Ready, Set, Eat!

Little Bear is almost 5.5 months old and we decided to start introducing solids!  He has so far only had breastmilk with some formula supplementing when he was 2 months. We are doing Baby Led Weaning which is skipping purees and going straight to the good stuff! BLW foods should be soft and large enough (think steak fry) for babe to get a good hold on. The general guidelines for doing BLW are:

Sitting unassisted

Shows interest in food (grabbing for it)

Can easily get things to their mouth

6 months old (we cheated a little)

This method lets your babe discover a greater variety of foods, you don't have to worry about pureeing or feeding the yucky stuff from the store that's full of preservaties, and you don't have to cook a separate meal. Having chicken and veggies for dinner? Cook some up real soft and give it to the babe!

You should wait 2-3 days or more between introducing new foods to make sure your babe doesn't have a reaction to a certain food. If you introduced avocado then sweet potato two days in a row and he had a reaction, you wouldn't know which it was from. You may want to avoid tougher foods if your babe has teeth so they don't chomp a big piece off. Your babe may gag, it's normal. Babies gag reflexes are in the middle of their mouth, rather than the back, to help prevent choking. 

Now, let's eat!