Led Weaning)

I guess these two videos would consist of my first ever vlog! (If anyone knows of a free/cheap/easy/common program I could use to do basic video editing, please leave a suggestion in the comments).

Anyway, here we get to see james eating oatmeal, practicing his food skillz, and me heralding baby led weaning once again, haha.

With this said, too, purees are totally fine/great, too--james LOVES when we give him "pureed" food (like hummus and dahl, he's had now) because it's so easy for him to eat! But I totally think the straight to table food method is the way to go for the majority of foods (for the majority of kids).

And here's why . . . (in two parts)

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 . . .

Movie Monday: Explorations with Bananas

Over the last month, I have been letting James "try" eating every week or so. Pretty much exclusively with banana. In this series of videos from 4 months and one week until 5 months, you can see him getting better and better with banana!

Here is James having his first taste of banana at 4 months plus one week. He showed interest so I let him try. However in 15 minutes this is definitely the most successful he gets:



I waited a week and then tried again. This time, at 4.5 months, he manages to take a "bite" but just gags on it and spits it out. Gagging is perfectly safe and is not to be confused with CHOKING, which it actually PREVENTS.



And here is a few days later, getting better still:



A minute later, you see him using my hand as a tool for self-feeding--a common strategy among young self-feeding babies!



Finally here he is at almost five months. At this point you see he is able to use multiple strategies to suck, lick, and otherwise "eat" the banana.



I still don't think he's eaten very much, but I think in 2 more weeks he might be starting to!

Baby Led Weaning--and when to start solids . . .

Before I had James, I thought that the professional medical guidelines on when to start solids said 6 months, and I would wait until 6 months, gosh darn it, and couldn't understand why people were so eager to start sooner.

But now I get it. One thing I've realized and didn't quite understand before is that baby skillz develop continually. You see them put together a little piece here and there and all of a sudden they have gone from spontaneous movements, to controlling their legs and arms, to controlling their hands, to their fingers and when the pincer grasp begins it's all these months of effort since birth that have made it possible.

And every baby is unique. At this point I seriously think that some babies are ready to start solids a little earlier--4, 4.5, 5 months, and some, obviously, are not interested until later--9/10 months. Six months is just an average and while babies don't NEED food sooner than six months (or even a year or longer, if breastfeeding), some may be ready and willing sooner.

Here are the signs of readiness for solids from Kellymom:

Signs that indicate baby is developmentally ready for solids include:

* Baby can sit up well without support. (James sits with support)
* Baby has lost the tongue-thrust reflex and does not automatically push solids out of his mouth with his tongue. (Still has this)
* Baby is ready and willing to chew. (He has this! He chews on everything!)
* Baby is developing a “pincer” grasp, where he picks up food or other objects between thumb and forefinger. Using the fingers and scraping the food into the palm of the hand (palmar grasp) does not substitute for pincer grasp development. (He doesn't have a pincer grasp yet, but he's close. Definitely has the Palmar.)
* Baby is eager to participate in mealtime and may try to grab food and put it in his mouth. (Yep!)

So at 4.5 months, James isn't quite ready to start solids, but he's pretty close.

I believe in baby-led weaning . . . this is perhaps a misleading name--it basically means feeding foods in their whole natural form, not feeding purees, rice cereals, etc. So baby's first foods become a banana, an avocado, a sweet potato, steamed broccoli, (or homemade rice or oatmeal porridge with breastmilk), etc. By six months, many babies will pick up a banana and eat away quite successfully. By four months, many babies (such as mine) will have a sincere interest and desire to ingest the banana. This is where the readiness to start solids is seeded--in desire, so he will WANT the banana first. And he does.

So, if given the banana, he will try to pick it up. After many tries, he will succeed! He will try to bring it to his mouth . . . and he will succeed! He will try to eat it--and here he will fail. He can lick the banana and may ingest a few banana molecules but his mouth is still hard-wired to breastfeed--the tongue thrust reflex, that sends purees right out of the mouth, too, is still present. So to me, this means that he's not REALLY ready to EAT food yet. His gut is as immature as his tongue thrust reflex, and they protect his body from all but the most perfect nutrition.

However, he's pretty close, right? If I follow baby-led weaning and just let him keep trying to eat, he will eventually succeed. Will it be the day he turns 6 months old? Probably not--it might be sooner. I'm just going to relax and let his skillz dictate his own pace.

This confidence I can feel in him being able to pace himself is one of many many advantages to Baby Led Weaning, in my opinion. Here's a few others:

-Baby learns a variety of food textures from the beginning, which may lead to less picky toddler eating
-Baby learns how to manipulate food in his mouth and chew in a natural way
-Baby learns ABOUT different foods--what they look like in their whole food form and what they taste like, which helps to develop a trust in food
-It is cheap. Baby food is so expensive and after reading the baby led weaning book I almost feel like it's a scam.
-It is easy. You can just let your baby try the food that you are eating. No making separate food for baby, no sitting there with a spoon coaxing the baby to eat.
-Baby controls his eating, just like with breastfeeding. Anyone who has ever breastfed knows it's impossible to force a baby to breastfeed. Therefore, babies control their eating from birth and naturally know when they are hungry and when foods they like and don't like. Babies often instinctively avoid allergic foods. So letting a baby pick and choose what foods to eat means that you don't turn eating into a power struggle.
-And more. I highly recommend Baby Led Weaning to anyone!

With this being said, some babies who are sensitive to textures may not be into eating whole foods until they are much older--10 months, a year, etc. Which means a lot of people find purees work for them, too, if they want to start solids before the baby gets into textures. Whatevs I think.

I think this is one of many areas that a Mom is the expert on her own baby. Especially a Mom that does her research and makes an informed decision, regardless of what it is.