First Solid Foods and all about Baby-Led Weaning

Mattimeo trying solid food for the first time (almost 6 months)

Mattimeo ate solid foods for the first time this weekend! I really can't believe that it has gotten to the point for him to be doing that yet, but he certainly has! I had been trying very, very hard to not give him solids until he was at least six months (as recommended by pediatricians), but he wasn't having it. Seriously. Eating anything in front of him made me feel like I had tied him onto a wooden plank and was yanking his arms and legs in different directions; abstinence from food was torturing the poor guy! I figure that if he had been born on his "due date", he would be six month in two days anyways. Plus, he seems to be developing a little ahead of the developmental curve (you may recall that our pediatrician referred to him as a developmental superstar hehe). Anyways, here are the signs that convinced us there was no point on waiting anymore.

• Since he was about three and a half months old, he has been putting everything he can find into his mouth. Around four months he started wanting everything I put in my mouth too. He would reach for my plate and try to take my utensils. He would stop nursing every time I drank because he was so fascinated and he wanted to reach for my glass. This is just evidence that he is curious about his surroundings and what Mama is doing...not really enough to convince me to start giving him solids.
• He can sit up with support now perfectly, and can even sit for extended periods of time without support now. He gets better everyday in fact. Today he was sitting all by himself and bending forward to pick up blocks, then returning to an upright position. He is still not to the point where I would feel comfortable not being right next to him in case he tumbled over, but he is getting very close! It's amazing how much better he gets at sitting each day! Part of the reason why it recommended you wait until babies are six months old for solids is so that the muscles in their stomach and intestines are strong and thick. Sitting up is evidence that they've reached that point.
• He started not only putting things up to his mouth to explore them (aka slime them), but to taste them and chew them as well.
• He can sit perfectly straight in his high chair.
• He was becoming very difficult to eat around! No matter if he was in my lap, someone elses lap who was in the same room as me, one of his chairs surrounded by toys, or jumping in his jumparoo...if he saw me eating food, he had to have it! (He reminds me of Noah in the Notebook when he first asks Ally on a date...if Ally was food)

• In restaurants he would make a scene if he couldn't have food. The last time Robbie and I went out to lunch at Panera Bread with Robbie, he devoured 3 napkins, 1 paper bag, nearly pulled my plate off the table, got a handful of salad, and slobbered all over my cup as he yanked it towards his mouth. I had trouble nursing him because he was so distracted!
• The other night he grabbed my fork that had a half eaten brussel sprout on it and jammed the brussel sprout in his mouth! Then he tried chewing it up! If that isn't telling you he's ready for food, I don't know what is!

So for these reasons, he is now eating food.

But then there is the whole issue of how to start him on solids. Basically no one agrees on how this should be done and everyone has an opinion. At our four month pediatrician visit, our doctor told me that he could start solids any time but it was best to try to wait until 6 months unless he started really acting like he wanted food. She said there was no need to start him on cereals. Cereal is basically empty calories that will just fill him up and prevent him from eating as much breast milk which is still really important. Even cereal fortified with iron isn't that great because that type of iron is difficult for the body to absorb. She said if we really wanted to give him cereal, making some out of brown rice or quinoa would be most nutritional. The doctor also said that pediatricians are starting to pull away from feeding schedules. They don't really matter. After 6 months, the baby's immune systems are pretty ready for food. She said if he was to have allergies, then he would have them no matter what and it doesn't matter what schedule we put him on. She did say it was a good idea to introduce new foods slowly though and give them a couple of days to make sure he doesn't have bad reactions. She also said no honey (it can cause botulism) or cows milk (to drink) until he is a year old. Finally, she told me to make sure I nurse him before mealtime so he doesn't fill up on solids. It's still important that I try to breastfeed him until at least a year old.

So how are we giving him food? We decided to try Baby-led Weaning (BLW), aka Baby-led Solids. BLW allows the baby to lead the whole feeding process, using his instincts and abilities. He determines when weaning should start and finish. How does this work? Gill Rapley describes it in her book "Baby-led Weaning: The Essential Guide to Introducing Solid Foods and Helping your Baby to Grow Up a Happy and Confident Eater":

• The baby sits with the rest of the family at mealtimes, and joins in when he is ready.
• He is encouraged to explore food as soon as he is interested, by picking it up with his hands- it doesn't matter whether or not he manages to eat any at first.
• Food is offred in pieces that are the size and shape that the baby can handle easily, rather than as purees or mashed food.
• He feeds himself from the start, rather than being spoon-fed by someone else.
• It's up to the baby how much he eats, and how quickly he widens the range of foods he enjoys.
• The baby continues to have milk (breast milk or formula) whenever he wants them and he decides when he is ready to begin reducing them.

