"Self" feeding.

There are (in my mind) two types of weaning.  The first type involves pureeing, freezing, warming and spooning food into an open mouth.  The second type is simply placing sticks of finger food in front of baby in the hopes he/she ingests something.  This is referred to as "Baby Led Weaning".

I have to say, as a mum, I am in favour of BLW (the method we've adopted) as opposed to pureeing, because, let's face it, it's easier.  Some are vehemently opposed to one or the other, but I actually can (now) see the pro's of both.  For instance:

With finger foods, baby learns hand eye co-ordination, as well as hand to mouth movements.
With pureed foods, you know exactly how much baby has eaten, and if he needs more.
With finger foods, baby learns texture and chewing.
With pureed foods, baby can have a variety of flavours in the one meal - namely, a pureed version of the family's meal.

In reality, I no longer believe you should do either one of these options on their own.  Let me tell you why.....

This morning, my son, who is by nature a sweet, loving, happy soul, was grizzling (what's new??).  He'd had a sleep, a bath, a breast feed, and panadol (because of nasty teething pain) and for all intents and purposes had no real reason to whinge.

So, I took him down to play with his toys.  He wouldn't leave me alone!!  He was grizzly and needy, and just wouldn't settle.  I gave him a rusk and popped him in his chair - which sorted him for all of 5 minutes, and when he would have no more of his high chair, I tried again with the toys.  In the meantime, I'd boiled myself some eggs.  I was in the process of eating them, and Eli kept clawing at me trying to get my food.  It was at that point I finally decided to get some baby food out of the cupboard - an extra huge 170g jar of apple muesli (pureed).  He ate practically ALL OF IT!!!  That's more food than I've EVER seen him eat - it's probably the equivalent to 2 jars of normal sized baby food.  A lot of food for a baby...

This poor child - I've been starving him!!!  All this time, I've put cucumber, bananas, apples, potato, carrots and capsicum in front of him to eat (which I will continue to do between meals..) and all he's wanted is to have a full tummy!!  He ate really well too from the spoon (opened his mouth wide and put his lips onto the spoon to get it all off) - he's that little bit more ready for solids now, perhaps because of the finger foods - who knows?  All I know is that he enjoyed that meal more than any other I've ever given him.

** SO, MUMMIES::  Be warned - if you decide to go with baby led weaning - just because a child doesn't eat all that he's given, it doesn't mean he's not HUNGRY!!  Feeeeeeed him!!!!!!!!!

He was a ball of laughs after I fed him properly, and now he's down for his midday nap.  I'd say he feels a whole lot better now - and with this seemingly simple, but obscure revelation I've had, I do too!!

When you have kids - try everything, until something works!  


A. xo