Controversial parenting topics: Baby-led weaning
This post is part of my series about parenting decisions that can be controversial or divisive. I'm sharing my experience of what we did (or didn't do) and how I feel about it. (See the whole list below.) This topic in particular was difficult for Jason and me for both babies and I think is different than the very pro-/educational or very con/conservative posts I've read elsewhere about baby-led weaning and feeding. I hope it's interesting and helpful!
- Breastfeeding
- Sleep training
- Co-sleeping
- Babywearing
- Baby-led weaning
- Cloth diapering
- Potty training
- Daycare vs. nanny
- Transitioning from the crib
- TV time
Baby-led weaning
I guess there are two ends of the spectrum here: traditional soft baby food/purées or baby-led weaning. I think we fall somewhere in the middle. We really love the concept of baby-led weaning and I know some kids do amazing with it, but we also have pretty intense bite size anxiety around here and I’ve always cut the kids' food up really really small.
So, we like to give them solid foods and hardly purchase any purées (other than for a few weeks/months when we had just started giving them food, around 6 months)... but even now we cut everything up pretty small for Lucy and cut up meat etc. for Otto. We did these mesh baby feeder things too, very handy, kids loved them. Hard to clean. DON'T put banana in those, whatever you do! (Seeds.)
I would love to learn more about how people do baby-led weaning with big pieces, but there’s not a lot of information out there from reputable sources because they are all going to be really safety-conscious and conservative. I think I could learn more from blogs/videos of moms doing it with their kids. Something to look into if we do this again. Here is one helpful experience post I've read.
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| We're happy with the IKEA high chair for babies. For toddlers, we love this booster seat. Easy to clean, not obnoxious-looking. |
We were also slow to start them eating solid foods... they say you can start around 4 months but I wanted to wait till they "showed signs" of being ready, like being able to sit on their own and reaching for/showing an interest in food. We didn't start solids till 6 months but honestly those couple months were difficult with fussiness, sleep, weight gain etc. so I think I should have started earlier.
We also avoided grains for both kids for a long time, following some of the traditional ancestral health stuff of doing more meats and fruits and veggies, easier to digest before their guts have started producing all the enzymes needed for digesting more complex things like grains. We did start giving Otto Cheerios before age 1 and he loved them, and they're a great distraction/thing to give them in the high chair while you eat or cook or whatever! Lucy doesn't really care about them that much. She prefers granola. :P Gets herself a bowl and gets the bag out for me and everything, ha.
This was another short one! More coming later this week!
The posts in this series are meant to be me sharing my personal experience only. 100% no judgment if you did things differently! If you don't like the sound of what I did, no worries! I'm just sharing for those of you out there who are interested. Best wishes to you no matter what you choose!
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