Balancing Motherhood, Yoga and Writing

Baby-led weaning has been a process of faith: it’s only very recently, at 15 months, that the Pibler has started to eat three proper meals a day, most days. This is why the huge mess that results from his self-feeding doesn’t bother me as much as I would have imagined, pre-motherhood. Even though I need to clean the entire floor and practically bath him afterwards.

Baby-led weaning basically means letting the baby choose what he eats and how much. The trust behind it is based on the idea that babies are self-regulating, and will not starve themselves; that their bodies ‘know’ what nutrients they need, and if given a good range and choice of foods, they will eat what is necessary. A great book in this regard is ‘My Child Won’t Eat! which reassured me that my baby was continuing to prefer breastmilk to solids, for a reason! So, you only give solids to the baby when he is showing clear signs of being ready for it, and not at some arbitrary cut-off point like 6 months (or even 4 months): being able to sit unaided, ability to reach out and grasp things with a ‘pincer’ grasp, the disappearance of the tongue-thrust reflex (when the baby automatically pushes any object out of his mouth with his tongue), and showing an interest in food others are eating (e.g. grabbing it off your plate). This means that baby is not going to choke on his food and is able to perform the necessary actions to eat solid foods - yes, in baby-led weaning, purees are not given. 

It took faith while the Pibler’s ‘peers’ were eating three square puree ‘meals’ by 7 months and he was ingesting about half a floret of broccoli in a whole day. It took faith when he was still breastfeeding every 1-2 hours throughout the day and night, while other babies had dropped milk feeds to one or two a day, and were eating more solids. It took faith, but it’s finally paying off.

It’s so rewarding to see the Pibler’s ability to feed himself with a spoon and his hands, to make creative combinations of soup, cheese, humous and rice cake (it gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘messy play’), and see his sheer enjoyment of the process. He now eagerly clambers up towards his high chair when food is served, and starts exclaiming noisily if we don’t dish it up quick enough. Parallel to that, he’s suddenly started going 4 hours between breastfeeds (well, in the day at least - but that’s another blog!)