What are the benefits of BLW (as taken from Rabpley's book)?

• It's enjoyable! Baby-led weaning babies look forward to eating; they enjoy learning about different foods and doing things for themselves. Early experiences of happy, stress-free mealtimes are more likely to give a child a healthy attitude toward food for life.
• It's natural. Babies can explore food at their own pace and follow their instincts to eat when they are ready- just like any other baby animal. 
• Learning about food. Babies who are allowed to feed themselves learn about the look, smell, taste, and texture of different foods, and how different flavors work together; with spoon-feeding all the tastes are pureed into one. 
• Learning to eat safely. Being allowed to explore food before it goes into their mout teaches babies important lessons about what's chewable and what isn't. Feeling a piece of food in his hand and then putting it in his mouth helps a baby to judge how easy different sized pieces of food are to chew and to move around with is tongue. This may be an important safety feature, preventing him later from putting pieces which are too big to be chewed in his mouth.
• Learning about their world. Babies never just play; they are always learning. Pretty much everything babies can learn from the best educational toy can be learned by handling food. Because all their senses (sight, touch, hearing, smell, and taste) are involved, they discover how to relate all these things together for a better understanding of the world around them.
• Reaching potential. Feeding themselves allows babies to practice important aspects of teir development at every mealtime. Using their fingers to get food to their mouths means BLW babies practice hand0eye coordination; gripping foods of different sizes and textures several times a day improves their dexterity. This may help with writing and drawing skills later. And chewing food develoops the facial muscles that will be needed as they learn to talk.
• Gaining confidence. Allowing babies to do things for themselves not only enables them to learn but also give them confidence in their own abilities and judgment. When a baby pick something up and gets it to his mouth he receives an almost instant reward in teh form of an interesting taste or texture. This teaches him that he is capable of making good things happen, which in turn helps to build his confidence and self-esteem. Confident babies grow into confident toddlers, who aren't afraid to try new things and who bounce back when things don't go their way. Seeing their child feed himself helps his parent to trust his abilities and instincts. This often allows them to be more relaxed about his need to explore the world, which in turn means that the baby will have more freedom to learn. 
• Trusting food. Because BLW babies are allowed to use their instincts to decide what to eat and what to leave, they rarely show any suspicion of food- as is sometimes seen in other babies and toddlers.
• Being part of family mealtimes. BLW babies are included in family mealtimes from the start, eating the same food and joining in the social time. This is fun for the baby and allows her to copy mealtime behavior, so that she will naturally move on to using utensils and adopt the table manners expected in her family.
• Appetite control. Eating habits developed duiring childhood can last a lifetime. It seems likely that babies who are allowed to choose what to eat from a range of nutritious foods, at their own pace, and to decide when they've had enough, continue to eat according to their appetite and are less likely to overeat when they are older. This may be an important part of preventing obesity.
• Long-term health. Because their milk feedings are reduced very gradually, BLW babies who are breast-fed are more likely to continue getting a good intake of breast milk for longer. Breast-feeding provides not only a perfect balance of nutrients but also protection, for both children and their mothers, against many serious illnesses.
• Dealing with textures and learning to chew.
• The chance to experience real food.
• A positive attitude toward food.
• Easier, less complicated meals. Pureeing food is time-consuming and can be tedious. With BLW, it just isn't necessary. Provided the parents' diet is healthy, they can easily adapt their meals for their baby. And rather than spoon0feeding your baby separately or while your own dinner goes cold (and then having to amuse him while you eat), with BLW you and your baby get to eat together.
• Less pickiness as a toddler. 
• No need for games or tricks. Many parents who spoon-feed their baby find that she isn't keen to eat, and they have to come up with ways of persuading her toa accept different foods. Because BLW respects babies' decisions about what to eat and when to stop eating, the need to persuade just doesn't arise.
• Eating out is easier.
• It's cheaper.

