starting solids

i've been kind of awful about keeping the blog up to date with the latest going ons in the mother-hood these days.

a couple months ago though we started introducing jia to solids. the girl was ready.
we were trying to wait until she was 6 months old though, and until we got back from our india trip. at that point she was basically trying to grab everything off of our plates!

i'd heard about baby led weaning, which contrary to how it sounds, isn't really about quitting nursing...at least not immediately. it would be better called baby led solids. what it means basically is that you let your child feed themselves with baby safe foods they can gnaw on and enjoy, and skip the who purees phase. so basically they can eat whatever you're eating provided that it's healthy and not a choke hazard. i think people have been doing this for a long time really, but now it finally has a name.

i read a bit more about it, and jia's pediatrician was for it, so i decided to give it a try...
and jia loves it!!



it took a month or so for her to do much other than play around with the food, but with baby led weaning, the motto is pretty much "any food before the age of 1 is just for fun," so that was ok! with this approach baby still gets most of their nutrients from mom, until eventually they get more efficient at eating solids and wean themselves off the milk.

jia's first solids were sweet potatoes. then she tried some bananas, and it's just gone on from there! she's had a few purees, but even with those she really wants to feed them to herself! haha. this whole baby led feeding has just been really natural for her.



these days she eats pretty much whatever we're having. she's had indian food, thai food, italian, all american, you name it! she already has more diverse tastes than i did until i was probably 20 years old!

she hasn't refused a thing though. does she look like a baby who refuses food? haha.

even when we gave her a lemon to try, she kept on giving it another chance!



it was bitter sweet starting solids at all for me. when you've grown your child entirely with your own body, it's a little hard to leave that time behind when they're so sweetly dependent on you. but alas, if baby girl has to grow up, then this been a fun journey to experiencing food!