BLW?

I originally started this blog to put out on the net our experiences with Baby-Led Weaning.  When I was looking into it I couldn't readily find any info on it on the net about order of foods, how to prepare foods, or even really personal accounts of BLW.  So I decided I'd write up our own personal experiences with it, so that way if in the future any mom was trying to find info on it, she'd hopefully come across my blog and find it helpful. 

That was all great when we were in the beginning stages of starting solids and had tons of new stuff to share. Now however, my girl is 18 months (!) and I am coming up short on ideas for entries about BLW.  I would still like to include it in my blog though.  I have a lot of friends who have babies that will be starting solids soon, and pregnant friends, and I'd like to be able to have current entries for them and for all the nice people out there in internet land. 

So any ideas for some new BLW/starting solids entries? 

How about entries on any topic?

Still a favorite!

When we first introducing solids Mercy wasn't so crazy about most of them.  She didn't really love avocado, or pears, or cantaloupe, cucumbers, or broccoli.  The first food she really seemed to enjoy was a fresh peach. 


And they are still a favorite of hers. We recently bought some monster peaches from Costco and she thoroughly enjoyed them.

She is definitely my kid.

Hi.  My daughter's name is Mercy and she is a food-a-holic. 

There is no doubt that Mercedes is my girl.  The way to her heart is certainly through her stomach. Her favorite, most spoken word is "Bite."  If I even open the fridge, she comes running (as fast as her wobbly toddler legs will take her, which is pretty fast) to the kitchen with her chorus of "Bite?" in her precious little baby girl voice. Oh how I love her little voice. 

Anyways, I digress.  Her head and heart are located in her little stomach.  She can be in the kitchen, most certainly getting into trouble, and if I call out "Mercy, want a bite?" her little feet pitter patter all the way to me, the promise of food distracting her from whatever mischief she shouldn't be getting into.  She LOVES being outside and lately I'll set her down when we get out of the car instead of carrying her inside, but she likes to stay outside.  The other day I brought home food and she was standing in the yard, just looking around like usual, and I said "Bite?" and you could practically see her eyes light up as she came right inside. If she were a dog, her ears would have perked up.

She is such a good eater too, although lately she is showing a HUGE preference for rice.  Any kind of rice.  White rice, spanish rice, rice pilaf, sticky rice, rice with divan, rice sweet and sour pork, season rice, rice in sauce, fried rice, the list goes on.  I fear that not only is she a food-a-holic, but that she has inherited my carb addiction as well. I guess this means I'll have to get used to sharing my array of rices, pasta, and breads.

Have Mercy! is on Facebook....

I started a FB Fan page for Have Mercy! the other week.  I have the button on my sidebar, but figured I'd also go ahead and post the link here, become a fan! Sneak peeks, updates, and special deals!

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Have-Mercy/362374060686

In other news, the giveaway for a FREE Have Mercy! soaker ends tomorrow night at 10 PM.  If you haven't entered yet I strongly encourage you to do so, who doesn't like free stuff?

Miss Mercy Rose has been busy the past week or so cutting teeth.  3 of them as a matter of fact.  It certainly helps explain why she has been being a gigantic poo lately. 

On the BLW front, at 13 months we are past the point where there is much to write about.  She is a great eater, and LOVES food.  Whenever anybody has a plate of anything she walks to them and stands by their legs asking "Bite? Bite? Bite?" it's pretty much the cutest thing ever.  We picked up subway for lunch today and she got her own little piece.  She loved it.

Nom Nom Nom

Thank you BLW

Dear Baby-Led Weaning,

You make my life very interesting.  I believe you are partially responsible for fostering an incredible bit of independence in Miss Mercy.  For example- she takes it upon herself to take food from my plate and try to take my fork and feed herself.  Her latest adventure was opening the cereal cabinet, grabbing a box of cheerios, opening that, and proceeding to sit on my kitchen floor happy as a clam eating said cheerios.  When she was done eating the cheerios, she then climbed INTO the cabinet to commune with the rest of the cereal.  Our other adventure of the day was having yogurt for the first time.  The probability of massive mess was high with this one, so daddy helped.  I know it wasn't technically baby-led, but I imagine if we had let her she would have just grabbed the container and chugged it.  Her new favorite food is yogurt.  Please find enclosed pictures of our food adventures, and some park ones just for fun.

