One of my favorite things in life is food. I’m far from a “foodie” – I really just like to eat good food and also enjoy a tasty burger every now and again. I’ve been so excited for Ben to start eating so that we could ultimately introduce him to our favorite foods. It has been really fun, but also a completely different experience than I expected.
Call me crazy, but I envisioned that one day we’d say “okay, today’s the day Ben is going to eat solid food” and then he’d sit in his high chair, eat solid food and from that point forward be an “eater.” While that’s not inaccurate, it’s a little more glorified than reality.
We are doing a combination of spoon feeding Ben and a concept called “Baby Led Weaning” {BLW}. With the spoon feeding, Ben is feeding himself food we put on a spoon, primarily pureed food. Baby Led Weaning is a completely different concept – polar opposite, really, where you give babies “finger size” pieces of food to feed themselves.
I love the Baby Led Weaning concept because it teaches kids to feed themselves, provides opportunities to try new textures and tastes and gives them control over what they eat and how much they eat. Basically they just gnaw on something for a while and taste the food and get the juices. For the first several months the point of BLW isn’t necessarily to actually eat the food – it’s to try new things and get used to the idea of food.
The reason we’re incorporating spoon feeding, too, is to increase the calories Ben is taking in. He’s a big, big eater these days and I can hardly keep up with the amount of milk he’s drinking so he needs to start getting some of his calories elsewhere. I was shocked to find out that 2 tablespoons of oatmeal contain 35 calories – it’s amazing to me that he can get so many calories from so little oatmeal. Two tablespoons of oatmeal almost replace 2 ounces of milk {plus it’s a good source of iron!}!
So far Ben has tried oatmeal, banana, applesauce, apple wedge, avocado and sweet potato fries. I’d say oatmeal and the apple wedge were his favorite. When he eats any of these foods he seems surprised to taste something and have the texture of food in his mouth.
It’s my intention to keep introducing new foods every several days to him. I have been enjoying making up his food – it’s so easy to do! I make oatmeal for myself in the morning and before I add milk and salt I take a spoonful and put it in the food processor to grind up the oats a bit finer. And applesauce couldn’t be easier – I sliced an apple and put it in some boiling water until it was soft, then removed the skin and threw it in the food processor. I love making Ben’s food so I know exactly what’s in it.
For the immediate future we’ll keep up with both spoon feeding and BLW and see what happens! Hopefully he’ll get used to some new tastes soon.