Baby-led weaning?

What is baby led weaning, you might wonder. It's basically skipping baby cereal and purees and going straight for the real stuff and letting the baby self-feed. Now, I am not planning to wean Bo from nursing any time soon. It's called 'weaning' because introducing any food begins the weaning process. Overtime, Bo will decrease the amount of milk he gets from me as he increases the amount of food he eats. You can read more about baby-led weaning here.

Why skip cereal and purees? Obviously there is nothing wrong with baby food. My experience with Arabelle wasn't that great with the baby food. She was SO particular with it and really only ever would eat the fruit purees. Although 'they' say you should try it several times before deciding they really don't like the food. So, I bought the same vegetable purees several times and they all ended up in the garbage. Also, she never really liked being spoon fed. I felt like I was working so hard to 'trick' her into getting her mouth open and sneaking the spoon in. We started with table food at 7 mo. with her and by 9-10 mo, we dropped the purees. Now, I understand that Bo is a different baby, but I'm just not up for the battle of trying to get him to eat off a spoon if I can just put some food on his tray and let him go at it. Plus, he can eat/play with the food while I eat mine!

Won't he choke!? He doesn't have teeth! Choking is different from gagging. I fully expect Bo to gag on some food! It's part of the process of moving food around in his mouth and learning to eat & the gag reflex is his protective mechanism. We will obviously stick to soft, safe foods. :)

Won't he sleep better if you feed him cereal? Ha! That didn't work with Arabelle at all. It seems that my kids will just wake up a few times a night, for what ever reason. Right now, I'm finding Bo in all sorts of positions in the crib. Just last night he was on the opposite end with his legs hanging out between the crib rails. All that moving and squirming wakes him up! Plus, his bottom gum is red and swollen....I am keeping my eye out for a tooth! I don't believe that it's just hunger that is waking him up at this point.

I fully expect it to take a few weeks before he's really eating anything and a month or more before he takes off with it. Once he develops his pincer grip (picking up food with his index finger and thumb) around 9 mo, he will all set!

You all may think I'm crazy, at this point, but it will be fun to watch Bo learn and experience new tastes and textures! Stay tuned!