My Laid Back Guide to Weaning

My disclaimer: I am just me.  I do not claim to be an expert, I am not a nursery worker or childminder.  I do not have a million children for whom I have perfected this 'technique'.  And, I am certainly not a perfect parent, though I can dream...

This is going to be fairly short, because I did Baby Led Weaning.  As it sounds, it is weaning that is led by the baby.  Some BLW purists will argues that you should never, ever, spoon feed your LO.  I, however, disagree and think that it is possible to use a spoon when BLW - you just need to be more aware of your LO's reactions, so that you are not just shoving food into their mouth, so that they are still 'leading'.  I spoon feed all food that is meant to be eaten with a spoon (so soup, cereal, yoghurt, etc).  So, put down that blender, or that fork, ready to mash and follow me!

1. Wait until your child is ready.  That is usually from 6 months upwards.  The main thing is that your baby can sit upright, unaided, and looks ready for food.  (I won't give a list of the signs for readiness, but let's just say that just because a baby enjoys playing with your car keys, doesn't mean it is ready to drive!)
2. Remind yourself what foods to avoid. Obviously, if there is a family history of allergies, take extra care, but the main thing to remember is once you've reached 6months old your LO can have everything except honey, choking hazards (eg peanuts), and can have cow's milk in food/cereals (but should use breastmilk or formula to drink).
3. Don't prepare anything special.  Seriously, life is too short!  Just give some food off of your plate, or whatever you are eating.  Encourage chewing, but if they spit the food back out, don't worry about it.
4. Allow mess.  Your LO hasn't seen these foods before, let alone tasted them, so let them have a little play.  They may put the food straight in their mouths, or they may squish it in their fingers first.  And if they throw things around, they're just learning about gravity. LoL.  Yes, they will use their hands mainly, and may flick food with a spoon before they co-ordinate to their own mouths, but hey. 
5. Don't worry.  If you are the type of person to worry excessively, or not know the difference between gagging (natural) and choking (dangerous), try and find a family first aid course.  They are really useful in general, but especially so if you are concerned about giving lumps/real food (rather than the yucky puree/mush/vomitty stuff). 

I think that's about it, to be honest.  It is important to remember that for a baby's first year, most of their nutrition comes milk, so don't worry yourself if you think they are not eating enough, especially if you are comparing your LO to babies that have been forcefed from 4month.  Soon enough, you'll probably find that your LO is eating real food, all by themselves, and probably a wider variety of tastes too.

Good luck and have fun.

Is life coming together?

I'm sure it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I've caught up on my sleep, had a shower this morning, the sun is shining and though cool, it's a gorgeous spring day today, and I managed to get the prescriptions to the doctors, the filled scripts to the chemists, done the shopping, bought birthday cards for relatives whose birthdays are this week, went to the library, and made a cheats giant mince pie with DD1 today.  Cheat's because I bought a sweet pastry case, filled it from a jar and stuck it into the oven for 30min.  I will make some icing to put on top in a minute, though, so there is a little work there.

DH was talking to his mum, and she (and therefore he) is starting to come round to the idea of HEing the girls.  It helps that we've been talking about joining DD1 up to a gymnastics class, as like most people she's most worried about the socialisation side of things.  Truly, that is the least of my worries.  But DH also explained some of our concerns about school, and she actually agreed with them - or at least the bits he told me about.  In particular, as my mum said about me, apparently DH was also held back and told to wait for everyone else to catch up to his academic level in primary school, so MIL can see why we'd be concerned about that.  These are really big steps forward.

And lots of little things show me that HE is the right direction, and that it doesn't have to be the big scary thing that some people make it out to be.  Today, DD1 totally out of the blue said, "Quatorze.  [pause] That's 14 in French!"  "Yes, it is" I replied.  There are kids studying for their GCSEs who can't count in French, and yet my three year old, says it casually over breakfast.  And then there's the cooking, gardening (which she wants to get more involved with. I'm thinking of maybe growing one/some sunflowers too), cycling, dancing, singing, squash etc that she wants to do.  And, as I mentioned before, gymnastics we actually are making steps towards.  And DD1 has been taking the magnetic words off the fridge, bringing them to DH or I and stating "this says xxxxxx".  90% of the time she is absolutely correct, and the rest, you can see where/why she has made the mistake.  For example, she came in the other day and said "this says 'toop'." I congratulated her, said well done, it looks like it could say 'toop' because 'to' says 'too' but this word is actually pronounced 'top'.

