Blog From A Broad

playing the spoons

I haven't really talked much about BLW (baby led weaning), mostly because there wasn't much to delve into. I gave Mia finger foods instead of purees and avoided baby rice completely (her first foods were slices of avocado, banana, sweet potato, green beans, and other assorted fruits and veg), waited until she was developmentally ready to start (she didn't really eat in earnest until around 9 months, for those curious), and gave her a spoon to "play with" during mealtimes. She gagged, threw up, and made alarming choking noises whenever she ate for quite a while. I know it had nothing to do with the texture, because I gave her a bit of yoghurt once and she had exactly the same reaction. Unlike my son - who devoured everything I gave him from day one - Mia took time to understand that food was for swallowing. I made sure she ate with at least one of us so that she could watch and learn. Sometimes I loaded a spoon up for her, and gave it to her to feed herself. She actually dislikes being spoon fed, and is much happier holding it herself...even if 70% never makes it close to her mouth.

So, at one year, she can use a spoon and is happily grabbing and gnawing on things she can hold. I'm also pleased that we pretty much avoided bottles (I think Mia got expressed milk maybe 5 or 6 times at most?), so we didn't need to transition her from bottle to sippy cup. One less battle is always good in my books.

I took some clips of Mia using a spoon. I'm not kidding myself, I do know that most times there is no food on her spoon. I'm just tickled to see her moving it from the bowl or whatever to her mouth, it's so cute. It's also slightly alarming because it's making my little baby girl look that much more grown up. *big sigh*