The Baby Led Weaning Journey Begins....

As a parent you are always learning, even if it's not your 1st time. With my daughter's arrival there were some things I was keen to do that I hadn't done last time and one of them was to use the Baby Led Weaning technique.

Why Baby Led?
As I already have a 5 year old son, admittedly I was driven by the advice of parents and health professionals when it came to weaning him and of course retailers so I naturally went down the Traditional Led Weaning path offering him different stages of feeding by offering him pureed products and introducing lumps and texture slowly. Now at almost 6 years old he refuses to try most foods and struggles with anything that has too much texture, this was my trigger to try Baby Led Weaning this time around.

What is Baby Led Weaning?
Basically, offering your baby food that you are eating and allowing them to explore it for themselves. Cutting foods into manageable pieces to allow your child to feed themselves.
Since having my son 5 years ago, I have witnessed both of my Sister In Laws wean their children in the Baby Led manner and have always been in awe at how well my nieces took the food. So for me this was the way forward.

How did I get Started?
I had a good understanding of what to try with my daughter but I got prepared, I joined a group on Facebook and started reading through the posts and recipes and advice that they offered to see how to get started and then I did a shop for the first few meals.
I also hired a great book all about Baby Led Weaning by Gill Rapley which gave some great ideas on getting started.
I decided to make a start at Breakfast time, this also coincided with the Summer Holidays so I was hoping that seeing his little sister trying and enjoying all these foods may encourage him to try a few more things watch this space..........

How is it going?
It's now been 2.5weeks since I first introduced solids to my daughter and I have to say it is going brilliantly.
The very first thing she tried was a toasted crumpet with some unsalted butter and some banana. This is actually one of my favourite breakfasts, I enjoy a toasted crumpet with some sliced banana so as mealtimes would be enjoyed together I wanted to try her with foods that are popular with us as BLW is intended.
It has been lovely to see the progress made so far with the tiniest amounts being consumed to watching her devour a huge chunk of watermelon or cucumber.

I am 100% glad I made the decision to go with BLW this time, I am amazed to see the changes and how quickly she has adapted from not taking any solids to confidently trying each item of food that is placed in front of her.

Long may this journey continue!

Moving Out!

Here I am writing this today and my little girl is now just over 19 weeks old! The time is absolutely flying. We are really settled now however and getting ready to move her into her own bedroom, which makes me slightly sad as I will not have her next to me still but she seems pretty settled at the moment, sleeping through the nights (I know!) but she just seems to need more space.

For me, I have been taking this journey alongside a great group of friends and we help each other through each difficult stage. "Moving Out" is one of those steps that, as a mum you never want to take. The 1st step to your little baby growing up. Realistically however, there are only so many times you can deal with the baby getting woken up by your husbands snoring!

So with a monitor set up and a sensor pad in the cot it was time to make the move. It's so funny as a first time parent I wanted to hit every milestone bang on and was constantly looking for the next thing, this time I hang on to every single moment, delaying the next as long as possible, why? Simply because the next children to enter our family will be likely to be our Grandchildren as hubby is adamant that we are not having anymore and well, although we have a spare room we want it to remain just that and I do have ideas of it becoming a play room although I think I would have to win my husband around on that one!

Anyway wish me luck, I bet she will get more sleep than me!