baby | Stay At Home Mum of Three

When my firstborn started semi-solids, I read many books, cooked gourmet meals for him, pureed and froze in bulk (oh ya, and pumped breastmilk and froze gallons too), and let him try self-feeding from a very young age too. I had high ideals – self-feeding would allow him to 1) eat more (he was a picky eater from young); 2) practise his self-feeding skills; 3) have more sensory ‘play’ opportunities as he touched and mashed (and threw around) the food.

My secondborn was a happy eater. He likes to eat and is easygoing about food. Self-feeding? Urmm, I didn’t really have a choice cos he wanted to eat whatever we were eating! But I didn’t allow him to get as messy as Kor Kor since I had an older toddler around too.

Now, it’s Meimei’s turn. She is already eight months old, and gosh, she is an even tougher nut to crack than Kor Kor! It’s practically impossible to spoonfeed her – she clamps her lips shut and when I do manage to get some food into her mouth, she just spits it out. Then I discovered that she is more open to me feeding her with my fingers (duh!).

But you see, I don’t mind spoonfeeding a baby cereal/porridge because she is too young to be able to use a spoon herself. But errr, since we are using fingers anyway, she can jolly well do it herself right?!

And so we embarked on this messy journey!

(Warning: It is sometimes stressful when other well-meaning people express concern about your baby not getting to eat the usual baby purees/porridge/cereal. Stick to it as long as you know you are doing what’s right and good for your baby! Luckily I am very resilient and unmoved by external forces :P)

So, what is baby-led weaning? You can read this book or visit their website. Very briefly, it means babies are introduced to solids by giving them healthy food items and letting them feed themselves. So, instead of carrot puree, we give the baby a longish piece of carrot.

When we first started, Meimei would take the food in her hands and put it to her lips, but she did not really eat much. After about two weeks, she started really eating! Not gobbling down a lot a lot, but enough to satisfy me : ) She has four teeth now by the way, and her current favourites are bread and cheese.

Ahhhhh.. I feel so relaxed. Three kids under five… and no need to feed any! 😀