Well actually, we sort of started solid food a couple weeks ago but not in the traditional way of feeding Parker pureed food—we started with Baby Led Weaning. BLW allows infants to self feed. Basically you give the baby whatever you are eating (if it’s safe/healthy for infants to eat) and let them explore the food on their own. By doing so, babies are able to practice chewing and improve upon their hand eye coordination. It also gives babies independence in choosing when to start eating and when to stop—much like with breastfeeding on demand.
We first tried apples, pears, and carrots with Parker. I didn’t steam them or mash them up at all so that she would actually be able to eat them—I just wanted her to experience the texture, smell, and taste of the food. And oh did she love sucking on them! I was so excited that she was enjoying herself and gaining confidence in her ability to self-feed.
For her first real meal we gave her avocado. I’ve planned on doing avocado first all along. It’s super healthy and some believe that humans could live on avocado alone due to it’s health benefits. I’m not a huge fan of plain avocado, but I could probably live on Chipotle’s guacamole and chips for my entire life ;) We mashed up the avocado and put it on Parker’s high chair and let her have at it. She immediately sunk her hands in it but had no desire to actually get any into her mouth. I’ve read in BLW-ing books that infants aren’t sure how to use spoons at Parker’s age but boy were they wrong! We scooped some avocado onto a spoon, gave it to Parker and it went right in her mouth! That’s how she fed herself last Saturday and Sunday. It was a huge mess but thankfully our highchair is SO easy to clean! It was a really enjoyable moment for me and Kris and Parker seemed to have a fun time too.
We’re starting Parker on solids slowly. Since babies can get all the nutrients they need solely from breastmilk until about eight months old we have a while to fully integrate food into her diet. I can’t believe that I’m actually doing this, but we’re trying bananas out tomorrow. Even though I think bananas are the single grossest food out there it’s a great first food for baby. As we start introducing more foods to Parker, I’ll have no problem whipping them up with my Beaba Babyfood Cooker. Oh how I love this thing ::swoon::
This appliance steams and purees food and is so easy to use. While we’ll do BLW with Parker, we'll still offer purees so I’m sure to get lots of good use out of it!
Are you ready for picture overload? I forewarned you... ;)
"Hurry up with the food. I've been eating the same thing for months...please give me something else to eat!"
Sidenote: check out the chub on this babe. So cute!
Checking out the weird, mushy, green stuff.
What a face, haha! Parker didn't know what to think at first.
And here she goes!
Parker got a decent amount of food in her mouth, but most of it landed on the floor, much to the delight of Sydney. We're excited to try out the bananas tomorrow!
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