Tags
babies, baby led weaning, baby's first solids, calamari, pancake tuesday, parenting, six months old, solid food, weaning
I think it’s appropriate that he is turning six months on Pancake Tuesday, considering what happened at De Dutch yesterday.
The book we bought on Baby Led Weaning encourages you to follow the WHO recommendations of exclusive breastfeeding until six months. After that, signs of readiness for solid foods are listed as:
- Being able to sit up with minimal support
- Able to easily bring things to his mouth with his hands
- Most importantly… shows an interest in eating.
Well, yesterday the waitress set down my pannekoek and a plate of hash browns… and Babby’s hand shot out from his high chair, raked through my hashbrowns, and stuffed a fistful into mouth.
…He may be ready for solid food.
Who are we to argue? For the rest of the day, we offered him what we were eating as long as it was non-salted and non-chokable, even though he was a day short of six months. Are we rogue parents or what?
So yesterday he ate (and I use the verb loosely) pannekoek, cantaloupe, tomato, apple, hash brown (unsalted), and… calamari (batter removed of course – that would be wrong, surely).
That’s normal for a baby’s first day on solids, right?
Of course it almost all went on the floor in the end because he hasn’t really figured out swallowing. Ultimately, I think he may have swallowed one hash brown and a shred of pancake, and a lot of cantaloupe/tomato/apple/squid juice. So he’s not so much eating solid food as he is behaving like a food dehydrator.
But he’s a happy dehydrator.
Who likes squid.
If By Yes 
One of my nephew’s first food was calamari. Batter on. He was six months old and stole it from his three-year-old brother. His brother’s first food? Incredibly spicy Indian curry. My sister had been told to start the kid out on rice mush and cheerios, but she found those foods boring. So did the kids! They went for the good stuff.
Awesome!
it’s awesome he’s eating, but maybe don’t give him 10 different NEW things in one day:) if he has a reaction to something it’s easier to figure out what it was if there was only 1 new thing added:)
and tomato can increase reflux…
sorry i didn’t want to come off sounding like an advice pimp… but none the less i did.
he’s just as cute with food hanging out of his mouth as a boob:)
No worries 🙂
I didn’t worry much about the variety of food for three reasons:
1. Allergies don’t run in my family, except for intolerance to milk proteins so I’m holding off on dairy.
2. He isn’t actually eating anything – just putting it in his mouth – so his belly shouldn’t get upset.
3. My baby led weaning book says that most slow food introductions are unnecessary unless allergies run in the family, because the original guidelines were made when solid food was started at 3-4 months, when infant guts aren’t ready for solids. Pediatricians are now apparently saying that if a baby starts foods at 6 months, the gut should be fully developed and able to handle most foods.
But good to know about the tomato and reflux!
i just meant per day… i don’t agree with the introducing things so slowly… 🙂
Vi is 10 months now and she eats everything we do, because it’s easy and she is one hungry beast:)
This reminds me of the story my mom tells about when she gave my sister her first solid food. She was probably about your son’s age and somehow my mom found herself without any baby food at the mall. She got a hamburger and pulled the pickles off thinking my sister could gnaw on the bun and patty a bit. She INHALED it 😀
LOL
Welcome to the world of stinky poos!! ;>)
*weeps* I wish I could keep breastfeeding him forever, just to avoid that.
Unfortunately, he seems determined to consume the universe.
Stinky AND chunky. A wonderful combination to scrape off cloth diapers!
And that’s why I love a diaper service. No scraping for me!
Really? You can just leave the poop in there? Mannnnnn, I want a diaper service!
Yup.
A friend of mine installed a sprayer next to the toilet so she just sprays the poo into the toilet. I am suitably envious.
That’s fancy.
How fun! I’m glad he had such a great first experience with food! 🙂
And that’s why I love a diaper service. No scraping for me!
The name of his giraffe girlfriend escapes me at the moment, but it’s lovely to see that he invited her to breakfast with the family 🙂
Oh yes, Sophie is always in attendance!
You crack me up.
Always happy to oblige!
That is just too awesome. I can’t wait until my daughter starts solids to try this myself!
I live in constant fear that he’s going to choke, and keep reminding myself that research shows he is LESS likely to choke if he is in control of the food himself, instead of me force feeding him.
…Unless I do something stupid, like give him peanuts…
…and so I live in fear of my own stupidity.
Be prepared for him to gag. I did this with Violet, and early on she would gag sometimes. It looks really scary. Her face would turn purple and she’d make some really scary sounds, but she’d always either work it down, or spit it out. Rarely, if it went on too long, I’d do a mouth sweep with my finger. I’d also try my hardest not to panic visibly, so as not to scare her. As such, she’s always had a really good ejection reflex. To this day if any food gives her trouble, she just spits it out. Good luck!
Yes, he has gagged several times already! The Baby Led Weaning book assures me that babies this young have the gag reflex much higher up in their mouths, so they gag sometimes when the food is just on their tongue. But it freaks me out.