Baby-led Weaning (Kinda) & Eating Leaves

When Landon was born, I had this incredible hope that I would suddenly transform into this organized, regimented, punctual and ever so  gracious person. Of course that didn't happen, and I'm still the spontaneous, forgetful, skin-of-my-teeth sinner I was before baby.

I've discovered that I really hate baby books--parenting a baby books, that is.I'm also wary of various "systems" of child-rearing and whatnot. Doing something "by the book" is so far against my nature and I tend to be suspicious of gurus.

So, when my baby was born, we just lived, and we are continuing to just live.


So simple.

So easy.

So stress-free. 

I knew from Landon's pediatrician and perusing various forums, not to start solids until six months, and I was in no hurry because so, so, so gross DIAPERS! and I suspected I would need some order.
I knew that I didn't want to buy baby food for the ever so noble reason that it looks unappetizing. (Noble mama, right here).

Both camps of solids intrigued me--purees and baby led weaning.

I liked the control of purees--choking terrifies me--but BLW seemed much more instinctual, and I knew I wouldn't follow the order of purees.

But still--choking. We started with purees. Stephen made them (because he is amazing and organized) and Landon had  various delicious fruit concoctions that tasted like Jamba Juice, and a few veggie purees.

He LOVED the fruit ones (as did I) but wasn't too impressed with the veggies. And why should he have been? Pureed vegetables don't taste yummy to my palate either. He also was very interested in the food on my place, and constantly grabbed it. So I started handing it to him.

A bite of mashed potatoes.

Some green beans to suck.

A bit of broccoli to gnaw.

Mini spoonfulls of guacamole to savor.

And many, many apples--his absolute favorite.

Pizza crust! Fewer carbs for me!

He still got purees--with daddy, at the sitter's, or if I was bored. But he also got to try real food in its deliciously prepared state.

However, his solids resume was fairly short until  a week ago when we went to visit my mom and siblings in Colorado. Obviously, I didn't transport any baby food and I really didn't feel like buying any. But Landon wanted food--the food he saw on my plate and others. So I gave it to him. Tiny bites at a time. And my siblings followed suit.

They gave him cheese, eggs, bananas, apples, various vegetables, homemade applesauce, carrots, various forms of squash, and tastes of ice cream.

He loved it all.

 He ate it all.

I have no qualms about him getting a taste of ice cream because he also loves to gnaw on broccoli, and would eat apples all day long if he could.

What we're doing isn't true Baby Led Weaning because he still gets purees if the situation calls for it, and someone else's hand is holding the food. I like to call it Landon-led-weaning. When he's finished, he's obvious about it and we never force it. If he doesn't like something, it's a bite or two then it's done. (The only thing he's hated has been pureed green peas. Bleck.)

In the beginning, he ended up having solids the prescribed every three days because (frankly) I would forget about them. Now, he gets them whenever he wants--which is typically when I'm eating. I keep careful watch on him when he's eating something "early" or that can be an allergen (like eggs), but I don't limit him to any particular regiment of food.

Sometimes, he even gets to eat leaves. ;)

I made a joke about him having an organic snack, and Stephen pointed out that it wouldn't be "organic" if they sprayed the trees. But I wasn't talking about labels, but straight from the tree leaves and dirt!

And his reaction to said leaf?

"Y U NO taste good?"