Baby-Led Elena

Lately I've had a few friends and family comment on what a great eater Elena is. And she is. Gabe is quite picky and let me tell you it's pretty stressful at times. Elena on the other hand will eat just about anything you put in front of her. Not that she doesn't have preferences but for the most part she loves all the different food groups.

Now most of this I attribute to personality. Elena is just so much more laid back than Gabe in this area. But I think part of it is how I chose to feed her. After dealing with purees for 15 months with Gabe I was downright sick of them. I didn't want to look at another puree. I had heard of a parenting 'fad' called baby-led weaning and a couple friends that tried it swore up and down that their kids were the best eaters. At the time I thought they were a bit insane. I don't like parenting fads at all. But now faced with feeding another kid, and pretty terrified of having another picky eater, I thought it might be worth looking into. I read up on it and a friend sent me her copy of the book Baby-Led Weaning by Gill Rapley and Tracey Murkett. I read the book and it made a lot of sense to me. I won't sit here and explain every detail involved with Baby-Led Weaning (or a better title would be Baby-Led Solids), you can read the book if you want or checkout the website http://www.babyledweaning.com/.

For the record, I have nothing against purees. Moms have fed their babies purees for many years and it's worked for them. I just didn't like our puree experience and I didn't want to repeat it. Gabe hated most of what I tried to feed him and it was always a crazy game of trying to figure out how to sneak it in his mouth. This was usually done while my own dinner got cold and for well over a year I couldn't remember the last time I ate a warm meal.

The basics of baby-led weaning are pretty simple - wait until baby is 6 months old + can sit up on their own and skip the purees. Purees were first introduced when our parents were babies and it was a common recommendation then to start feeding babies solids by the time they were 2 months old. You can't get solid food into a 2 month old so they had to puree it up. Before this time a lot of parents followed 'baby-led weaning' before it had a name, it was just a natural way of introducing table foods to babies when they were ready for them. By the time babies are 6 months old and can sit up on their own, they can grip food and bring it to their mouth (and in many cases, rip it right off our plates while we are holding them!). So long as it is is given in reasonable sized portions and easy textures for them, they can learn to feed themselves.

Elena took to eating this way beautifully. At first she did a lot of 'munching' on foods and learning how to move them around her mouth. She still ate a decent portion from probably our 3rd time offering her food, but she didn't really start eating 'meals' until she was about 8 months.

Here are some pictures of Elena learning to feed herself. Did I mention that baby-led weaning is quite messy? If you are a parent who is afraid of mess, you might not want to do this. Actually, if you are a parent afraid of mess, I'm not sure why you are a parent. ;)

One of Elena's very first foods, a banana


Elena gagging on the banana. Gagging in the beginning is really normal as they learn to manipulate food in their mouth. I had to remind myself - repeatedly - that she was not choking and to let her handle it. She did wonderfully of course.


This is either a banana or an apple slice...I can't tell!


Figuring out a straw sippy. Not food but Elena learned this skill pretty quickly.


A pork chop. She ate nearly that whole piece


Turkey bacon. Yes turkey bacon. She ate a couple of those apple slices on the table too, so I'm not *too* horrible of a parent am I?


Patiently waiting for food while Gabe plays with his


Realizing that Gabe has food on his tray...


She grabbed his tray and pulled him closer to her so she could reach his fork


And success!


Pizza crust (I swear we fed her healthy food too, I guess I didn't think those were picture worthy...)


This is what she thought of the puree I attempted to feed her when I didn't feel like preparing any food


Toast and peaches and shredded cheese


Cinnamon-raisin toast with cream cheese and sliced cucumber. She likes veggies but if you put veggies and carbs in front of her at the same time, carbs win every time...


A quisidilla and steamed bell pepper slices


Chicken and cut up peaches. By this point Elena started wanting most of her food in small cut up pieces.


A steamed carrot. Not sure what the rest of it was!


Learning how to use a spoon


Which did not last long


Spaghetti. Ummm...did I mention that baby-led weaning is messy?


Now Elena is 15 months and she's my great eater. And as if baby-led weaning wasn't fun enough on it's own, I never had to buy a single jar of baby food for Elena which I'd say is pretty cost effective. I also never had to puree up any of my own baby foods (I did with Gabe eventually to save money) which saved me a lot of extra time in the kitchen. I'm looking forward to doing the same thing with this next baby, hopefully he or she likes it just as much.