Constance-Led Weaning

I don't know how to count yet, but even I can see there's a discrepancy somewhere! The WHO recommends weaning little people like me at 6 months. That's 2 weeks from now, wehe! But the health visitor from the NHS calculates 4 weeks to a month, so I should have been weaned 2 weeks ago. And how about just asking me if I want to be weaned???

Mama and Far read about this thing called Baby-Led Weaning, whereby you wait until the baby can pick up their own food and then you leave them to first lick it, then chomp on it and finally days or weeks later, swallow it. Choking risk? Schmoking risk!

So it started well last Sunday with a piece of avocado… Except it was slippery like the road to a certain hot place! But it was still mighty good fun. Then later in the day, I graduated to a broccoli ‘tree’ and carrot ‘branches’. Even better fun! But it was lucky I wasn’t hungry, ‘cause nothing got past my yet-to-appear back-teeth.

By Monday, I could tell Mama was getting impatient and questioning the whole thing. She wasn’t worried, oh no. Just wondering how long it would take for me to actually eat the food she had prepared. Because you see, my Mama prides herself on being a good cook, so I guess she appreciates when her food gets eaten and now just smeared behind the ears. Anyway, there was one avocado left, so this time she mashed it roughly and resorted to the utensil she had sworn never to use: the weaning spoon! And it went much much better, although I could tell she was feeling like she was letting the BLW side down and all because she has the patience span of a gnat.

Well, it paid off Monday afternoon when she mashed some more avocado with some lime and fed me again. This time, I chomped it to a fine puree and then swallowed it! Yummy! Can I have that every day? Well, it turns out I can’t as we had run out of ripe avocados, and so the menu today was a lumpy mash of potatoes and sweet potatoes (no salt) and that was even better! If I had known how to hold it, I would have licked the bowl!

Mama is disappointed with herself, I can tell. She says she’ll still give me finger food so I can accustom myself with it, along with the mash. And then she hopes that I’ll soon get tired of being fed and will want to do it on my own, like a big girl. Well, who knows what the future holds… All I can say if, I don’t know why she would prefer a method which is so much messier, but I get the best of both worlds: lots of good food to eat, and fun food to play with!

PS: it didn't make it better that Mama met our Aussie neighbour today who said that she shouldn't listen to the health visitor and just trust her instincts: babies can live just fine on breast milk for the 1st year. Well, does that mean I'm not getting any more sweet potatoe?