I've probably said before, but one of the reasons why I started this blog was to help document our HE efforts (as many other people do, and I've copied) and also so our family can see what's going on.  Of course, at the moment, none of our family (except my sister) even know I'm keeping a blog, so that would have to change if I'm expected them to keep up to date with our activities via it.  If we do HE, though, we will have to be careful, as I'm sure many other parents do who don't HE, not to compare DD1 and DD2.  Growing up in someone else's shadow, or someone else's potential shadow as an older child, isn't very nice.  But as parent's we're only human and we do the best we can do.

As I'm here, I might as well update about a couple of other things too.  I think DD1 is pretty much potty trained now.  She does have the very occasional accident (usually when she hasn't pulled her trousers down far enough, so got them wet) but that is getting rarer, and she always asks/takes herself to the toilet.  It's probably helped by having bare-bum days most of the time at home, but that's not a problem at all.  She is also waking up some nights to go to the toilet, or waking in the morning with a dry nappy.  I'm definitely not ready to risk her being nappiless at night yet, but these are all steps in the right direction.

DD2's weaning is going very well too.  She is having breakfast and lunch most days (she only doesn't when I/DH forget), having plenty of BFs during the day too.  Her hand-eye coordination is getting very good so she is much better at feeding herself now.  Soups/porridge I will still give her on a spoon, but toast and things she will happily hold herself, which means I can eat at the same time!  We've rearranged our living room, and put the high chair next to the table, and DD2 really enjoys being the same height and eating with us at the same time.

Yes, today (at least!) life is good.

Dear Diary,

I didn't have a good day on Friday.  DD1 decided to fight me over everything and even resorted to hitting me to get what she wants.  I didn't hit her, but restrained her every time she hit me, for 3 mins (a min/year of her life) and it felt like she was in time out more than she was in time in!

Then, when I wanted to complain/moan to DH he, less than sympathetically, asked if I couldn't just be happy. Cue flashbacks to my teenager years, when I was depressed and suicidal, and my dad could ask me why I was so miserable the whole time.  :-(  On the good side, though, DH did apologise later on.  But, after the day I had had, I was feeling a bit lonely.  Things did improve over the weekend though.

I've decided to dye my hair: Damson Wine  It's not the colour I initially was thinking.  I wanted to go a more vibrant purple (Mystic Violet) but DH wasn't too keen, so our compromise was this more plummy colour.  I'm hoping he'll help me tonight to put it in my hair.  In a couple of weeks, it's my university's 10 year reunion (from when we started) and so I'm looking forward to dressing up in black tie.  I've planned to get my hair cut into a new style on the friday too, I just don't know whether to dye my hair tonight, or next Sunday, in time for the following friday.

We have also rearranged our living room, so it feels more cosy, but also allows us to have our butterfly dining table open all the time, and we've moved the high chair next to the table, ready for DD2.  She's sat in there a couple of times now, and seems to enjoy being sat with us when we're eating, whilst being annoyed that she can't eat what we're eating.  The weaning is going well, but slowly for her!

And today I managed to get some time in the garden too, despite going to the pub for lunch to watch my team lose (and DH's team win :-( ).  DH and I are both football fans, but our teams are arch rivals!  Whilst his team may have won today, we are higher in the league and generally much better.  So there.  Back to the gardening, though, I managed to double-dig half the plot that I've got so far.  I would have liked to have done the whole thing, but considering I was simultaneously helping DD1 on her bike, helping her to help me, and then I had to stop for a good 30mins to BF DD2, I thought that wasn't bad going. :-)

Hope you, in your diary-world, are well.
Regards,
LBP

Easy Peasy Soup

500ml/1pt vegetable stock
500g peas, thawed/fresh
salt & pepper to taste

Blitz all ingrediets until smooth. 
Heat through in saucepan.
Done!

I don't normally like peas, but I loved this soup.  Tried it for the first time today (DD1 loves peas) and am very pleased with the result.  I now understand what people are saying when they describe pea as a sweet vegetable. Both DD1 and DD2 had seconds.  It is a bit runny for BLW so I spoonfed her.  Now she's asleep on me feeding.
I should also probably say that you don't need to be too accurate with the measurements (they're approximate anyway); I guessed and the soup was still yummy.

