Weaning – the ‘whatever’ way

Three kids. Three different weaning experiences.

The Wee Man had purees. Baby rice was waved in front of his face at 17 weeks, he grabbed it, he liked it, and he hasn’t looked back.

Bubby D was baby led. Or should I say, we were baby led by Bubby D? In any case, various carefully thought out foods were placed in front of her, and she gradually figured out how to get them into her mouth and eat them. And she hasn’t looked back either.

And Little B – well, she’s basically been doing whatever weaning. Which is to say, she has been fed random things by her siblings, picked up random things dropped by her siblings, and been fairly successful at grabbing random things off other people’s plates. Since this was happening anyway, I figured we may as well continue in that vein. And so she just has whatever other people are eating, whenever they are eating it.

There hasn’t really been any of that ‘introducing foods gradually’ stuff.

No sticks of steamed carrot, followed by a bit of potato and a banana or two.

First off was a Yorkshire pudding, followed by an attempt at some satsuma, banana, toast, broccoli and pasta. She enjoyed the satsuma, she seems to really love broccoli, and the pasta gets a thumbs up too.

I did wonder if perhaps I should do something a bit more structured. At times I do feel slightly guilty that the whole process isn’t receiving the care and attention that perhaps it deserves…but then at the same time, isn’t baby led weaning kind of along these lines anyway? Obviously, babies can only lead from the food that is actually put in front of them – but given that we eat a reasonably healthy diet and generally cook everything from scratch I think, from what I recall, we are broadly following the suggested route in any case. Just with added ‘sibling assistance’ along the way. (I do watch them of course. But somehow they have a habit of sneaking biscuit to her. Or blueberry wheats. Or random spoonfuls of jelly).

So…noodles, ice cream, sausages, macaroni cheese, bolognese – she’s been having a good go at eating them all.

And it looks like she isn’t looking back, either.