Yesterday Baby B was having a lot of teething pain so after getting bored of sticking my poor mashed up fingers in his mouth and having accepted that he doesnt like his cold teething dummies, I cut a carrot stick up and gave it to him, nice and cold.
He loved it (nice cold hard surface to gum!) and started licking it which got me thinking… I know you shouldn’t start baby led weaning (or any weaning) until 26 weeks but we are getting close to it… so I parboiled the carrot stick for a few minutes, dunked it in cold water and sat him in his highchair – wow! He was impressed. To start with I held it in my hand and he moved my hand to his mouth, after a few minutes he got the idea. I hadnt cooked it enough so I doubt he ate anymore than he did during our short-lived attempt at puree’s but he enjoyed it – as the video shows.
Today we saw the health visitor (15lb 2oz – but he has been rejecting his milk for the last twelve hours so should have been a bit more!) and on the way home went to Tesco’s – I got a nice comice pear for Baby B and a prepared fruit salad for me. When we got home we tried carrot sticks again but they werent as exciting as yesterday. On a whim I gave Baby B a strawberry from my salad – big mistake clothes wise but great move for Baby B.
He couldn’t hold it – wrong size and shape – but if I held it he could grab my hand and move it into, around and out of his mouth so I think this still counts as Baby Led Weaning! He loved it, it was mashed around, smeared allover his bib, face, T-shirt and arms and it coloured his dribble bright red. Every now and then he would have a big chomp and pucker up his face and shiver as the sweet/sour juices of out of season strawberry hit him – he must have liked it as everytime this happened he pulled it away, looked at it and shoved it back into his mouth for another go. In the end I was the one who tired of holding a mushy strawberry before he did.
This looks like a messy but fun period of life!
A tired mummy's Blog 
Thought you might be interested to read Gill’s views on trying BLW pre- 6 months…
Taken from interview on “the weaning room”
“Is it ever appropriate to attempt BLW before baby is six months old?
Gill Rapley: The theory of BLW says that all areas of a baby’s development go hand in hand. This means that s/he won’t be able to get food into them before they are developmentally ready to digest it. While this won’t be at exactly the same age for all babies, it appears that it won’t normally happen before about six months. In my own study, the (seven) babies were allowed to handle food from four months; one baby managed to get food into his mouth at four and a half months and was able to chew it. However, he was unable to move it to the back of his mouth to swallow it and it simply fell out. As with the other babies, there was no evidence (e.g. from his nappies) that he was actually swallowing anything before about six months. Therefore, provided the baby is in control, there would be no harm in allowing him to have a go earlier if the mother wished.
The theorist in me says that all babies can safely be given the opportunity to pick up food and eat it from birth, and that they will do it when they are ready. (The principle is the same as giving a newborn baby the opportunity to roll over, stand up and walk, simply by putting him on the floor to ‘have a kick’, something which all parents do, even though they don’t realise it!) However, if I am asked to make a recommendation, as a health professional I have to go with the recommended starting age of six months.”
So really BLW is the best/only way to truly see if your baby is ready for weaning… because if they can’t they won’t! H x
Oh and we have found refridgerated melon chunks to be an absolute winner when teething!
Thanks for the tip!
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