Won't He Choke? I'll let Gill Rapley answer:

Many parents (and grandparents and others) are worried that babies who feed themselves will choke, but, provided the baby is in control of any food that goes into his mouth and he is sitting upright, BLW doesn't make choking any more likely than spoon-feeding--and may even make it less likely. In an adult, the gag response is triggered near the back of the tongue--you have to put your finger right back toward your throat to make it happen. However, this reflex is triggered much farther forward on the tongue of a six-month-old baby, so not only is it activated more easily in a baby than it is in an adult, it also operates when the piece of food that has caused it is much farther away from the airway. So when babies of six or seven months gag on food it doesn't mean the food is too close to their airway and it very rarely means they are in danger of choking.

The gag reflex may well be a key part of baby's learning how to manage food safely. When a baby has triggered this reflex a few times, by putting too much food into his mouth or pushing it too far back, he learns not to do it. As he gets older, whether or not he has been allowed to experiment with self-feeding, the place where this reflex is triggered moves back along his tongue, so that gagging doesn't happen until food is nearer the back of his mouth. So he simply "outgrows" the tendency to gag.

However, as the gag reflex moves back toward its adult position it becomes less and less effective as an early-warning sign. So babies who haven't been allowed to explore food from the beginning may miss the opportunity to use it to help them learn how to keep food away from their airway. Anecdotal evidence suggest that babies who have been spoon-fed have more problems with gagging and "choking" when they start to handle food (often around eight months) than those who have been allowed to experiment much earlier

So that's a little bit about Baby-led weaning. In choosing this feeding method, I am not saying that I think BLW is necessarily superior to other feeding methods, it just is the method that feels right to our family. I read through another book titled "Child of Mine: Feeding with Love and Good Sense" by Ellyn Satter that suggest starting babies on the traditional cereal then moving onto purees and then to finger foods. Her book is well researched, but it just didn't feel right to me. And what I've learned so far from being a parent is to trust your gut, and that every baby (or family) is different. I know that both Robbie and I were raised in the traditional manner of starting with cereal and being spoon-fed and we both turned out great, if I can say so myself. When I pictured myself starting solid foods with Meo, admittedly I imagined airplaning a spoon full of gooey delight into his mouth. I even went out and bought some organic brown rice cereal for him as well as spoons and bowls. But when it came down to it, spoon feeding didn't feel right to us and baby-led weaning did. If you decided to spoon-feed your baby, that's great! Maybe that is the best way. Who knows? Not me. What I do know is that baby-led weaning is fun so far, and Meo is totally loving it!

Now onto the fun stuff: Meo's first solid foods!

"Give me my food, I'm totally ready Mama! I'm drooling here!"

We are starting him with just three foods this week: broccoli (for iron, which is the first nutrient to become depleted in breast-fed babies), sweet potatoes (a delicious super-food) and apples (yummy and great for teething).

His first food was broccoli. We prepared it by leaving the stalks about two inches long so it would be easy for Meo to hold onto, then steamed them. I put them in the freezer for a few minutes to cool them down a bit so they were okay for him to handle.

Meo's first meal of solid foods

And then we dumped the broccoli onto his highchair tray and let him have at it.

He made such funny faces when he stuffed the broccoli into his mouth! We had so much fun watching him grab hold of the florets and stick the stalk in his mouth, or grab the stalk and try to chew off pieces of the the florets. He would lick and chew, scoop and toss, munch and drool. In the end, we don't know if he actually consumed any of it, but he certainly enjoyed himself. And I must say, it was so nice to be able to eat my own meal without him being fussy about trying to get my food! For once I didn't feel guilty about eating in front of him, he was having fun and we were having fun watching him.

Mattimeo's first taste of solid foods! (nearly 6 months old)

Tossed

Family mealtime

Fallen soldiers

With Mommy and Daddy

With Grandma and Grandpa

Next, we had sweet potatoes for dinner. To prepare that, we simply cut the sweet potato into wedges and baked them on a cookie sheet (no oil or salt) at 400 degrees for 25 minutes. Sweet potatoes were much easier for him to chew, and he actually managed to get a few chunks in his mouth. He would then chew and chew, then either let it drool out of his mouth or actually swallow it. Again, so much fun to witness! You could just see him exploring and learning; he loved it (though I'm not sure how much he loved the taste hehe)!

Tasting sweet potato for the first time

Today at lunch time he tried apples. I gave him a mixture of fuji apples and granny smith apples cut up into finger sized slices. These seem to be his favorite so far. He loved licking them and gnawing on them. They were slippery though and quite the challenge to scoop up!

"Ooo, the cats are eating too!"

Tasting apples for the first time

Yay Meo! We are having so much fun exploring food with him, and we are looking forward to all the fun mealtimes in our future.