Sincerely, appreciatively, lovingly, amusedly,

Mercy's Mom

 PS-
I love this kid ridiculous amounts.

Spaghetti!

Miss Mercy had spaghetti for dinner tonight!  She's had it once or twice before, but I always would hand her a noodle at a time.  This time I made her a little plate, set her up in her bumbo and let her have it. 

A few pictures....

After our last salad fiasco, I decided from now on I'd make Mercedes her own salads to eat from so she wouldn't keep trying to thieve mine.  A few days ago Miss Mercy and I went out to lunch with my dad.  We went to a buffet, and my favorite part is by far the salad bar.  Having learned my lesson I made Mercy her own salad with all sorts of good stuff on it like cucumbers, broccoli, cauliflower, peas, carrots, spinach, and croutons.  She thoroughly enjoyed it.  I think her favorite parts were the dinner roll I gave her and the cucumbers.

At one point she got a little overwhelmed with all the food there was to eat, and her poor little hands just weren't enough to handle it all.  She had a slice of cucumber in one fist, a piece of roll in the other, and then she saw the rest of her roll on the table in front of her and she just face-planted to grab it with her mouth.

One of our last nights in Oregon I put in a request for pork and broccoli, and my momma made it for us.  We fixed Mercedes her own bowl, put a blanket down and let her go to town.  Her favorite part of that was the broccoli, but the rice was especially fun to play with, and the pork was good for flinging out of the bowl. Good to eat, fun to play with.  I'm going to have to deem pork and broccoli a success.






One last picture, my little ham face, enjoying some of my sandwich.

Expanding our palate

In roughly the past two weeks Mercedes has had: quesadilla, chicken enchilada, shredded beef burrito, spanish rice (we like mexican), sweet and fiery chicken, mar far chicken, pork fried rice, chow mein (and chinese), chicken adobo (filipino), and just last night some good ol' barbequed country ribs.

There are multiple things I hope to accomplish with Baby-led solids.  The most important is my desire for her to have a wide range of foods she likes.  I want her to enjoy all sorts of foods and not be afraid to try new things. I don't to raise a picky eater or a kid who you to bribe, threaten, and cajole into taking a bite of something they haven't had before.

Another thing I hope to accomplish, which I guess is just an offshoot of that, is I want her to prefer foods that are good for her, or atleast foods that aren't bad for her.  I want her to love her fruits and veggies, which I think I've already accomplished to some extent.  I've heard stories about babies turning their noise up and clamping their mouth shut when it came to pureed green beans or pees, but Mercy loves grabbing a string bean to munch on or a handful of pees.  I don't want her to grow up and be one of those kids who screams for McDonalds or doesn't want to eat her dinner because she only wants twinkies and candy, or a child who won't drink milk or water because she only wants pop or juice.

I know I won't be able to keep all of that away from her, she has already successfully thieved a sour punch straw (or skittle or gobstopper, we're still not sure), some Mickey d's fries, and a bite of cookie (that one she snatched right out of my hand!). But, I can hope to cultivate in her a preferance and appreciation for better tasting and better for her food.

Fang

Miss Mercy is my carnivore girl.  She got steak the other night.  Shes had little pieces of meat before but usually only a little bit of ground beef or a piece of chicken.  Her little teeth started popping through last month, and she got an incisor first.  When she smiles you can see it all pointy and it earned her the term of endearment of Fang from Auntie Minna.

Anyways, we went to Outback one night and since she had her fangs and her bottom teeth coming through I gave her a strip of steak.  She LOVED it.  She went crazy for it.  It was the most fun I've had feeding her ever.  Next time, I'm totally listening to my mom sooner. I think we'll make steak the first food for baby #2 when we have it.

 When I took the piece she had away to give her a fresh piece, she made me pry it from her fist and then yelled at me.  This girl loves her meat.  I wouldn't be entirely surprised if next time she growls and bares her fangs at me.

She definitely inherited our love for food.  After I was done eating I took her out of the highchair and put her in my lap.  Next thing I know she lunged for my plate and grabbed my baked potato skin off the plate and was trying to cram it into her mouth. It was pretty darn funny.  I love eating out with this girl, it is always an adventure.

Little Miss Independant

One of the points of baby led weaning is self-feeding.  This is pretty much all Mercedes has known.  She wasn't spoon fed, and for the most part all I did was put food in her hands and let her take it from there aside from in the beginning when I would put something in her mouth so she realized it was food and edible. 

