We’ve been talking about starting baby-led weaning with Noah, but didn’t really know if I could handle the mess it was a good idea, or if Noah would take to it.
We’ve tried placing the puffs on his tray, and he would pick them up, look quizzically at them, then hurl them onto the floor. He doesn’t attempt to put them into his mouth at all, but if we pick the puffs off the floor and pop them into his mouth, (Five-second rule, okay? The puffs aren’t cheap!) he will eat them without any fuss. It didn’t seem likely to us that he would want to feed himself, but desperate times calls for desperate measures.
Honestly, we weren’t planning to start baby-led weaning last night. We were trying out a new bowl and spoon, as we thought he might be more inclined to eat from something new, and we had just received a new feeding set from Pigeon. Thanks, Pigeon! Noah has been eating little bits of purée recently, but only if I fed him with my finger instead of a spoon. Yesterday, he was refusing to even open his mouth, and we tried to convince him to eat by showing him the contents of the bowl.
To my great horror surprise, he reached out and stuck his hands into the pumpkin purée. We decided to just let him be, instead of rushing to wipe his hands. He examined his hands for a really long time, squishing his fingers together to get a feel of the texture. I decided to place a spoonful of the purée near his mouth while he was distracted, and he actually opened his mouth to eat it! We cheered and clapped, like we always did whenever he eats, (don’t judge us, please) which made him really happy. And last night, after a long hiatus, Noah finished a cube of pumpkin purée. We tried to push our luck by offering him some sweet potato and cabbage purée, but he wasn’t interested. Oh well.
This morning, we gave him some carrot purée the same way, but he didn’t eat much of it. I admit that I’m extremely bothered by the huge mess created at each meal, but C told me to ‘look at the big picture’: at least he’s eating again. It also didn’t help that C accidentally dropped a spoonful of the carrot purée on the floor! I don’t know if baby-led weaning is going to continue working for us, but we’ll keep doing it as long as he eats. For now, I need to stop caring so much about the dirty baby/high-chair/floor, and be glad that some of the purée makes it into his tummy.
PS. Does anyone know where I can get a cheap and good quality splash mat? I think it will really help me get over the mess if I had one. I don’t want to use newspapers, as I think it will be even dirtier and I won’t be able to feed him the dropped puffs from it.
Like a boss
Our smiley, carrot-stained baby
I don’t want any more carrot purée!
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