Our Italian/Asian/Mexican baby: BLW

I haven't posted about baby-led weaning for a while, mostly because things are going great and there hasn't been anything compelling to blog about. Elle is still eating almost anything and everything, and we're absolutely loving it - her motor skills are awesome, and it's been fun to introduce new foods (and identify her favorites) along the way. We also absolutely love how easy it is to feed her, no matter where we are, and enjoy scouting out restaurants in a new way, with her in mind: "Elle would love this!" and "This would be the perfect place for her to try that!"

It's awesome to not have to pack specific foods just so she'll have something to eat. Beyond throwing a banana in the bag or a container of Cheerios or grapes, we don't pre-plan her meals out and about - she just eats some of whatever we're having, and every where we go, people seem amazed at "how well she's eating that big-girl food." Uh. Right. Thanks. Move along. 

I'm always looking for new foods to introduce Elle (and us!) to, but I can't forget about some of our favorites, either. About a month or so ago, I had a craving for a yummy pasta salad that our friend Jen had introduced us to last year.

I left some of it for Tim to have for dinner that night and told him to give Elle some, too. It's definitely got some kick and is full of flavors that Elle has never had before, so I wasn't sure what she'd think.

Baby Girl LOVED it. Tim texted me while I was at work:

"This baby is sucking the noodles up like an Italian baby!"

My little Polish baby devouring her first pierogi.

I found this funny because a) Elle's not Italian and b) the noodles aren't either. It's ASIAN lo mein salad.(For the record, I think given our ancestry, she's primarily German and Polish.)

The next day, I left the noodles for part of Elle's dinner again. The babysitter e-mailed me with "Wow. She REALLY loves these noodles."

So on the next day, I figured I should witness Elle's lo mein love for myself. I gave her some of the last noodles with lunch.

She wanted nothing to do with them.

All she wanted was the quesadilla I was eating.

Suddenly, not-Italian not-Asian baby was a Mexican food lover. Sigh.

P.S. She also LOVES French toast. Oui! It's true.

Random randomness: Baby edition

Mouth full o' watermelon. But closed!

At least she has manners: Elle shoves huge pieces of food in her mouth. It's kind of ridiculous, but it's what she does. Sometimes I'll watch her eat and just see her little eyes start to water because she realizes she's bitten off, literally, more than she can chew. Five minutes later, she'll be ready for more food. But we went out to eat with a friend the other night, and Elle crammed half a banana in her mouth. And then just stared at us while she worked on it. She looked like a monkey, and my friend and I laughed at her - and she just kept chewing, mouth closed. The next day, I had a few friends over, and Elle did the same thing with a pepperoni roll. My friends all noted how polite she was, though - she always chewed with her mouth closed!

Not the norm: We're not having a big first birthday bash for Elle. I have deep, mixed feelings about this and could go on and on for days, but it boils down to this: I desperately want to plan the party, I just don't want to have a party. My friends (the ones who commented on Elle's impeccable manners) noted that this isn't how most people feel - most people want to have a party but dread the planning part.

Makes sense: I've recently realized why Elle doesn't like going to the pediatrician's office, aside from the obvious (shots). In the last 10 months, the doctor has called her head big and deemed her "lazy." It's kind of cute, although I'm sure Elle doesn't see it that way - Dr. P. asks about milestones that baby's Elle's age should be hitting. Elle has almost always met them ... or shown signs of being close. The most recent example is a month or so ago when I told the doctor Elle didn't seem really interested in walking. Dr. P. asked if she was at least pulling up or standing up, and I said "Kind of, but she really doesn't seem to like putting her full weight on her legs." The doctor's response is always (in a Puerto Rican accent): "That's OK, she's just lazy. She can do it, she's just a little bit lazy and will get around to it eventually." If someone called my head big and told me I was lazy, I'd be a little miffed, too. 

Twangy: Elle has an accent. Yes, she only says about half a dozen words, but when she says "No" it comes out "Naw." An example of her using the new word: She heard me telling the cats "no" the other morning and repeated "Naw. Naw. Naw, naw, naw." It's cute, but I have no idea why she has an accent as an infant :)

Stealth pooper: You know how most babies have a tell-tale "poop face"? Yeah, not our baby. Tim, the babysitter and I have joked that Elle is a stealth pooper - she almost never makes a face or shows any sign of "going #2" ... which means we're often surprised when we change her diaper and find that we've gotten more than we bargained for. It kinda stinks (literally, but ...) - I'd love to change her ASAP after she poops. But when you don't know that it's happened, it's hard to remedy right away. Sure, sometimes the smell gives it away, but not always. When she *does* make what we think is a poop face, she's usually just farted. Classy.