While in Hawaii she tried a few things that I wanted to feed her instead of letting her do it because it would be messy. When attempting this we found out something rather interesting.  She doesn't like being fed.  She wants to do it herself.  Anytime Minna or I would try to put something in her mouth (yogurt melt, puff, piece of fruit) she would stick her tongue out. Kinda like this...




only with her mouth closed, so we couldn't put said food in her mouth.  More like she was saying "NYEAH" in her head.

Or, she would incessantly reach out her hands to try and grab the food or spoon and do it herself.  "I got this mom, I do it myself."

My girl has got such attitude.

Questions about Baby-led Solids (baby-led weaning)

While chatting online with other moms I found there were a lot of questions about giving baby table and finger foods and baby-led solids.  I figured since this is a blog about starting baby on solids I should go ahead and try and answer some of those questions here.  Sort of a FAQ section.  So here are some of the most common questions about introducing your baby to foods other than purees.

*Disclaimer: I'm not a professional anything, just a mom sharing her experiences and knowledge from her own research, hoping to help other moms.  I am not a pediatrician or a nutritionist, this is just what has worked for us and what I've discovered talking to other moms.

Q: When should I start giving my baby solids?
A: The general rules of when to start solids are

• No earlier than 6 months- to ensure that baby no longer has an open gut
• When baby can sit unassisted
• When baby has the motor skills to pick up and move food to her mouth/has developed the pincer grasp 
• When baby has lost the tongue-thrust reflex
  

         Baby does not have to have teeth before you offer solids, some of the solids may even help to alleviate teething pain.We started offering at 6 months, but she didn't really start taking to them until 7 months.  There is no harm in starting to late, but it can be dangerous to start too early, even with purees and rice cereal.  (Not that I think you should give your baby rice cereal, that stuff is gross!)  The minimum a baby should be given anything but formula or breastmilk is 6 months.

Q: What foods should I offer my baby?
A: A good first food for baby is Avocado- lots of healthy fat and nurtrients.  Good "finger foods" are the Gerber Puffs, Yogurt Melts, Mum Mums, and teething biscuits.  Most fruits are good to cut up and give to baby. Mercy's favorite is peaches.  As they get older you can offer a wider variety.  At 8.5 months Mercy mostly gets what I'm eating.  I just try to stay away from "junk food"- no fast food, nothing high in sodium or sugar or bad fat, and I avoid things that have high acidity like citrus fruits or large quanties of tomatoes or sauce.  And always stay away from hgih allergy foods like peanuts, shellfish, strawberries, or any allergies that run in your family. 

Q: How should I prepare the food to give to baby?
I usually either give them in slices, (like cucumber, or apple slices) sticks (carrots) or stalks (like broccoli).  Shapes that are easy for them to hold on their own and eat.    When she gets some of my meat like chicken or steak, I make sure it is a big enough chunk for her to hold in her hand so she doesn't try to cram the whole piece in at once.  I do not usually cook any fruits or veggies before I give them to her.  I just rinse, cut, and call it good. (I plan on making an entry in the future demonstrating how I cut and prepare most fruits for Mercy, with pictures so its easier to understand.)


Q: Do you give the baby food right off your plate, salted and seasoned too?
A:Salt-no. Spicy- no. Seasoned- yes.  When I know I will be sharing food with Mercedes I do not put salt and pepper on it (or I only put a little).  Regular cooking seasoning though I don't worry about.  Babies like flavor too! 


Q: I'm worried about choking, what do I do?
A: It is important to remember that there is a difference between choking and gagging.  Gagging is normal and is just part of the learning process.  Baby is use to a liquid diet from either breastmilk or formula, gagging teaches baby how to move food around her mouth and what size pieces she can handle and what she can't.  Never leave your baby alone with food so that in case of an emergency and your baby does choke you can help.


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I think those are the basic questions,  If I've missed any, or you have any  I haven't answered, leave a comment and I will do my best to answer for you.  Good luck!

