Baby Led Weaning // Week 3

It’s been a really successful week of baby led weaning in the Hughes household.

We are mostly having two meals a day: breakfast and lunch. Some days I manage to squeeze tea in, but between teething pain and tiredness come 5pm, it’s not been that easy.

We have tried lots of new flavours and textures and it’s been mind blowing how much has actually been consumed. The big signs to look out for to see if food is actually being eaten are:

Not having to sweep much off the floor – don’t get me wrong there’s still plenty falling on the floor, but its not as much as before.
Big burps after the meal – huge, gigantic burps that I didn’t even know could come out of a tiny baby.
Poos which are a thicker texture or even a big hard lump – a few days ago i found a playdough-like lump in Dex’s nappy and managed to drop it on the floor…doh!
Slightly reduced milk intake – he is trying to drop a bottle during the day which I’m trying to prevent by slowly reducing his midnight feed. He is down from 9oz to 6oz and we are finding he will take a bottle earlier averaging between 9 and 10pm.

The biggest shock of the week for me came on Monday when I watched him suck and swallow eight fusilli pasta pieces. I first offered pasta on the first week of baby led weaning and it was barely touched. Now he has mastered picking it up, sucking it until it’s super duper soft and swallowing it without gagging. Amazing.

This is what the menu has looked like this week:

Wednesday

Breakfast: 1/2 buttered crumpet & 1/2 pear
Lunch: 1/8 small bacon and leek quiche, 1 baby sized rice cake & 1/2 Braeburn apple (microwaved until soft)

Thursday

Breakfast: 1/2 buttered crumpet & 1/3 Braeburn apple (microwaved until soft)
Tea: Chicken Arrabiata

Friday

Breakfast: 1/2 buttered crumpet & 1 banana
Lunch: 1/8 quiche, 2 baby rice cakes, 1/2 lead & 3 cucumber sticks

Saturday

Breakfast: 1/2 sausage, 1/2 buttered crumpet, 1/2 Braeburn apple (microwaved until soft)
Dinner: 1 pinwheel, 3 cucumber sticks

Sunday

Breakfast: 1/2 buttered crumpet smothered in cream cheese
Lunch: 1/2 cheese muffin & 1 banana

Monday

Breakfast 1/2 buttered crumpet & 3 cucumber sticks
Lunch 2 rice cakes, 1/2 Braeburn apple (microwaves until soft)

Tuesday

Breakfast 1/2 buttered crumpet & 1 banana
Lunch 8 fusilli twists smothered in melted cheese, three scraps of cheddar cheese, 1 pear

As you can see, crumpet is a firm favourite for breakfast. I love how soft they are and I cut them into fingers so Dex finds it easy to put them in his mouth.

Concerns

Shoving too much food on his mouth at once – Dex is prone to shoving two bits of crumpet in his mouth at once so he can barely move his mouth to chew. I now only offer one piece of food at a time at breakfast and alternate between the bread and the fruit.
Food falls on the floor- I keep the floor mega clean so I know that if something drops it can be picked up to be eaten. It does mean sweeping and mopping several times a day, but it’s worth it.
Gagging – it’s so rare now we are three weeks in. He sometimes gags if he is distracted by something so we eat with the TV off and daddy isn’t to pull any silly faces. For those of you who have asked me about gagging: it will happen but it does get better. The gagging has to happen for them to learn how to ‘chew’ , move food around their mouths and swallow.
Mess – Dex wears only a vest so that I don’t ruin his pants and nice tops. He wears a plastic bib to catch food but food does get on his arms and legs. A quick wipe down with some baby wipes gets rid of most of it and a bath every evening gets rid of the rest. We are slowly running out of vests but only because I keep putting off the ironing.

Check out the recipes I made this week.

How is baby led weaning going for you? Have you tried any new foods this week?