The Adventure Begins

For weeks and weeks now Josiah has been showing a lot of interest in food. He sits and watches intently as we eat, his eyes following every mouthful from plate to mouth (it's kinda off putting!).  Sometimes if he's sat on my lap while I eat he starts leaning towards my food. This week that leaning developed into little hands reaching out to grab. The first thing he tried to grab was my carrot cake at play group so there was no way I was sharing that - partly because it's not good for him but mostly because I don't share cake!

I had always imagined that weaning would involve a lot of purees but now the time has come it seems to make more sense to give Josiah real food. Think about it - his reason for reaching for food isn't hunger, it's curiosity. As a friend told me recently "food before one is just for fun". So what if he doesn't swallow any of it. He's still getting all he needs from breast milk so there's no need to try to cram puree down his throat. It's just about letting him have fun exploring textures and tastes and taking time to develop the skills he needs to feed himself. If you are interested to know more about this baby led weaning style check out this link  - I found it really helpful.

This weekend we went away with the student group from church and as Josiah sat on my lap during a coffee and cake break he started reaching for my food again. So I decided to swap my cake for an apple and see if he still wanted to share. I cut the apple into some wedges and began to eat. Sure enough a chubby little hand reached out to grab a bit. So I handed him a wedge and watched to see what would happen. He gripped it tightly and happily sucked on it. But then I got scared he was gonna put the whole thing in his mouth and choke so I took it away from him.

Then he cried.

I gave him another chunkier wedge and he went back to sucking. Then, to my surprise, he began chomping on it. There were definate gum indentations on it by the time he was done!

Another time he tried banana. He found it harder to grip the chunk I gave him as it wasn't 'chip shaped'. He can't eat food inside his fist yet so he came up with his own method for eating banana - squidge it in your hand and suck it off your fingers......yummy.

So the result of our food experimenting so far is as follows:
Food swallowed = zero
Lessons learned = plenty! Gripping food, putting food in mouth, chewing, squishing, trying new flavours and textures. 

I still have plenty of questions about how to do this whole weaning thing and what he is and isn't allowed but looking forward to helping Josiah on his food adventure. I would love to hear from other parents about their experience of baby led weaning - any tips would be greatly appreciated.