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Prebaby: I knew nothing about making your own baby food until I was around 19 years old. I was working at Whole Foods as a cashier at the time when a fellow employee came in my line with a bunch of fruit and vegetables, as I rang her up we chit chatted for a few minutes. She told me she had go home and puree all the fruits and veggies she just bought for her baby because she makes all her own baby food. I remember thinking that this was the greatest idea I had ever heard and one day when I had a baby of my own I was going to make all of his or her own food too!
Pregnancy: All throughout my pregnancy the plan was to make my own baby food for Chloe when the time came for her to start eating solids.
At 7 1/2 months in: When Chloe was around 3 months old I started researching more about making your own baby food, I wanted to know everything there was to know about starting solids when the time was right for us. That's when I learned about Baby Led Weaning. Both Mike and I were really interested in it and decided we wanted to at least give it a try. Now here we are at almost 8 months old, doing a combination of blw and jarred baby food. Chloe is one of those babies that just has no real interest in food and the only thing she wants is to nurse. I know that this is normal for some babies, and that food is just supposed to be for fun right now but I still cant help but feel a little worried. We gave Chloe baby oatmeal for the first time a few weeks ago and she loved it so I decided to try giving her a few different kinds of jarred pureed baby food as well to she if she likes food better that way. Chloe still doesn't seem crazy about food yet but she will eat a little bit of the purred food which is an improvement for her.
It's easy for me to feel like I failed when things don't go as planed. I'm learning that each child is unique and different in his or her own way and that parenthood isn't about following a set of rules, parenthood is about doing whats best for your child. What worked for others might not work for you and sometimes you just simply have to improvise and be ok with going with the flow!
It's easy for me to feel like I failed when things don't go as planed. I'm learning that each child is unique and different in his or her own way and that parenthood isn't about following a set of rules, parenthood is about doing whats best for your child. What worked for others might not work for you and sometimes you just simply have to improvise and be ok with going with the flow!
It's so easy to blame ourselves when things to go as planned, but all babies are different. It sounds like what you are doing is a great way to go. : )
ReplyDeleteThanks Stephanie!!
DeleteWe're doing BLW too! I blogged a little about our experiences so far as well. Some days my son doesn't want to do anything with the food except smash it on his tray and toss it on the floor but other days he's stuffing his face faster than I can offer it to him! Definitely normal what you're experiencing. Have you read the BLW book? That might help put some of your worries to rest. I read that babies don't need anything but breast milk or formula until they're 1 anyway so I just let him practice and play and get him used to different tastes.
ReplyDeleteAnd I meant to add I was just like you! Planned how I was going to make all of this nutritious pureed baby food, and haven't pureed a single thing!
ReplyDeleteThat's awesome, glad to find another person doing BLW and happy to know what we are experiencing is normal! I just need to be more patient I think. I haven't read the BLW book yet but need too!
DeleteBLW has been going REALLY well for us. We "make it our own" by introducing foods one at a time (allergies run in both our families), so it's not just letting her pick and choose from our plates, but we are so happy with not doing the purees! I've been able to find frozen organic produce and it's nice to be able to heat and serve that to her -- she loves squash, blueberries (which she is learning to pick up one at a time!), sweet potatoes, avocado, and she's really starting to like egg yolks, which we just introduced for protein/iron purposes. We finally gave her some regular bread this week, too, and she's very into squishing that with her fingers and popping little pieces into her mouth!
ReplyDeleteSo glad BLW is going so well for you guys! Maybe I just need to be more patient! Thanks for the great advice, I never though to get frozen fruits and veggies! We have give her egg yolk and bread though!
DeleteYou tried, and that's what matters :) Making baby food is a lot of fun, but not if your babe won't eat it!
ReplyDeleteI just found your blog through top baby blogs...I look forward to seeing your future posts :)
Thanks Joan, so glad you found my blog! Thanks for stopping by :)
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