WEEK 1 of SELF-FEEDING with Elise
OUR EXPERIENCE.
If you are just joining me here, I am a big fan of the method of self-feeding a.k.a Baby Led Weaning (BLW). No purees, just real food from the start. If you are unfamiliar, take a look here.
Elise is now 6 months and we just completed the first week of playing with real food. Playing is the key word here. It will be a while until this game turns into real eating. If your grandmas and aunts are looking at you with suspicion (at best), you are not alone. When we were babies, we were fed by the spoon and as early as 3 months. And in the eyes of our moms and grandmas, the food that we were offered was as essential to our growth as the breast milk or formula. Now the views are changing and it is considered that breast milk and/or formula is the main source of nutrition until 12 months of age; the rest is complimentary. There is certainly no pressure for a baby of 6 months to be eating lots of food, if at all.
As far as I’m concerned, babies know best. Before they show real interest in food (by trying to grab everything you are eating and bringing it to their mouths), they are not really ready. But then again, I’m not an expert, I just follow my intuition second time around. Every baby is different. Every parent is different. Choose what you will have the most fun with.
When to start?
I am a bit of an impatient mom so I started a week before Elise turned 6 months. It is recommended to wait until 6 months since that’s the time when digestive system is ready for real food. I started by sitting Elise in a highchair for a few minutes at a time. She was a bit wobbly at first but a week later she was ready to start eating. She was grabbing everything around and bringing it to her mouth and was interested in what we were eating. I could tell by the way she was looking at us and by the way she was reaching towards the food.
What to offer?
You can pretty much offer anything. If you research online, you will see babies eating things like chicken legs in barbecue sauce. An important thing to point out here is that BLW can be as healthy or as unhealthy as you make it to be. Self-feeding macaroni and cheese would be considered following Baby Led Weaning practices. Our family is all about healthy food, especially for kids.
Our MENU was simple, healthy and baby-friendly: pear, avocado, oatmeal, zucchini, red pepper, sweet potato, pumpkin and almond butter.
NUTS:
The earlier you introduce nut butters, the lesser chance of nut allergy – according to the latest research. Be careful with nut butters. Watch out for any allergic reaction, which can occur after several tries. I made sure I wasn’t alone at home, just in case. If you have nut allergies in your family, pay extra attention and consult with your pediatritian. Soren happens to have walnut and pecan allergy even though no one in the family has it. I will still try to offer it to Elise early but will most likely do it at the pediatrician’s office. Again, just in case.
How much?
It is recommended to try to stick to one-ingredient foods for 2-3 days to rule out any allergy. If you have a predisposition to allergies in your family, you certainly should do that. I offered one ingredient per day, that is, Elise tried 7 different things in a week. I did the same with Soren.
Weeks 1-4 is purely for playing. If nothing goes in, it’s totally fine. Two pieces of steamed veggies or fruits on the tray is more than enough to start the process.
Remember that the pieces should be long enough to hold in the entire fist, not small bites.
Experience and what to do with a spoon
Elise was still a wobbly sitter so I made sure the first few days were short experiences that would not tire her out. I placed big chunks of steamed veggies or fruit on her tray. I let her look at it and move it around for a few minutes. Because she was still not so good at picking stuff up, especially slimy food, I would help her by placing the food in her fist and guide it to her mouth. She knew what to do then. It was incredible to see how much she improved by the end of first week. She knew exactly what needed to happen and was already good at picking food up, usually with both hands.
I offered her oatmeal (real old-fashioned kind that was cooked until soft) with a bit of my breast milk. It was pretty unrealistic to expect her to pick up the food with the spoon that early. I was trying to establish the connection between spoon and food by first putting a little oatmeal in her mouth by the spoon myself and then giving her the spoon to hold. Still inexperienced, she gagged a little by placing the spoon too deeply in her mouth. No big deal. Then I would scoop a bit of oatmeal and try to have her grab the spoon and put it into her mouth. Little by little we will get there. It’s a process.
Goal
My goal for WEEK 1 was:
- to establish interest in food
- to test the baby’s ability to manage what is offered
- to create association that spoon is food
- it was also important to me that if not swallowed, the baby tastes the food. That meant I helped a little by placing the food in her hand or even brought it to her mouth to help bite.
Given how different Elise is from her brother Soren (she doesn’t have the same appetite towards milk, she doesn’t take the bottle or a pacifier, she is not sitting up as early as Soren), I am very pleased with our first week of real food.
The first week or two are the hardest ones for new parents so I wanted to be detailed in my description. I hope it helps. I’ll keep it much shorter next time.
Have a lovely day!
PS: for even more info and Q&A, please consult my Self-Feeding Guide here.
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