Baby Led Weaning

So over the Christmas break we started Thomas off on some actual real food (yes, already!)...we actually began the whole thing a little early, current advice is to begin the weaning process at six months of age (of which we are still a little shy, even now)...the reason for this is threefold and logical, one - the automatic response to chew and swallow (rather than just suck) takes a while to appear (and not much eating is going to take place without that), two - the digestive system needs to mature to the point where it can actually handle anything other than milk, and three (most critically, and I have no idea why no-one explained this to me before) up until about six months of age the barrier between stomach and blood stream is permeable in order to help nutrients, fats and antibodies pass quickly into their most useful position...the bad thing that *may* happen if, before the stomach wall is sealed, you feed your little one some food, is that a little bit of (for example) mashed up pear, manages to get straight into the blood, where the aforementioned antibodies all scream "Attack!" and the body then accidentally develops an allergy as a result...

Between Christmas and New Year, poor little Thomas was diagnosed with a bit of reflux (the sphincter at the top of the stomach isn't very good at staying closed in the early days, and acid can escape into the throat - which is rather painful judging by how much and how angrily it made him cry), so the health visitor we saw recommended we try a him on a little bit of baby rice mixed with some milk from his mummy, this didn't actually help the reflux very much (although that is another story altogether), but it did demonstrate that he was more than ready to start to eat...

So we spent a happy afternoon steaming and mashing up a selection of vegetables (sweet potato, carrots, brocolli, etc.) and poaching some pears, whizzed each individual ingredient into a pulp with the hand blender (although don't try that trick with white potato, it just turns to glue) and then packed it into ice cube trays and stored it all in the freezer...since then he has absolutely wolfed down every single thing we have given him, even to the point where he bursts into tears when his little bowl is empty (which is very sweet)...however, if what we learned at our most recent NCT weaning class is to be believed, we have perhaps been making a little too much work for ourselves...

Current thinking, apparently, is to allow the baby to lead the whole process of weaning, rather than it be driven by parent alone...children should be given exactly what the parents are eating (although not if it is a low fat or diet food - as around 50% of the child's energy comes from fat in the first few years) and if this sounds messy, then it is certainly going to be - if we are eating shepherds pie (for example) we should make it without additional salt and then just dump it in front of Thomas for him to play with (and hopefully eat some of - rather than just put it all over himself, the floor and the walls)...so, if we are feeling brave, once we run out of mashed up butternut squash (etc.), Thomas is going to be joining Mummy and Daddy for dinner...

Watch this space (and wish us, and our upholstery, luck)...