Baby-Led Weaning, or, WHAT A MESS!!

I have been stressing about foods. Most of my friends say "Just feed the baby pieces of whatever you're eating" but a handful of them encourage jar foods and purees and then there's the paranoid set: No! No! Oh my GAWD NO! Don't feed her kiwis! Don't feed her soy! Don't give her this or that or the other thing because she will CHOKE AND DIE or she will go into anaphylaxsis and DIE! Which promptly made me decide I was going to exclusively breastfeed until she's in college (KIDDING). Then a friend sat me down and set me straight. She reminded me that I follow Thora's instincts and her individual development with so many things. Why not feeding? She explained baby-led weaning (BLW) to me. And reassured me that she's been exposed to allergens through my breastmilk so there really isn't much she can't eat. Well, she can't really eat much since she still has no teeth but she likes to handle foods that she can't actually bite and chew. She licks it, play with it, makes a mess with it. She grunts and sings when she eats her peaches (her favorite). She shrieks when she gets new things, she smiles and grabs instead of making that shuddery yecchh face she used to. It's messy for sure, but mealtime is fun now. Aaaand I get to be lazy and cheap: I don't have to puree stuff, I don't have to shell out extra cash for jars of the same stuff I make from scratch anyway, and I don't have to carry things around (yet) because either she eats with us or I just nurse. It's perfect! Clearly she thinks so. This meal was quinoa/kamut noodles and tofu with broccoli (that was mostly a toy), blueberries and --the very best thing every in Thora's world -- peaches.












And in this video it's just really all about the peaches.