a mamma in the making

the time has come– she has coordinated her arms to reach when she wants something.  quite cute when it’s for one of us– a little unnerving when it’s for anything and everything that’s on the kitchen table.  her curiosity is piqued.  already i have caved in to giving her sips of my water or herbal cold tea drinks from the glass (half of which she slobbers down her shirt).  i suspect in the coming weeks, we will be delving into the realm of solid foods.  but how?

since i believe that your health is largely derived by the foods you eat (or don’t!) the jarred foods we see at the grocery store are not an option.  i can’t imagine her first foods being filled with preservatives.  we thought about steaming and pureeing our own “baby food”….  simply setting aside some of what we eat and sticking it into a food processor.  only we don’t have a food processor, so i was tinkering around on the web trying to see what’s out there.

plenty.  enough, in fact, to make your head spin.  who knew food processors came in 31 different sizes and 62 different brands, most with bpa’s that could leach into your food?  sheesh.

and let’s not even mention the gazillions of baby food cookbooks out there.  it’s a whole booming market.  just add the word “baby” in front of the title, and you have a potential best-seller.  conscious parents, after all, want to feed their kids the best they can.

so here’s a thought:  why not feed them what you yourself eat?  sounds pretty simple,  doesn’t it?   i found, via the blog of one reader who kindly commented on my previous post, a method called “baby-led weaning:  the fuss-free way to introduce solid foods,”  developed by a woman named Gil Rapley.    her website says:

“Baby-led weaning is a common-sense, safe, easy and enjoyable approach to feeding your baby.

Most people’s image of weaning babies on to solid foods is of mixing up baby rice or carrot puree, taking aim with the spoon and putting it into the baby’s mouth. Most of it comes back out and the parent then scrapes it back up and tries again. And so they go on, until one of them gets fed up.

Baby-led weaning is different. It’s a way of introducing solid foods that allows the baby to feed herself – there’s no spoon feeding and no purees. The baby sits with the rest of the family at mealtimes, and joins in when she is ready. Her parents offer her food in sizes and shapes that she can handle and she feeds herself with her fingers, choosing what to eat, how much and how quickly.

All healthy babies can do this. They don’t need their parents to decide when weaning should start and they don’t need to be spoon-fed; they just need to be given the opportunity to feed themselves.

Baby-led weaning allows babies to grow into confident, skilled and happy eaters.”

i think this might be our route…Seava is a strong-willed, curious little being who seems to really dislike restrain (just try strapping her into her carseat and you’ll see what i mean) and wants, like most babies, to explore her world on her “own”…. i’m sure we’ll be posting some funny food photos as we delve into this process.  and i’ll get back to you on what finger foods seem most tasty to a six month old.  meantime, if anyone can reccommend what foods worked for their wee ones, would be glad to hear all about it!