Our New Year’s Day was pretty uneventful. We spent most of the day cleaning up the house. I got to clean Vivian’s play room and wiped down all of her toys. Curtiss mopped the kitchen and living room and took down the Christmas tree. There was a lot of laundry and we were busy straightening up. We did manage to have a good lunch and Vivian ate more than we’ve ever seen her eat before.
I made pancit and zucchini bread.
Here’s Vivian eating her pancit baby led weaning style. Recently she’s been refining her pincer grasp and can use her water cup all by herself. We didn’t know she could until she was thirsty one night and we were too slow at getting the cup for her. She does need to work on putting it down, but its all good as long as we keep a roll of paper towels nearby.
Baby led weaning is essentially skipping the puree stage. Breastmilk provides sufficient nutrition throughout the first year of a baby’s life and offering solids before one year is just for practice. Rice cereal hardly has any nutritional value and the purees you buy from the store are full of preservatives and yucky fillers. Self-feeding allows the baby to practice eating through his or her own developmental milestones. A baby should never be offered solids before 6 months due to her undeveloped gut. At 6 months, you can offer your baby steamed solids in the shape of steak fries. One food we started with was baked sweet potatoes. At first, the baby has a challenging time perfecting her hand eye coordination and much food doesn’t get into her mouth. This is fine because the baby’s tongue thrust and gagging reflexes are still present and she wouldn’t swallow much of it anyways. Spoon feeding purees doesn’t let the baby develop a sense of fullness as well. There are more mechanics involved but it is just so amazing how baby’s can develop correctly on their own pace without the need of pushing from outside forces.
Vivian has also had fun exploring the different textures of food. Food cooked at home is more colorful and much more tasty too.
We hope you’re spending the holidays enjoying your family, friends, and good food as well.
Love,
Michelle, Vivian, and Curtiss
