Two days ago, we gave Emma her first solids. This time around, I figured I would attempt Baby Led Weaning. It’s a relatively new concept and the more I’m learning about it, the more it’s making a whole lot of sense.
Basically with Baby Led Weaning, the baby is given “real food”, as in food that is as close as possible to what we as adults would eat (minus the salts and sugars, of course). With Baby Led Weaning, there will be no food purees and mushy food that is always linked to weaning a baby. A baby is encouraged to feed herself by holding on to food and chomping or munching as much or as little as she wants. At the same time, breastfeeding is fully encouraged and baby can drink as much as she wants.
I’ve read that babies who adopt Baby Led Weaning tend to have healthier appetites, are not fussy eaters and become more independent with feeding themselves. This in turn (hopefully) will result in happier meal times, because the entire family eats together. Another obvious PLUS is of course that I don’t need to spend time making ground rice, pureeing fruits and vegetables and frozen food cubes! 😀
I’m still learning about Baby Led Weaning as I go along, so if there are any of you out there who has advice or suggestions, please feel free to let me know! 🙂
So I didn’t buy any rice cereal this time. Instead, for Emma’s first solids, I boiled some soft Bario red rice grains and shaped them into little rice balls. The boiled Bario red rice looked a little like porridge, soft and palatable.
She grabbed the little rice balls immediately. But I suppose her hand-to-mouth coordination is not that advanced yet, so she didn’t really know what to do with the rice balls!
She ended up chomping away on the side of the bowl!
When she threatened to fling the bowl over the side of the food tray, I decided to place the food on the tray itself, so she could have easier access to it.
Well, she didn’t eat much of the rice that first time. I did allow her to hold the bowl again, and she happily licked the bowl a little! 😛
I didn’t expect her to eat much this first time anyway.
Today, I tried again, and she did put a little into her mouth, but she became quite frustrated when she could not eat a lot (we think). So I used a spoon and fed her small tiny spoons of the red rice porridge.
Guess what? She grabbed onto the spoon and nibbled at the porridge! Looks like she likes it!
And she drank some water too after that, with a sippy cup!
Great job, Emma! Mommy is so proud of you! Here’s to more healthy eating days ahead!