Baby Led Weaning - Take 1

Baby led weaning.

Oh how we'd been anxiously awaiting our little man to officially turn 6 months so we could start giving him food.  I had toyed with the idea of starting him at 4 months with purees.  I was going to make all of his own baby food, ya know.  The mixing and spooning into trays and freezing.  I was ready and excited to start.

But then I started reading and seeing more about Baby Led Weaning (BLW).  And it sounded intriguing and right and for me made more sense.  Wasn't the point for C to learn to eat on his own and give him real food?  Wouldn't it be easier if he were just eating what we were eating?  No mixing, spooning and freezing.  And no spoon feeding C!

We bought the book and cookbook and read through them.  We understood and both felt good about the decision to try this method.  So we waited.  And seemed to wait, wait and wait some more for C to finally be the magic 6 months.  Not that we didn't offer.  We started sitting him in his high chair, sitting him our laps and having food right in front of his face.  He didn't care.  He wasn't interested.  So we waited.

Saturday morning we decided to dive in.  We were all up, C had had his 8am bottle and we did it.  We gave him pieces of dry toast and banana.  With my camera ready and RCW on standby in case of choking we dove in head first to BLW.  C did great!  He seemed to really like his toast, but the banana just kept mashing up in his hands.  I won't lie, we did have some gagging and some spitting up.  It was a bit scary, but we let C work through it on his own so he will learn.  It didn't deter him, he kept going.  We just gave him a sippy cup of water since the toast, which he adored, was so dry.

Our game plan was to try to feed him breakfast and dinner on the weekends and dinner during the week to start with.  Since he isn't really eating, he's just playing, discovering and exploring, it isn't necessary for him to have 3 meals a day and sometimes he can miss it altogether, like last night when dinner didn't fit into our schedule until after he was in bed.

But on the nights he's enjoying dinner with us, he's been trying out steamed baby carrots, steamed broccoli florets and pieces of baked turkey.  What does he love?  The turkey.  What does he not care for?  The broccoli.

But he kept trying it and making these horrible faces, which made RCW and I crack up!  We've had a good first few days, he's trying.  He's at least picking up the food and putting it in his mouth.  But he definitely isn't really eating anything yet.  I've read it can take a couple weeks for any eating to actually happen.  We're fine with going slow and steady.  And honestly, this method seems to be easier than homemade baby food.  And spoon feeding too.  We fix all of our dinners, sit at the table and we all eat together.  While I snap way too many pictures of C!

Someone commented on Fb that it was the happiest day of C's life.  I don't know about him, but I'm pretty sure its the happiest days of the dogs' lives!   They are loving all the food that is being dropped on the floor for them to clean up!

Anyone else who does BLW have any tips or tricks?  Did you little one gag or choke?  When will C actually start eating the food, or do we have a while for that to happen?