Learning as we go

The thing that really appeals to me about HEing is that you don't necessarily notice when you are learning.  Whenever DD1 asks questions, as she does ALL the time, I do my best to answer them.  And the result?  Yesterday, she counted to 39 in French!!! She can nearly count to 10 in German, and she's only 3.  This morning she was talking (correctly) about the past, present and future.  She was talking the magnetic words off the fridge, bringing them to me saying "this says 'February' " and even when she reads one wrong (she read 'three' instead of 'there') or mispronounces a word (she pronounce 'out' as ' 'oh-oo-t') I can see that she is reading the words, as I can see how the 'mistakes' have arisen.  She knows the days of the week, months of the year, and the birthdays (and house numbers!) of everybody in our family.  Given that both my and DH's parents are divorced and we have 3 sets of great-grandparents still alive, that's a lot of information.  And now, she is playing the recorder, or at least, trying to. 

And DD2 is coming on leaps and bounds too.  We're weaning, but I sometimes forget she needs food too, especially if I'm in a rush.  So, even though I'm BLW, I bought some baby-porridge as it's much quicker to do - and I still forgot.  Today at lunchtime DD1 asked for sausage, peas and mash, so that's exactly what we ate.  DD2 ate mash potato (mixed sweet and normal) off a spoon and loved it.  I'm sure I've said before, but I'm not averse to giving her something off a spoon, as long as I'm attentive to her cues about whether she wants more food or not.  I think that the most important thing is being child-led.

Weaning and Potty Training

Both are coming along really well! 

DD1 hasn't had an accident for ages now (and her previous ones were only because she was distracted and too busy playing).  She will tell me, when out, when she needs the toilet, and often takes herself to the toilet when at home.  She has also started waking at night to go to the toilet (she is in a nappy at night, though), but won't yet take herself.  Instead she screams/shouts until I wake up and take her.  I have put the potty in her bedroom (it has a lid, so I'm not worried about mess) but she still refuses to go herself.  It's hard, because obviously I don't want to be encouraging her to wet in her nappy at night, and yet I'm sooooo tired, I can't wait until she can either hold herself the whole night, or take herself to the toilet/potty.

Last weekend DD2 cut her first 2 teeth, just in time for her 6month birthday!  She now has eaten broccoli, (did I mention she had soup before?), crust of a pizza, porridge (home made, not baby stuff), toast and rice cake.  The soup and porridge I fed her on a spoon.  Whilst I am BLW, I'm not averse to using a spoon.   When she gets a bit bigger, she will take control, but her hand-eye coordination isn't that great yet, but it will come in time.  I'm still just giving new tastes and textures, rather than any actual meals.  I don't know whether it's best to increase the number of 'meals' or the amount of food each time.  The latter would be easier, but I think the former is what I ought to do.  As I am being child-led, she will let me know if she wants more food.  As it is, she has only a couple of times finished what I have put before her.  She will have to learn, though, because every time I feed her, DD1 decides she wants to eat from DD2's hand!  DD1 is a good eater, and always hungry.  I think she might be going through a growth spurt, because she is fairly small but eating every couple of hours atm.  Back to DD2, though, she will happily drink cooled boild water from a freeflow beaker.  I'm only offering water with food (specifically with food that I find dries my mouth out: porridge, banana and rice cakes), but she will grab the hands and drink.  As I'm BFing, I probably shouldn't be giving any water at all, but I am please at how she is taking the beaker.  Maybe next time she has EBM or FM, we should try giving it to her from a beaker, rather than a bottle, to see if she takes it easier? Hmmmm...

Dear Diary,

What a difference a sleep makes!  Yesterday I was feeling totally overwhelmed with everything, couldn't cope with DD1's tantrums, the state of the house nor DD2 crying.  And yet, DD2 slept through last night!  Not only did she not wake for a feed, she slept in DD1's room all night (as such, I should probably stop calling it DD1's room).

