Her trying beetroot for the first time
We have started Rainbow on solid when she turned 6 months. We are doing it the baby-led-weaning (BLW) way.
BLW is another alternative way of introducing solid food to baby. It's a way of starting solids that lets the baby set the pace. There's no spoon feeding and no purees like traditional feeding. It starts with baby playing with the food and gradually choosing what to eat and how much and how fast they want to eat. The good thing about BLW is she learns how to eat on her own, independently. We do not need to feed her at all. We can all eat together during mealtimes.
She's really loving it! She's always having fun trying to get the food into her mouth and smushing up the pieces with her fingers. We love that she eats whole food and we can expose her to fresh produce food; vegetables, meat, fish anything. It is also great for developmental and hand-eye coordination. I would recommend doing at least a little bit of whole food introduction.
As expected, she gagged few times at her initial attempts. This is a good thing because gag reflex is a safety mechanism that moves food from the back of the throat to the front, preventing choking. So whenever she puts too much food or pushes the food to far back, she gagged. It is also a way to teach her what not to do the next time she eats. It's a learning process. Most of the times she ain't bothered by it at all and will happily continue eating.
Things to consider though:
1) Do a lot of research and read-ups on this method first before deciding whether or not to do the BLW way.
2) It can be time consuming - It's not just a few spoonful and we are done. She gets a few pieces of food on her try and tries to pick them up and aim them at his mouth. We also have to watch her all the time (especially at the beginning) to make sure she doesn't choke because when baby gets choked, they can't make any sound.
3) It can get really messy - The end of the first feeding and even with a bib that covers her fully, there will be food in her hair, on her face, hands, chin and legs. however this tray her helps us a lot to contain all the food pieces.
4) Even though she doesn't require "special" food, it is important that the food be the right size and shape for her to grab and gum on. Long thin slices (I called it french fries size) are the best.
5) Let baby learns her own way at her own pace - The first not-to-do thing for BLW is never to feed the baby because they are the best person to know how much and how fast to eat. We do not!
6) Do not get panic when baby gags. Remember it's a learning process. Again, do a lot of read ups to find out the difference between gagging and choking.
Ever since she started eating solid, we have seen what determination is. Such an easy task for us adults but to her, it takes a lot of effort. We are able to pick up a piece of carrot stick, put in our mouths, chew and swallow easily, within seconds, but to her, it takes so much effort. Every single actions take so much effort. Many times after she manages to pick up one piece of carrot successfully, the piece of carrot would drop when she tried putting into mouth. But she didn't fuss or get frustrated easily. She tried again and again and again until she did it. The happy look on her face when she managed to swallow made our day. So far she has improved a lot since day 1. She knows how big piece to eat and when she is unable to aim the food to her mouth, she will change hand.
Whereas we adults, very tempted to help her in every way because those actions are so easy for us to do. I was so tempted to help her put the carrot into her mouth but I stopped myself and told myself to have faith in her because she has faith in herself. Once again, her determination did not fail to surprise us. She made us her proud parents.
We adults need to learn from these little fellows determinations, really. The spirit of not giving up easily, not fussing and getting frustrated easily when we fail. Babies are really smart in their own ways. What we learnt through this process is that she has the capability to do so much and often times, we take the opportunity away by helping her. Now we learnt to let her learn her stuffs in her own ways with minimal guidance along the way. We let her make mistakes. We let her realize the mistakes. We let her learn through the mistakes. After all, life is also about making mistakes and learn through them, ain't it?
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