Baby Talk: Introducing Solids

Happy Tuesday everyone!  Today I’m linking up with Kristin for Baby Talk!

As I’ve mentioned before, we started Abbie on solids right at 4 months. It’s on the early side, but I was having supply issues and we thought she could handle it, so we dove in. Now that she’s had them for about 3 months, she’s loving so many things…which you’ve probably seen if you follow me on instagram.  Apparently all I post lately is photos of my baby eating.

(This was when we started at four months…I can see her thoughts…Mom, what the heck is this stuff?)

When we started, we began with rice cereal…and Abbie was NOT a fan.  From there we moved onto fruits and vegetables.  Some of her early favorites were avocados, pears, and peaches.  I chose to make Abbie’s food rather than buy it, but I did keep a few pureed pouches in the house just in case.  Other than the rice cereal, she pretty much ate anything and everything.

After we had been giving her solids for a few months, I started to read about baby led weaning.  If you haven’t heard of it, the basic concept is that you give your child finger food starting at 6 months and skip purees altogether.  I was intrigued – many kids who did baby led weaning were much better eaters than kids who were spoon fed, and the idea of not making any more baby food?  Score!  Once Abbie turned 6 months, I began giving her finger foods…and she LOVES it.

One thing that surprised me about baby led weaning is the shape of the food.  I assumed at first that it would need to be in small pieces, but babies actually do better when given large, stick shaped pieces they can make a fist around and move toward their mouth.  Abbie doesn’t really like purees too much anymore, so we’re using them up and not making any more.

So what does Abbie eat?  What we eat!  We tend to eat pretty healthy, so there’s usually something I can give her from our dinner – a strip of meat, a vegetable, a few pieces of pasta.  Some of her favorites so far are:

Breakfast: scrambled eggs (my pediatrician said the whole egg was fine, but check with yours, especially if there are allergies in your family), peaches, banana, toast.

Lunch/Dinner: broccoli, zucchini, green beans, avocado, asparagus, potatoes, squash, chicken, pork chops, and pizza (I usually take the cheese off – I wasn’t sure she was ready for the texture of that since she doesn’t have teeth yet!)

I’m so excited to keep giving Abbie new things.  It’s fun to see what she’ll eat (which so far seems to be everything).  When we do give her purees or something soft like yogurt, I often load the spoon and put it in her hand (and guide it) so she has some control.  She won’t take as many ounces of a bottle from us as she used to, and Chris thinks she already wants to eat more food!  I LOVE that we’ve combined both approaches.  I think the early purees helped her get used to the idea of eating, but baby led weaning lets her discover food on her own.  It’s been a great combination for us.