Baby-Led Weaning- The Good, The Bad, and the Messy
Baby-Led Weaning
Our pediatrician recommended starting solids when Maverick was 4 months old. I'd been researching baby-led weaning- when and how to start, if purees were better or worse or if it even mattered at all. There was a lot of conflicting information about when exactly to start babies on solids, and what food to start with. I found a few resources that I trust and have come to use almost daily.
The main source I found was Solid Starts- mainly the app, but I also love their instagram for tips, tricks, and ideas. There I learned that the best time to start solids was when a baby can sit up by themselves- which at the time, Maverick was unable to do. I still went with what the pediatrician said, against my gut and against my research. While nothing bad happened, nothing good happened either. In this blog post I'll dive in to our journey so far, both the good and the bad, and the very, VERY messy.
The Good
We were pretty slow to start since he wasn't sitting up by himself and I didn't have a highchair yet, but we began with baby cereal per doc's recommendation. He hated it and still had a very strong tongue thrust so mostly none went in his mouth lol. Slowly over the next few weeks we started introducing purees which is not exactly baby-led weaning per se. He loved every veggie and every fruit we introduced. We worked around the tongue thrust to just keep shoveling it in. Looking back, I wish I had waited to start until he was sitting up. One good part is that he loved every food we tried. We also didn't really have to worry about allergies because he'd been tested for the top allergens already due to Derek's history of allergies.
The Bad
About 2 months after starting purees I decided I wanted to get more into true baby-led weaning by giving Maverick safe table foods. I continued to do purees because we were trying to pack a little bit more weight on him (per doc's orders) and I started adding things like yogurt and eggs. If I'm ever not sure how to serve a certain food I just check the Solid Starts app to see how they recommend serving the food for his age. Things were going great for a few weeks and I was really getting comfortable and getting the hang of things. Then my one of my ultimate fears happened.
I had made myself some delicious scrambled eggs with milk and cheese and salt and cooked them in real butter *chefs kiss*. I figured they were soft enough for Mav to eat, so I shared. He LOVED them and kept wanting more. We went about our day and everything was fine. You thought I was going to say he choked, didn't you? Nope. No- he threw up. He woke up from his nap and threw up EVERYWHERE. Again and again. His entire face, it was in his eyes, hair, hands, all over his crib. My literal worst nightmare. Anyways, Derek helped me clean everything up and take care of him. To this day the only thing I can figure is that the eggs were too rich for him after eating plain, simple stuff for so long.
So, I learned a valuable lesson. Slowly slooowwllyyyy add things to the simple foods to make them more complex. Get their tummies ready to handle these things before going balls to the wall like I did.
The Messy
Baby- led weaning is messy. So. Messy. We've since moved on to more advanced things like avocado toast, almond butter toast, stroganoff, ravioli, etc. (He still won't eat eggs.) Prepare to constantly be cleaning. I pretty much let Maverick feed himself at this point, which the dogs are LOVING. At least I don't have to clean the floors lol. The highchair we have (white IKEA highchair) is super easy to clean so that's been nice. I'll link all our dishes and stuff below. It's important to me for everything related to him and food to be very easy to clean so I don't get so overwhelmed by the mess.
I read somewhere that the mess is important, that letting them touch and play and explore what they're eating is crucial for development and their future relationship with not only food but other new experiences as well. We, as adults with life experience, have a bank of knowledge to pull from in order to make assumptions about a new experience. Say we're given a food we've never had before. We can use sight, smell, touch, even sound to determine it might taste like before we've even taken the first bite. Babies can't do that because they don't have that bank of knowledge yet. We are currently in the process of helping them build it.
Every time I get grossed out by Maverick being disgusting covered in food, I just think of all the cool new connections he just made in his brain that will help him in the future and it makes me feel better.
Baby-Led Weaning Supplies (Links!)
If you want to keep reading, check out my post on my Most Used/Vital Newborn Items! As a first time mom, I'm trying to help others figure out what they really need- stuff wise. This post is focused on the first 3ish months of your new babies life. I'm hoping to have another few up here soon- but as a new mom, time is scarce lol!
Thank you for reading!