baby led weaning = messy messy kitchen

Sparkie and I were at Uno's today with a couple of our friends, and our waitress asked how old she is.  She was asking because she has a 4 month old baby, who she is nursing (high five!), and she wanted to know when it's safe to give a baby table food.  I love talking about baby led weaning :)  I told her that we have never pureed foods, we've always just given her food to play with.  She doesn't eat much, but she's starting to eat a lot more now that she's 9 months.  It took a long time for her to figure it out, but I'm glad she did it in her own time without me pushing her into it.  It was really cool to talk to the waitress about it, and to have another mom friend there who also talked about her experience and talked about making your own baby food if you do want to puree food.  Every baby is so different and I think they all end up letting you know one way or another when they are ready.

There is also some good info here on kellymom about when to start solids.  It talks about the benefits of waiting and how it helps strengthen the immune system.  I'm really glad that we didn't start solids until later on so that Sparkie could get the benefit of being on a breast milk only diet well into her 7th month of life.  She was playing with food at 6 months, but didn't really ingest anything until sometime close to 8 months.

Anybody want to chime in about their own experiences?  When did you start solids?  Did you do cereal & purees, or did you do baby led weaning?  The bigger question is, how dirty is your kitchen floor?  :)

Here's a pic of my Spark enjoying some banana and cantaloupe.

The book I read after seeing stuff on kellymom's website is called Baby Led Weaning, by Gill Rapley.  It talks about the history of feeding purees and cereals (fascinating stuff about how babies literally needed it to survive when formula was first invented because the formula back then was not as nutritious as it is today), and it talked about how people in most cultures don't use purees.  Once babies have teeth and can chew, and can literally grab food and eat it, then you know they are ready.  That was the way with E.  She showed some interest around 6 months, but I'm pretty sure she would have eaten paper if I let her as well.  Then she wasn't interested in food at all and decided it was way more fun to mush things up in her hands instead.  How much juice can I get out of this piece of cantaloupe?  How mushy can I get this banana?  How long will it take for this piece of broccoli to hit the floor if I throw it this hard?  So inquisitive, my girl.  

The book gives you all the tools you need to get started. It explains the gag reflex and how it works and changes as the baby gets older, and it lists the foods that are easiest to start with.  The nice thing is that I can give her almost anything I am eating without having to make or bring along anything special.  It's a lot of fun, but it's extremely messy.  E is still just figuring it out, and there are times when she won't even bring a piece of food we've given her to her mouth. But I'm not really concerned.  I love nursing her, and I know she's getting everything she needs from me for now.