So, me being the lazy creature that I am, we decided to do baby led weaning! Basically, it is when you skip the pureed food period where you feed the baby with a spoon, and you go straight to table food! You place the food in front of the baby, and let them go at it! Actually, there is a bit more to it then that, you can read about it here.

So Jack's first food was broccoli! All my aunts are like, "Whaaaa! Broccoli!?" But it has an easy shape for him to hold! He went to town on it at first, then I think he started to actually taste it and he kept pulling it out of his mouth to study it, then he would pop it back in, make a face, and take it out again. I don't think he cared for the bitter taste. Wait till I give him a lemon, I am DEFINITELY recording that!

He did great though. I also gave him a bit of ham, which he licked, then dropped on the floor Tomorrow I will give him the good stuff - banana and sweet potato. I will try and post a video later.

Awwww Michelle!!! That's fantastic!!!! I'm virtually stopped with spoon-feeding. Kirsty is Miss Independent and wants to feed herself now - it's easier to let her go at it than to try and feed her!

Yesterday she enjoyed a full Christmas dinner through self-feeding. She had a bread roll to begin with (well, the inside of it, the outside was too crispy for her gums), followed by turkey, little sausage, mashed potatoes & carrots, then to finish she had some of my raspberry roulade!!

We came home an hour later when she polished off her 9oz bedtime bottle, then she crashed 7pm-7am

(sorry I waffled!!!)

[Trannyfromtheuk]

Aww awesome! I hope it goes well for you

[~*sierra*~]

oh i was just reading about this last week, and i totally want to try it too! i always hated forcing/begging/pleading with kids i babysat to eat their num nums so since baby led weaning sorta makes sense to me i thought i will give it a go when the time comes.

i'm so glad it went well for ur little guy, and he is lucky to get broccoli! that is my favourite veggie. there were actually fights over the broccoli with my sister growing up. i cant wait to hear what he thinks of the banana & yams!

[Angelaosaurus-rex]

Awww I wish i had known about this!!! SOunds way better then dealing with all the smoosh!

[Mars]

That's great an exciting!

Like Kirsty, Amara doesn't care to be fed by anyone much. I make her food so that she can pick it up and she feeds herself most of the time. Recently she's started attempting to use the spoon when I give her apple sauce.

[♥Ashley♥]

Aww! I cant wait to see a video!!!

[ShannonMVT]

Very cool. We need video!

Since we've ended up delaying solids more than I had originally thought (and I don't know when we'll start up again) we may go straight to finger foods as well or at least I hope I will have avoided some of that puree stage.

I got a video - of him gagging, and me yelling "cut the tape, cut the tape!"

I gave him sweet potato that was too soft (my mom brought it over for him). I also don't think he cared for the texture. Then I gave him peas and he squashed them like a giant squashes townsmen, and got all cranky. He was too tired for food.

I am not deterred though. Tomorrow I will bust out the peas again, but I will feed him earlier in the day. I am also going to put a bowl of cooled oatmeal in front of him and see what happens.

I was told not to give small round foods whole... I guess because the swallowing pipe is round? (Asophe-wotsit!) Maybe try cutting them in half if he doesn't manage them?

I wish I'd started with baby-led. I'm soooo nervous of giving Kirsty larger chunks of food now, she gags easily. But I've forced myself to chunk things bigger and bigger the past few days as I feel like I don't want to hold her back because of my own fears.

2 days ago I gave her satsuma for the first time, you should have seen me... skin the segments then chop tiny... it was so time consuming that she only ate 1 segment Yesterday I graduated myself LOL - I cut each segment into 3 pieces without skinning and she ate a whole satsuma!!

[LisanAndy]

Aww that's great! Rylie refuses to eat baby food and only eats table food. She will eat baby cereal though. She only takes 3 bottles a day now too. I can't get her to drink any more and I'm lucky if she finishes those!

Fi, I get nervous about the choking too. Today I gave him a taste of my spicy soup, and when he shook his head and flapped his arms some b/c it was spicy, I almost flipped He only did it for a second though, and then he was licking his lips, LOL.

what is satsuma?

[Frozendesire]

That's great. I'm ALL for that, because I too am lazy! haha. I made all Dustin's food and he only did baby food for a small amount of time. He does all table foods now and has for a few months. He loves mixed veggies, pasta, and chicken. It's his fav meal haha. He actually does pretty big chunks considering he only now has two teeth up front

I'd love to see a video! It's SO much fun watching little ones exploring new things