Baby Led Weaning: Update

When I last posted about BLW, Elle was just starting to actually comprehend swallowing. Two months later, and after changing multiple poopy diapers, I can assure you that the girl has mastered swallowing. Food is getting digested. She still occasionally gags if she gets ambitious with the size of food chunk that she puts in her mouth or if she shoves it too far back, but for the most part, she gums, sucks and noms food within an inch of its life before swallowing it.

We've introduced Elle to a ton of foods. She hasn't really hated anything yet, although she has definitely shown a preference for some foods, including pears, yogurt and all things carb (toast, waffles, bagels, etc.). She likes eggs, applesauce, carrots, chicken, pineapple and strawberries. She enjoys herself some sweet potato fries and mashed potatoes. She prefers yellow squash to zucchini. She adores anything with cheese - I found this out when she had macaroni and cheese one night ... and then gave her some rotini in cheese another night ... and also some broccoli with cheese on it (although she eats broccoli if I dip it in yogurt, too, so who knows) ... and she's a fan of cheese-stuffed tortellini. We keep introducing new foods, and she keeps trying them, and it is really pretty cool. We don't push the solids - we offer them twice a day, and some days Elle gobbles her food down. Other days food is the coolest toy ever, not to be eaten. I can relate - most some days I'm ravenous, other days I'm just not hungry. (Although unlike my daughter, I don't slowly drop strawberries off my plate for fun or to signal I'm done with my meal.)

Messy, messy panda.

The BLW experience has been extremely fun, but quite messy :) Because she's still working on her motor skills, half of her meal is sure to end up on the sides of her high chair. If she has any kind of liquid on her hands, be it cheese-mixed-with-pear-juice-and-water or juices-from-a-ripe-strawberry-in-addition-to-yogurt, she'll clench her fists repeatedly to hear the squishy sound that can only come from a baby desperate for a bath.

One of the coolest things about this whole experience has been Tim's reaction to BLW. He loves to watch Elle's response to different foods, and we talk about what food we order at restaurants that Elle can have, too. I asked him if he regretted not having a "puree experience," and he said no. He said this has been really cool, and while it can be super messy, he's glad we've gone this route.

I've loved talking about it and telling others about our experience. Introducing solid foods is a popular topic in our 6-12 month mommy/baby group, and we had an interesting discussion about it a few weeks ago. One mommy said she tried to do BLW but her daughter wasn't eating anything, so she introduced purees for some meals. But that's not what it's about - babies Elle's age don't NEED to eat solids. They don't NEED purees to satisfy nutritional needs. Another mom said she can't do BLW with her baby because she doesn't have teeth. Elle doesn't have teeth, either. Another friend told me she wanted to do BLW but her baby just gagged whenever she gave her solid food. Sure - Elle did that for the first 10 days or so, too. But these babies are innovative, well-prepared and fully capable of eating food without teeth. Sure, you can't give a seven-month-old a raw carrot, but you can give them steamed carrots, and they can suck and gum manageable pieces and end up digesting them (and you know this because you see it the next day - in their diaper).

Elle checks out the spread at our favorite
beach restaurant on Valentine's Day.

One of Tim's coworkers saw a baby photo of herself eating an ear of corn (Hi Kelly!) and texted me to say that her first thought was "mom was totally doing baby-led weaning!" And when we were lunching at Cracker Barrel a few weeks ago, Tim told my brother-in-law, "What you are witnessing is called baby-led weaning." Jeff observed many meals with Elle, including one when I gave Elle a hunk of bread at a restaurant and he had to turn away :) Watching Elle eat made him nervous - he was terrified she was going to choke. I tried to explain to him that the hard bread wasn't a problem for Elle - she works it in her mouth, and her massive amounts of saliva and drool make it softer and break apart so she's able to swallow it..In two months, she hasn't come close to choking. She gags, sure, but that's her defense mechanism, and we just don't panic. We're always with her and watching her when she's eating. We don't rush her. We've learned things - like how fresh, untoasted bread is harder for babies to eat because it sticks to the roof of their mouth. How "sticks" of things - like two-inch long banana pieces or steamed baby carrots - are easier for babies because it gives the food a natural handle to grip.

Elle and I flew to Ohio/PA this past weekend for my grandmother's funeral. Although my mom got some stuff for Elle to eat (pears, banana, bagels, yogurt), it wasn't always accessible when we were eating. Between visitations, prayers services, the funeral mass, burial and family time, it would have been hard to cart along enough pureed food or worry about preparing something for Elle to eat. But because we've done BLW, it was pretty easy to find something for her to eat, even at the airport. I'm not going to claim her diet this weekend was the model of perfect nutrition, but she had some mashed potatoes, pear and chicken one night, and then some egg, oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast the next morning. Later that day, she munched on broccoli, yogurt, pasta and strawberries. Family members at the funeral also commented on how good her motor skills were, as she grabbed at people's necklaces and earrings (my daughter: mini accesorizer). I truly believe BLW is mostly responsible for that, and I love it.

"I <3 solid food!"

After the initial "Oh my freaking goodness won't my bay-bee choke on everything?!" thoughts, BLW has been extremely fun, easy and cool. I'm really glad we didn't throw in the towel after the first week or so, and while I'm not opposed to spoon-feeding Elle soft foods (like the yogurt or applesauce), I'm loving being able to give her finger foods and watch her explore on her own terms. Going to restaurants? Easy. Planning meals for us? Easy. Exploring new foods and ways to prepare them? Fun. Freaking my brother-in-law and mom out with Elle's eating habits? Cool :) Cleaning banana out of Elle's hair and finding broccoli bits in her boogers? Decidedly not cool, but it comes with the territory :)