Baby Led Weaning – One Month In
Baby A turns 7 months old tomorrow. I am astonished at how well BLW is going for us. I cannot believe the way his poop is looking. I was quite content to wait for a few months before I saw food actually going in but hell noes. He has loved all of it so far.
Here’s what he has been eating and his schedule.
Wakes around 8:20 am and nurses.
Sits on the potty for about 5 minutes (hits and misses).
Sits on his high chair for breakfast. (we have discovered he seems to have an egg allergy 🙁 🙁 Terribly upsetting stuff as our family lives on eggs in the morning). Eats a fruit but isn’t terribly interested in it at that time of the day. Mostly mouths it and plays with it but has started swallowing these days too.
Plays for a while has a bath and nurses naps at about 10:15 to 12:30.
Wakes up and nurses. Sits on potty, plays.
Lunch at 1:30 when his brother is back from school. The three of us eat together. N has been eating his meals very well on his own.
Baby A eats whatever we are eating but I ask the cook to put the masala and take out a small portion for him before she puts salt. A typical lunch for him is as shown below: A sabzi, a protein (sometimes chicken, sometimes paneer), and yoghurt. He has been eating yoghurt with a preloaded spoon. He actually lifts the spoon and gingerly with great focus directs it to his mouth. It’s amazing to watch I am so proud of him.
He nurses again after lunch, sits on potty, and the three of us read for a about 45 minutes and then it’s nap time for both boys. Baby A somehow needs me in the afternoon and many an afternoon I have to lie down with him for his nap and he nurses sometimes 3-4 times sometimes none.
Out of bed by 5 pm for A, 4:30 for N. Snack time. A eats a fruit or recently veggies with Hummus, or anything N is having.
Nurses and goes to the park for a couple of hours. Back by 7:30, bath nurses and bed.
So far I haven’t fed him a single bite of food, not with a spoon not with my hand and nor do I plan to. I simply place the food on the table and put small portions in front of him on his high chair tray. He took a few days of just mouthing, and then a few days where he just wasn’t even interested in mouthing and then for the last week or so he can’t wait until he’s served, dives into the food, stuffs every shape and size into his mouth and chews and chews with his toothless gums and swallows. When I introduced preloaded spoons yesterday I was shocked to see how well he was handling the spoon and how he guided it into his mouth as though he has had years of practice. It’s amazing the things babies can do if we let them. His dexterity at handling squashy, slippery and smaller foods is astounding for his age and I am guessing it has to do with the hard work involved in feeding himself.
Baby led weaning is so much fun for everyone all around so far. And it takes the pressure of, as I know he is filling himself up on nutritious mamma milk and is using this time to learn about different food and texture. He has unrestricted access to nursing as thats his only source of drink and major source of food. Oh my god it’s messy but here with the amount of help some of us have, I think I can’t even start to complain about that.
Baby led weaning is a natural progression of breastfeeding. (Not that formula or bottle fed babies can’t do it though). But babies feed themselves from the breast at their pace and they regulate the supply as per their needs. Baby led weaning is the same concept, there is no reason why the adult needs to suddenly step in and decide how much the baby needs to eat. Honestly who are we to guess how much a baby needs or whether he or she is full? Why must we make up stories and distraction and force children to over eat just because WE feel they have not eaten enough?
Thanks for reading and do enjoy the pictures and video 🙂 Let me know if you’ve tried or open to try baby led weaning with your baby.
video of Baby A eating chicken
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Hi Aloka,
Again, an awesome post. In fact, a very happy feeling wala post. I actually am feeling proud of N & A:)
Btw. Remember we discussed abt reading to kids? My 15th month old is slowly loving the process. It’s abt penguins for now:)
I badly need to start weaning him. Ur post as always inspires me to get better. Thanks dear:)
hey anitha thanks so much for your comment. how’s it going?
Hi Aloka
Love your blog! It frees great to know that there are other parents who are driven by instinct rather than convention.
I wanted to ask you if you know of any vegetarian sources of protein and ideally lactose free. Tall order I know but if you have any thoughts, would love to know.
Cheers!!
pulses when well prepared arent that bad, as in soaked overnight.
lactose free! alot of lactose intolerant people can tolerate fermented dairy like yoghurt and some cheeses as it actually digests lactose much better. or are you dairy free too?
nuts and seeds are great forms of protein and fat
Aloka, I couldn’t be happier about reading this post on BLW because I was so inspired with this idea. I quit preparing the so called mashed food for Taha baby @ 7 months and left his on his dining chair with chunks of real food and see him enjoy his meal Times. It all started after a brief discussion with you of how you plan to shape Amor’s food journey, I thought it will a good idea to atleast try with Taha and see how it goes. I almost noticed how he wanted to grab his older brothers plate to see and perhaps eat the chunky food that he was having. Well and then there was no looking back. I was free from not only preparing separate mashed food but literally enjoy seeing him relishing every bit of food that he was putting in his mouth by himself .
hi thanks for the comment and thats soo good to hear!it’s really fun to watch them figure it out isn’t it? and it’s so much easier this way than to stress about how much they have or have not eaten 🙂 glad it’s working out !
Hi aloka.. Hope you are well. I have been avidly following your blog and enjoy your posts. I have a 6.5 month old and your blog’s have been super helpful. I am doing blw as well and wanted to know how things have progressed for you? I have just started and although my baby is enjoying her fruit and veggies, she barely gets in more than few bites (which is OK by my as food before one is for fun and she has sufficient bm). Also did you introduce water when you started blw? Thanks and kudos on the great blog!
Hi thanks for the kind words 🙂 Blw is going really really well I must write a post on this soon. Don’t expect anything to go in for another month but keep Offering a variety and let your baby try mouthing it. At 10.5 months my baby eats everything on his own 4 meals a day with great enthusiasm. You don’t have to worry about quantities or anything when you practice blw just follow baby’s lead. No I still haven’t given him water I just feed on demand but will start offering water now that weather is getting hotter.hope this helps thanks for writing in.
good to see such blog…
Hi can u share where u got this table and how much did it cost you? I want a similar one for my lo
so sweet baby
so sweet baby
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