Following on from this article on the BBC Website regarding weaning breastfed babies before 6 months, reporting on research published in the British Medical Journal that contradicts the 6 months exclusive breastfeeding advice, today we’ve gone for it with Art’s baby led weaning.
My instinct is that he is ready and my instinct has served us well so far.
Breakfast : Porridge & Banana
So, this morning he had porridge fingers (porridge finger recipe) with half a banana (chopped in half again lengthways), while we both had porridge, Dad had the other half banana chopped up in his porridge (he likes sweet porridge, I come from a Scottish family and add salt to mine!).
He really enjoyed himself with it and it was fabulous watching him squidge the banana, he was struggling to pick it up, but he managed to get it to his mouth a few times, mostly putting his fingers in while the banana escaped sudden death, but certainly got a taste from the banana from his fingers if not from the bits that made it into his mouth.
The porridge fingers were fabulous, but they mostly ended up on the floor. They were good because they seemed to stick to his hand as he lifted it. We learnt we need to chop things longer though.
Lunch : Potato Salad
We had a potato salad which contained boiled new potatoes, fresh tomatoes, olives, carrot ribbons, mayonnaise and lettuce. Arthur had boiled potatoes (one cut in half, one left whole), a carrot baton with wide ends, skinless and seedless tomato wedges and a pear sliced in the round with a hole in the middle where the core had been removed.
The most successful was the carrot baton. I’d taken the ribbons for our salad out of the centre of a small/medium sized regular carrot so that it had a thin bit in the middle for holding and wide ends for gnawing. The potatoes, pear and tomato were all a bit slippery, so he kept going back to the carrot, but he seemed to enjoy his lunch, again not a lot went in, but he finished with laughing and generally a happy smiley Art.
Dinner : Homemade Pizza
Tonight Art is going to experience a weekly event in his house for the first time, homemade pizza. The dough is currently rising, I will report back tonight. We’re planning on just offering him the dough with some tomato sauce along with some strips of pepper. Our baby-friendly pizza dough recipe.