Nolin-led Weaning

At six months old, we started introducing food to Nolin.  We are using the Baby-led Weaning approach to eating & weaning from Momma's milk.  With this approach, you basically give the baby the same foods that you are eating.  You start with big pieces of food that the baby can hold in his/her hand & gnaw on.  This keeps the baby from choking.  Here are some of Nolin's first foods:

Food #1 - Carrot

Food #2 - Grapes

Food #3 - Strawberry

Food #4 - Banana

Food #5 - Celery

Food #6 - Broccoli

As the baby learns to handle these foods & learns about the gag reflex & chewing, you can start giving the baby foods to actually eat.  Some babies take longer than others to learn their gag reflex, but Nolin seems to be learning fairly quickly.  We have already started giving her small bits of food & she loves to eat!  She is still mastering her pincer grip, but she does fairly well getting food into her mouth.  As you can imagine, dinner is quite messy now!

Paul & I are really enjoying baby-led weaning for several reasons.  One is that it is supposed to help keep a child from being a picky eater.  Since the baby starts out eating flavorful foods, he/she does not get used to bland tastes.  Therefore, he/she likes flavors from the start.  So far Nolin eats about anything we have given her.  She may not have enjoyed everything the first time, but if we keep trying, she eventually takes it.  We also love baby-led weaning because Nolin eats with us.  We don't have to worry about packing food for her when we leave the house.  We also enjoy family time at meals. 

Nolin absolutely loves strawberries!!  These have been her favorite food from the beginning.  If Nolin sees a strawberry, or anything red really, she freaks out!  She fusses until it is in her hand or out of sight.  The other day Paul & I couldn't figure out why she was being fussy, but we finally discovered that Nolin could smell my strawberry yogurt!  A few days later, my cousin was eating a piece of red velvet cake & Nolin got excited, because she saw the red!  It is quite entertaining!

Kai is also enjoying the baby-led weaning.  I'm pretty sure that Nolin will soon be his best friend...