Table food

Well, Mercy's solids intake has greatly increased since we arrived in Hawaii.  She is also mostly getting food from my own plate instead of me cutting up some fruit for her.  The other night we had chef salad for dinner. My sister and I were sitting on the bed and would give the babies a piece of broccoli, or cauliflower, lettuce, chicken, whatever.  They would munch on it a little bit, and then charge at us and try to grab more food off our plate!  It didn't matter that their food was from our plates to begin with, they wanted to take it for themselves.  They were getting pretty pushy.  It was amusing.  I decided next time I'm just going to make them up their own plate of salad, especially since everything on it was baby appropriate. I also let her munch on some of my meatloaf and a couple of the boiled potato pieces while I was making potato salad.  She enjoyed it quite a bit. 

And, much to my relief, her nursing hasn't seemed to decrease much.  We mostly nurse when we are laying down for a nap though, or when I am *trying* to lay her down for a nap.  I attribute my supply staying up to the fact that we cosleep and she eats throughout the night.  Yay cosleeping!

and in the world of baby-led weaning....

Mercy is still only getting food sporadically.  She likes to sit in her bumbo and eat while we eat.  Last night she sat down and had dinner with us.  She got a cheerio peach- a slice of peach rolled in crushed cheerios to make it easier to hold- it was the first time we tried that and she definitely liked it, and there was much less Momma Pick It Up.  She also dined on a few peas, a couple bits of biscuit, and a piece of lasagna noodle.  Quite the well balanced dinner.  It made quite a mess, but thats why Dad was on clean-up duty.

Not much else going on on the BLW front, I'm a bit preoccupied with our gDiapers and decorating them.....





I'm addicted.

Georgia peaches!

My girl is a picky eater.  A boob snob, if you will.  She hasn't really liked anything I've given her.  Didn't like the Gerber Puffs, or the Yogurt Melts.  We gave her some pear to try.  Didn't like that either.  We had spaghetti for dinner the other night though, and I gave her some of the plain noodles to keep her occupied while we ate.  She liked playing with those, (food is pretty much just a toy to her) but didn't really eat any of it at all. 

The other day however, after a great recommendation from my friend Alanna (visit her over at Alanna in Suburbia) I decided I get her a peach to try. I cut the peach in half and took out the pit, then quartered it.  Before I gave it to her I cut out the weird pink stuff that attaches to the pit, and peeled the skin off the top half of it, but left the bottom so that way it wasn't as slippery.  At first, she wasn't crazy about it.  Gave me a look along the lines "What the hell is this?  You expect me to eat this?", but after a couple bites she decided she liked it and went to town.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I call this one....
 
"Please mom....I want some more"

Our first adventures with solid food

I'm very hesitant about starting mercy on solids.  I love nursing her.  Not to mention all the lack of control that comes with solids.  I'm terribly paranoid about food allergies.

Plus, I'm worried that she'll stop nursing.  I definitely want to continue breastfeeding.  Before I had her, even just when I was pregnant, I figured I would breastfeed for six months and then I'd start her on purees.  That changed to I'd breastfeed and make my own purees.  Which changed to I wanted to delay solids, seeing as baby doesn't really need anything but breastmilk or formula for the first year, meaning skipping purees, and waiting until Mercy could finger feed herself. (Hey, I'm a woman.  Its my prerogative to change my mind.)  Well researching and trying to figure out what would be best for us, I found Baby-Led Weaning, which pretty much states that you present the baby with foods it can pick up and grasp and allow her to experiment and feed herself at her own pace.  Sounds pretty good to me.

So that became our plan, and we put it into action one night when we were out having dinner at a buffett.  Chris grabbed Mercy a cucumber slice and we sat her in her bumbo and let her play with it.  She put it in her mouth and made a grody face.  She wasn't pleased.  I had cute pictures of it, but then I lost my cell phone and all the cute pictures with it.  *sigh*  We've tried cucmbers a couple times, not in the least bit impressed.  That was all she had for awhle.  Then I decided we'd try a slice of raw carrot to help with teething and give her something to do with her hands.  She likes carrots.
 

We've also tried avocados.

She didn't really like those.

A few nights later (3 days between new foods to pinpoint allergies if there are any) we tried cantaloupe.  She likes cantaloupe much more than the avocado and cucumber.


That is as far into solids as we've gotten, aside from an unfortunate lemon incident involving my husband and father-in-law.  She hasn't had any issues with allergic reactions or choking, and is still nursing like a champ (Yay!).

In a few more nights we are going to try some steamed broccoli.  I'll let you all know how that goes.  Right now however, I'm taking Miss Cranky Britches and getting her ready for bed.