Baby Led Weaning

Since being poorly, Art hasn’t tried any food. We continue to offer him various food, but he has a bash at it then gets upset. To be fair I don’t think he’s fully recovered from the weekend.

We’ll continue offering though, I think we’ll try a carrot baton again tomorrow, like the one he seemed to love so much on his first day of food.

After a few days of being poorly for the first time, today we’ve started offering Art food again.

This morning we offered him porridge fingers again, along with banana. The fingers were too thing, however, and he wasn’t overly interested, not as much as the first day we offered him the same. We suspect he’s still recovering from his upset a little.

At lunchtime he had a homemade rusk to play with, again, a few licks, but generally unenthusiastic.

This evening we all shared the very same meal for the first time, no changes for our version or Art’s, it was roasted vegetables (parsnip, chard, red onion, potato, yellow pepper, orange pepper) with pasta spirals. Art was a little tired in hindsight, so ended his meal sitting on my knee sharing my plate.

Arthur didn’t have breakfast today but he had a lunch of steamed broccoli, pepper, onion and mushroom. We had the same, but stir-fried with soy and fish sauce.

Dinner was potato and parsnip mash, roast leek and roast chicken!

At 11pm, however, Art decided to treat Mummy to her first experience of projectile vomiting, diarhhea nappies and a temperature of over 38 degrees. His first taste of Calpol and a phone call to NHS Direct and we were reassured but they made us an appointment to see the out of hours GP when they opened at 9am. He was diagnosed with a viral infection and we were told it was unlikely to be anything to do with starting weaning. She did advise us to hold off for a few days however.

Art’s first dinner was Dad’s homemade pizza. We have homemade pizza every week, this week we left the salt out of the dough recipe so that Art could join in, but you could really tell, the dough missed it. Needs work to be baby-friendly while keeping it’s taste.

We had dough balls to start with, which Art really enjoyed bashing about.

Then it was on to the pizza, which was a salt-free dough with tomato sauce (tinned tomatoes, onion, mixed dried herbs, small amount of olive oil) with red and yellow pepper slices on top.

Baby pizza cut into strips - the outside two were a bit too crispy and sharp, we didn't offer them to Art

We cut Art’s mini pizza into strips, which he duly sucked dry of all it’s tomato sauce! The pepper was far too slimy for him cooked, we’ll put it on top of the pizza raw next time I think.

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.

22 Weeks

For the past week or so I’ve been feeling more and more that Art is ready to experience food. My instinct was telling me I was depriving him somehow and he is now ticking all the boxes.

• He’s sitting up unsupported
• He’s very interested in food we’re eating and grabbing at it (to be fair he’s interested in everything)
• Suddenly everything is going into his mouth in a more accurate (ish) fashion
• He’s trying to ‘chew’ things (including his own tongue/gums sometimes, think it’s his teeth coming through)

The 6 months guideline was playing on my mind though. However, we gave him a few chunks of apple to play with tonight, and he seemed to really enjoy them.

<photo of Art with his first food>

21 Weeks

In preparation, we’ve started having our lunch and evening meal at the table, Art in his high chair with a few toys to keep him occupied.

Art sitting in his highchair while Mummy eats lunch at the table

Our next step, perhaps next week, will be to give him his own plate and spoon to play with at the table.

Over the coming weeks I’m going to develop our first meal plan, which I will post here.