Eye Heart This Baby: Elle can now identify our eyes. This involves getting close to our faces, violently jabbing at gently touching the outside corner of our eyes and saying, "Eye. Eye." I'm trying to work on identifying a body part that doesn't leave me flinching and fearing for my sight every time she gets near me, like nose, ear or belly.

Simple humor: The easiest way to make Elle laugh is to turn her upside down. It's our "thing" :)

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 :)

(Time) Consumption

I never really gave it much thought, but it is totally understandable: Feeding an infant takes time. I'm not talking food preparation, but the mere fact that you now are responsible for feeding another human being, one with limited capabilities for feeding themselves.

We're using baby-led weaning (BLW) to introduce solids, which means Elle basically eats what we eat. It's really cool because it has heightened my awareness of how and what we eat, and it is awesome to watch her experience new foods and explore this new world. It is also nice to not have to prepare anything special for her - I'm already in "Camp Hates to Prepare 2-3 Bottles a Day," so saving extra work is spectacular in my book.. Her motor skills are developing at lightning speed as she manuevers food in to/near her own mouth, and there's no forcing-food-down-her-throat anxiety for me to deal with, which I appreciate.

Not so sure about this food thing.

But I don't really *do* meals at home. I start my day with coffee and a side of cereal and fruit. I typically eat a bagel or English muffin as I drive to work. And I'm a fast eater (a trait made necessary by the fact that I talk a lot, so to get all of my convo in during a meal time, I've learned to maximize my eating efficiency), so even when I do sit down to eat, my meal doesn't last long. Tim and I have very opposite schedules, too, and eating meals together doesn't happen on a daily basis.

For the most part, I snack, eat several small meals, grab a banana here or a handful of grapes there. My eating pattern at work is similar - I pack a salad, some fruits, maybe some pretzels and pudding, and I graze the night away. This lifestyle needs some work to mesh with the pace of BLW.

BLW isn't just about the food - it's about the meal. Elle is supposed to be encouraged to try new things - explore new tastes, textures and smells. And do it on her own terms. We're supposed to dine with her - not just for supervision's sake, but for her to watch us, preferably eating the same food she's eating, so she can mimic us and feel included.

Babies don't really derive their primary nutrition from solids until around 1 year of age, so this added meal time is more for play, practice and experience right now. That means the five times she nurses or takes a bottle each day are still (and will remain, for several months) her nutrition. And that means that right now we're essentially doing double mealtimes.

For the first 10 days or so that I offered food to Elle, she played, sucked, touched, smelled, etc., but not a single morsel of actual food went to her stomach (there was a lot of dramatic gagging going on, which is understandable for someone who has only consumed food in liquid-form for her entire six-month lifespan). Finally, she ate a few "bites" of food the other day, and that was fine - there's no risk of malnourishment just because she hasn't "cleaned her plate." I was just extremely excited that she was finally beginning to experience the taste portion of food :) 

"My to-do list is completely empty,
so no rush on lunch, OK, Mom?"
P.S. I totally took this photo before thinking
about this blog post. She's constantly
grabbing stuff off the computer desk.

But we have the challenge: Super-fast, generally impatient eater with 2,026 things to do on a daily basis meets new-to-food, not-a-care-in-the-world infant. Now that we've introduced "mealtime" with Elle (a mealtime that involves more than just nursing every few hours), we're bouncing around, looking for a groove. The past few days have involved me preparing and packing food during Elle's nap, or Elle sitting patiently in the dining area, watching me prepare not only my own "lunch," but also pack my dinner and figure out what to serve her (because she's just not ready for Special K just yet).

So far, she's been offered rigatoni, banana, apple, pear, steamed broccoli, noodles, chicken, rotini, asparagus, steamed carrot, avocado, applesauce, quesadilla, guacamole, and her favorite so far, English muffin. This week, I'm hoping to introduce sweet potato, rice and I'm not sure what else.

The other time-consuming part of this is that Baby Girl gets messy :) So that means more baths and more clean up. The other day I found pieces of broccoli in the folds of her chubby neck. AWESOME :)

Any other moms done BLW or have tips on this stage of double mealtimes? What are your baby's favorite foods?