Before I got married, I had the eating habits of a ten-year-old boy. I was in school and waited tables at The Cheesecake Factory, so the majority of my meals were menu items and thanks to their obscene portion sizes, leftovers were a snap. Then I got married to a foodie. He turned his nose up in horror at my pantry full of Kraft Mac n Cheese and my boxes of Pasta Roni.
That didn’t fly with my new husband and he quickly took over all cooking duties, because my skills started and stopped with boiling water and pouring in the box of noodles. I rarely had patience for anything else, as I never thought about food until I was chew-my-arm-off starving, and by then I couldn’t bear to chop and measure and stir and simmer and WAIT until my food was ready.
Everything changed when I had a baby. Suddenly, what was good enough for me was outright poison for my precious! The sodium! The sugar! Were those noodles even IN a food group? Things had to change, and fast.
Well actually, not that fast because thank the baby Jesus, I was able to breastfeed. I milked that (wop wop) for all it was worth! Breastfeeding was the perfect solution to a food-challenged person like me. Always the right temperature, the right mix of nutrients and perfectly available! I may have Googled ‘exactly how long can I breastfeed’ once or twice. I didn’t want to stop because I knew what was coming.
Solids.
I was so scared of solid foods because I had no idea how or where to begin. Fruits? But then you don’t want them to hate veggies. Veggies? But which kinds? Grains? What if she has a gluten allergy? Ok, no grains. But wait, isn’t rice cereal a grain? Isn’t that the Universal Baby’s First Food? I started getting a headache thinking about it all and just shoved a boob in her mouth for one more day.
And that was just the types of food! Then you had to think about preparing it! Do you buy it or make your own? If you make your own, do you just use your own food processor and blender or are the fancy baby food makers a must?
I looked into breastfeeding-friendly kindergartens because I was sure I wouldn’t be able to get past all this nonsense and I was going to be that mom breastfeeding her seven year old because food was too complicated. Then the heavens opened up, the angels started singing and I was saved!
Y’all, I discovered Baby Led Weaning.
The name is kind of misleading because it’s not about weaning at all, but I didn’t come up with it so that’s the name we’re going with. BLW (that’s the abbreviation for those in the know and you are now in the know) is the idea that babies can and should feed themselves and that they can and should eat what you eat. I was all about that business! No fancy baby food maker necessary! You just use your fingers to make your dinner into baby-sized pieces! Now that is something I could do.
I was so excited and the first time I ripped up a piece of cheese and put it on her tray, I was smug. I was feeding my baby! I shredded pieces of chicken and to see her pick it up with her chubby little fingers was the cutest thing in the world!
There were even lots of happy bonuses to this way of eating: because she was eating what we ate, we automatically ate healthier. Less butter, veggies at every meal and we were eating three times a day as a family! Plus, since we started when she was about eight months old, choking wasn’t as big a worry. Of course, I still make her food pieces either really big or really small, but she is a champ about spitting things out so I rest easy. She’s almost too good about spitting things out, actually.
Now, it’s not foolproof. Her favorite food is yogurt and she’d eat that for every meal if I’d let her. I spoon feed that to her as well as her oatmeal in the mornings. That’s the one thing about BLW: it’s messy. She misses her mouth sometimes and she has discovered how much fun it is to feed the dog so mealtimes can be challenging.
Cooking is still a challenge for me. Meal planning makes me hyperventilate and I wish that healthy, complete meals came in boxes but I’m doing my best. I do have some meal pouches on hand in case of emergency (read: I burned/ruined that night’s dinner) but we’re doing okay so far. She’s a good eater and will try just about anything.
As long as there is yogurt nearby.
Awesome blog post! Pretty much sounds like my story. I’m so glad I found out about BLW. My kiddo is ten months and eats pretty much everything but peanuts.
Yeah, I’m holding off on peanut butter too. I’m so nervous about nutrition and all that anyway, the last thing I need is an allergic reaction! I about had a heart attack when I gave her eggs and her little face broke out! But, about a month later, I tried again and she was fine – go figure!
I’ve heard about BLW and how successful it is, but I still can’t wrap my head around a 7 or 8 month old picking up and feeding them self finger foods. I guess I should just try it out!
You have nothing to lose and it’s kind of cool to watch them figure out how to get the food from their tray to their little mouths!
I did traditional weaning but I moved to self feeding as soon as he was capable (he wasn’t at 6 months) and we kept spoon feeding for certain foods. My only worries with BLW are getting iron rich foods in as a lot of BLW friendly foods in the early days are more carbs than anything else and there are BLW ‘purists’ out there who would say any spoon feeding is wrong (and so would claim you were not doing BLW). Personally I don’t think babies read books about weaning technique so do what’s right for you!
That said, I think BLW has been good because before it came out as a technique, people generally used to wean really early and stay on purees too long. Because of BLW, even traditional weaners like me are more keen to move to finger foods earlier.
In reality though come around 12 – 15 months you’d struggle to tell the difference between most kids who were BLW or traditionally weaned.
Yeah, I’m definitely not a purist and honestly, whatever keeps my baby happy and healthy is all right by me! I too worry about proper nutrition and getting enough of all the food groups but we are still nursing so I’m pretty loose about it. I’m going with the ‘food for fun until 1’ mindset and just focusing on introducing her to as many new tastes and textures as I can.
I tell you, this food this is so much more complicated than I ever thought it could be! 🙂