At first, the introduction of solids was very smooth. But then, all of a sudden, meal time became a struggle. Ella would find no interest in her food and it became very frustrating for me. I decided to persevere through another week or so but still no improvement. And then, as her six month mark was approaching, it was brought to my attention that I needed to find a way to give her iron somehow (more frustration- since fortified rice cereal is not really an option for me)
But after asking around, I found lots of answers but something else was brought to my attention- a term that I had never heard before, it's called Baby-Led Weaning.
I wanted to learn more about this term so I researched a bit and I found that baby-led weaning is basically a way to introduce solids by skipping the purée step. Instead, you give your baby foods that she can pick up, hold and chew herself.
It used to be advised to start solids at around 3-4 months but that changed a while ago to 6 months. But a baby changes a lot (developmentally) between 4 and 6 months so when they changed the age, the developmental stage wasn't taken into consideration. At 3-4 months, babies haven't developed the ability to chew and then swallow which is why its best to introduce pureed foods at this age. By the time the baby is six months she has developed better hand-eye coordination as well as the chew ability so she is able to pick up food and put it in her mouth and actually chew it. So you give the baby chunks of food about the size and shape of french fries. Of course, you have to use common sense so baby doesn't choke or something. For the hard vegetables, like carrots, I steam them until they're really soft.
Here's some links for more info:
http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/blw/engels.html
http://www.rapleyweaning.com/assets/blwleaflet.pdf
http://www.rapleyweaning.com/assets/blwleaflet.pdf
So I actually tried this idea with Ella last week and I'm pleased to say it was pretty successful and a lot of fun! We got to actually eat meals together. There was no frustration and no crying. Ella seemed to really enjoy playing and exploring with her food. It was quite interesting to watch. It also sorta solved my iron problem because in the morning I give her some balls of my scrambled eggs :) So far we've tried scrambled eggs, bananas, pears, carrots, avocado, sweet potato and zucchini- all very successful!
I still think I'm going to feed her some mushy stuff. In fact, I gave her some sweet potato and apple sauce today and she ate it all which she has never done before! So I'm not sure if this baby led weaning helped that out but I'm just glad that something is working!
First "real" solids- scrambled eggs and bananas
SQUISH!