Today, I managed to tidy the living room!  To most people, that's probably not that big a thing, but our house is a mess, so this was massive!  Normally when I try, DD1 is undoing my tidying at a faster rate than I can tidy it in the first place.  Today, she was helping and not getting in my way (which is as good as helping).  I got a load of boxes and filled them with toys and took them upstairs; they're not sorted, but that can be left for another day.  I put tonnes of rubbish in the bin and recycling boxes, I swept up, hoovered the cushions and sofa, febreezed the sofa and curtains, and made the house (well, the front room) looking nice.  And because I promised/bribed DD1 to help me, this afternoon we made fairy cakes together, and iced them with pink icing.  As always, the red food dye spilt on my hands, so I now have a red thumb and first finger.

Potty training is going well too.  Yesterday we went to the cafe to meet some friends and DD1 was just in knickers (ie with no nappy over the top) and was fine on the bus, in the cafe and shopping afterwards.  She asked me a few times to go to the toilet, did so, and got lots of stickers when we returned home. 

And weaning DD2 is going well, too.  Today she had butternut squash soup, which she loved.  She has been a bit sicky this evening (tmi: orangey/milky) so I hope it wasn't the soup, but at least we know she loves trying different flavours.  I spoonfed her, rather than letting her have the spoon herself, and still made a mess everywhere.  I'm glad that most of the time I'm doing fingerfoods, as it's much less messy than mush!

Tonight we had an Indian takeaway for tea, and a glass of wine.  Today is the last day of DH's work, as he starts a new job on Monday.  So we had a treat for a mini celebration.  He was also given a cake from work, and because he took in with him doughnuts, he brought the cake home.  Not much dieting going on this weekend then.

Anyway, that's me for now.  Thanks for listening.
LBP

She went through the night!

In her own bed (cot) in DD1's room (which is now both their bedroom).  Hopefully this will continue.  Hurray!

After giving them a bath last night, I fed DD2 and tried to lay her in bed, but she woke up, and was disturbing DD1, so we decided to bring her downstairs.  Before this, she had always gone to bed with us.  Because I'm BFing, there doesn't seem much point putting her to bed without us, if I'm gonna be running up and downstairs every 5min.  So, (without another feed) she fell asleep again, and we put her upstairs at 10pm.

At 4am I woke up (TMI: leaking), so went to the loo, got myself a drink, and expressed a little.  By this point, I'm guessing DD2 could smell yummy food and it woke her up.  So I went into the room, and gave her a BF.  Note to self: find the blanket I used to keep in that room, as it's cold in the middle of the night, and put some tissues in there for when I'm sneezing, because it's cold in there.  Afterwards, I led her down and she settled almost immediately, sleeping though until DD1 woke he up at 6am!


Also, yesterday I cooked a roast dinner, and gave some of the veggies to DD2.  When I previously tried carrot, she wasn't keen, but I know that you need to try things 15-20 times, to determine whether they don't like something because it's new (after 20 times they will like it) or if they genuinely don't like something.  I love carrots, so I didn't want any wasted, so only reserved 1 stick for D2.  I also had some cubes of swede and some boiled potato.

Well, she wolfed down the carrot, like nobody's business.  I'm going to cook her some more today.  I tried her with the swede, but she wasn't fussed, and it isn't as sweet as carrot.  Again, for the potato, which she has had before, she wasn't bothered by, so DD1 finished them up.  Luckily, DD1 also loves her vegetables, and ate a big plate of roast dinner including carrots, swede, and sprouts (yuck!).

The only thing with this weaning malarkey, is that I'm not sure yet of quantities.  Clearly at the moment I'm either getting it bang-on (unlikely) or I'm not doing enough.  Today, when I cook the carrot, I will do half a carrot, just for DD2, and will let her guide me to how much she wants to eat.

Weaning

We've started weaning DD2.  She's over 5 months old now, and we're doing Baby-Led Weaning (as we did with DD1).  She likes slices of banana, but wasn't keen on a stick of cooked carrot.  She likes to suck the juice from raw red pepper (but not bothered by the yellow pepper) and will sometimes eat potato.  So, at the moment, we're sticking mainly to banana.  i have bought some butternut squash, so will try her with some of that this week.

As I'm breastfeeding (and even if I wasn't, it would be the same), milk will be her main source of nutrition until she is a year old, so there really is no rush.  The point of weaning, at the moment, is to introduce new flavours, new textures and to get her used to chewing (mashing her gums) and swallowing solids.