Baby Led Weaning

We started Timmy on solid foods last Friday and he enjoyed eating his potatoes the first time but the sec0nd and third time was a pain. Last night we tried liquifying the potatoes and he liked it but only if he fed himself with the spoon. I was happy that he was eating but thought to myself that he was eating more of the spoon than the food. It looked like he was enjoying the spoon and not the food. This led me to read more about feeding babies solid foods. 

As I was doing my reading I came upon a topic called baby led weaning. It's a new trend in giving babies solid food. It is pioneered by Gill Rapley a Unicef child care expert and according to her giving babies pureed food can lead to health problems such as picky eaters later in life. With baby led weaning you basically can feed your baby big chunks of food given that your child has satisfied some basic requirements. Keep in mind that you should give food that have handles like broccoli, cauliflower or carrot sticks so that the baby can hold it. Food should be boiled, broiled or roasted and cooled before giving to your baby. Size should be the same as you child's fist. More guidelines here. 

At first I was hesitant because I was afraid that the baby might choke. I mean I would just panic if something bad happened. I prayed about it and consulted my husband and  gave it a go this morning. 

Before starting I prayed that God would just let Timmy eat and enjoy his food and more importantly protection against choking. And so it began....I let Timmy sit in his high chair, showed him that I was eating too and put on his tray a (his) fist sized boiled potatoes. At first he just stared at it. Studying it then he tried to pick it up with his hands but it was too mushy. By the way, I chose potatoes because I boiled a lot for him over the weekend to stock. Anyway, I just let him play with the potatoes, touching it and smelling it and after awhile a he put it into his mouth. He spat it out but I encouraged him to go at it and he did. He ate half a potato and he actually enjoyed it. He was smiling and screaming while eating. At one point over protective me took out a portion that was in his mouth thinking it was too much but then I just have to let him go and enjoy. Babies are much smarter than we think.  I pray he'll continue to enjoy this way of eating and exploring his food.