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Last night the boss came over for dinner. Good thing he is a kid person! I made a pretty good chicken/pasta white wine butter sauce thing. I like the boss. I'm worried about some of the decisions he makes, but hey, it's his business and he's the boss. But I do enjoy his company and he enjoys are children.
This morning however, I woke up to more rain (Yeah we need it) But also a pile of dishes and a pounding headache. And so, the babies and I will remain in PJs all day. While Jake may end up doing more of this:
I was going to blog about this months ago, but I never got around to it. Now I'm feeling like a total schmuck for not doing it sooner as it has been probably one of the most fun parts of raising the babies.
You can do a google search for "Baby Led Weaning" to find out more. I know there is a group on Face book and lots of web sites that explain it. I'll give you a brief explanation. Baby led weaning is really in my opinion, a poor title or description. It is basically the introduction of solid foods without using purees.
Purees were introduced years ago when formula became popular and doctors realized that formula was not nutritionally fulfilling. They needed to give babies something to fill the void. These days formula and breast milk are nutritionally complete for the first year or so of life. There is no nutritional need for purees nor is there any digestive need for purees instead of a solid. Feeding purees does not teach a baby to eat solids as they are sucking the food off the spoon and it is a totally different reflex than chewing.
There has been many studies done on feeding babies anything other than formula or breast milk before six months of age. The consensus is that it actually makes babies more susceptible to food allergies and can cause intestinal issues because their guts are not mature enough to handle foods that early.
This is where BLW or natural approach to feeding solids comes in. When the baby is old enough to sit up and grab food for himself off your plate he's ready to eat! This naturally happens about the time babies digestive tracks start to mature enough to handle food, about six months. It is amazing to me how nature has built in the most perfect time clock for babies.
How you "do" BLW is pretty simple. You offer your baby just about any food. Whole nuts, honey and salty foods are No-Nos but pretty much anything else is up for grabs. (pun intended) Most foods you keep in large chunks so that babies can hold them and gnaw on them. Good first foods include bananas or avocados strips of chicken or steak. Babies have to learn how hard to hold a banana without having it squish out of their hand. Feeding babies this way teaches them about temperatures, textures and helps with motor skills. Spoon feeding purees doesn't give them the wealth of experiences that allowing them to feed themselves does. Not only that, babies know when they are full or still hungry. Allowing them the power to choose what they eat off their tray and how much teaches them how to have a satisfying and not overfilled meal time.
At this stage of a baby's life, (six months) their gag reflex is the farthest forward in their mouth that it will ever be. This is nature's way of teaching the baby how much food they can swallow. Trust me, if they take too big a bite, it comes back out. The first time I read, "gagging is learning", I freaked out a bit. I thought it may not be a safe thing. But the more I read and the more we tried, the more convinced I became that this was not only safe, it is actually more safe than feeding purees. The key to gagging is to not panic and freak the baby out. It is amazing how my boys, even Nathan who is a bit more on the drama side, a bit choosier about food, would gag and then keep on eating as if nothing happened. The first few times this happened I was white knuckling the dinner table. I'd say within 7 to 10 days the gagging episodes were just about done with. They learn so quickly how to manipulate that food and how much they can swallow.
As a mom to twins and a 3yo, nothing could make meal time more easy. I cook one meal for all five of us. Unless something is too salty or too spicy, then I'll fix something else or reheat left overs. Although Wesley likes spice ... Nathan not so much. Last night we had beef stew. The boys were given carrots, potatoes and beef. Now that they are old pros at eating, I don't have to give them big chunks of food. Their pincher grasp (index finger and thumb) works quite well and they have mastered the ability to pick up the tiniest of foods off their trays. I loaded up their trays and a few minutes later I looked over and saw this:
Wesley had polished off his meat and left most of his potatoes and Nathan had not touched his meat but had eaten all of his potatoes and both boys ate most of their carrots. They were both completely happy and wanting more of the stuff they preferred.
Another great result of introducing solids this way, our ability to dine out as a family. I never would have guessed I could have taken six, eight or ten month old twins, and a 3yo out for breakfast, lunch or dinner and not have any issues. It blows my mind that the babies can sit and be so content eating a meal in a restaurant for 45 minutes or longer. They love to interact with other people while eating. We get so many compliments about their behavior and how neat they are. They really do eat the food instead of play with it.
They also try so many different foods. My boys eat veggies! They like toaster waffles with yogurt spread on them and apple slices that I don't even have to peel. Oh and Nathan still doesn't have any teeth and Wesley just got his first bottom teeth after Thanksgiving. You would be amazed how well they chew and eat without teeth.
So that's how we introduced solids. If you are pregnant or have a little one, I highly suggest you do some of your own research on it. There is a book called Baby Led Weaning by Gil Rapley. The best part about having the book is having others read it if they start to freak. My girlfriend started her six month old twins out this way about 3 weeks ago. She asked to borrow the book last week. She said her in laws were coming for a visit and she wanted something to hand them to read when they started to question her or make comments! Really there is enough info out on the internet that you dont' need the book, but again, it might come in handy!
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