Thursday 31 May 2007

More info on Baby Led Weaning

Just thought I ought to add some more info and links which explain a little more about BLW for those who are unsure. Basically BLW is where the puree stage of weaning babies is omitted and babies begin by eating finger foods. In a nutshell it its thought that this stage is not necessarily developmentally necessary if babies are weaned at 6 months as is now recommended (they used to need this when babies were weaned earlier at 3/4 months). It is thought that at this age babies start to sit up, are able to put objects into their mouths, begin to cut teeth and also develop the ability to chew (even if it is just with their gums) which indicate they are ready for 'proper' foods.

Other aspects of weaning are still adhered to such as which foods are introduced first etc. Food is cut up into finger sized pieces for babies to grasp easily, and baby picks up and eats food put in front of them. A key point is that food is not put in babies mouths for them, they do this when they are ready to start.

This is an extremely brief introduction, and as I have said before I am no expert. This is basically what I have understood from the reading I have done. If you are interested the best thing to do is to read up on BLW on these links with advice from the experts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby-led_weaning#General_information
http://www.borstvoeding.com/voedselintroductie/vast_voedsel/rapley_guidelines.html
http://www.babycentre.co.uk/baby/startingsolids/babyledweaning/

Wednesday 30 May 2007

Right at the beginning

Hello!!
Well, here goes....the start of my weaning blog for my gorgeous little boy who will go by the name JJ. We have decided to go down the baby led weaning route for a number of reasons but mainly because it just seems right for JJ. I knew nothing about BLW until recently when I read a post about it on a message forum. After a night of reading on the Internet I had decided it was the thing for us. He is so curious and like most babies loves to put EVERYTHING in those sloppy chops of his!As there is not very much info out there I decided to write this blog as those I had read helped me come to my decision to use this method. I am not an expert, in fact the total opposite! JJ is my first baby and I have never done this before. I hope this blog will be an honest record of our weaning journey, highs and lows, successes and disasters!


We have not really begun weaning JJ yet. He is 22 1/2 weeks old and fully breastfed. We will be starting weaning over the next couple of weeks and we can't wait! JJ has a high chair and sits at the table with me and his daddy at mealtimes and loves to watch us eat. Soon he will be joining us...