Baby led weaning is my favorite approach to feeding babies. Today I’m sharing our fourth journey into starting baby led weaning, along with why we started this one more quickly and my varied approach to it.
Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you tell yourself you’re not worried about something, but then find yourself basically talking to every single person about said thing because, well, deep down there’s worry.
That’s where I was at with Holland after her 6 month check up. She’s a petite little one! My other 3 kiddos were definitely on the more petite side as well too, however, the other 3 pretty much followers they’re growth curves. Whether it was at the 10th percentile or 25th, they mostly stayed in their lane.
Holland started out as my biggest baby at 8lb 2oz (she was 2 weeks late), then every month she kept getting lower on the growth curve. She was growing and gaining weight at every check up, but just a bit slower. She went from around the 25th percentile, to 10th, to 6th, to 4th then 3rd percentile at 6 months. She was exactly 13lb at 6 months. Also petite at 5th percentile in height as well.
As a mom of course I’m worried about my milk supply. Am I not feeding her enough? Do I need to supplement? She’s a happy baby and from my view doesn’t seem upset and hungry after nursing, but I want her to be healthy and growing as her body should.
Our pediatrician told me she wasn’t really concerned since my kiddos err on the smaller side, but that since she’s 6 months to not delay the solids and get started right away.
And we did! I intentionally put her in her chair 3 times a day, whereas typically I would start it once or twice a day as we eased into baby led weaning.
I also took my approach a little differently the first week. I fully believe in baby led weaning and letting children feed themselves, but that first week I wanted her to actually get some food in her tummy because I know it takes some time for the brain to register that the food she’s eating helps her to feel full. So instead of just letting her grab the food, I helped by putting bites of the food into her mouth. She was interested and curious and it wasn’t forceful (she opened her mouth for it). The foods where the same foods on her tray (as opposed to purées), but I’d get a little piece of ground beef, banana or avocado, whatever it may be, and feed it to her via a spoon or fork, along with letting her practice eating.
That happened for about 1 week and then woah, she took off with it! When friends would ask me about baby led weaning and wondered when their baby would actually start eating food in greater amounts, my reply was always around 8 months, because that’s when my first 3 took off with it.
Holland took off after 1 week. And this girl started putting down so much food!
Here’s a glimpse of her nursing and real food eating combo. I’ll put times but know that they vary from day to day depending on when she wakes for the day and what we’ve got going on. If we’re away from the house I don’t offer her food just yet (it’s so messy!). If I’m teaching a class I just bring a bottle of pumped milk and even try to nurse her right before teaching so she’s getting a double dose of milk (from me and the bottle).
I follow the EAT-WAKE-SLEEP pattern as much as possible. We’ve done this from the get go and she knows that after sleeping food comes.
7am wake up and nurse
7:30am food
9am nap
10am nurse
10:30 food
12pm nap
1pm nurse
1:30pm food
3pm nap
4pm nurse
5pm food
6:30pm nurse
7pm bed time
She may wake 1-2 times at night until the morning. Sometimes she sleeps until 4am, sometimes she wakes around 10pm and then maybe 6am. There isn’t always consistency in her nighttime wakes but since starting solids she’s definitely slept much better.
Still the same! I pump just about every morning on one side (I nurse on the other side at night) and will get about 4 ounces. I know every one produces different amounts of breast milk but that’s good for me! So while she’s eating a TON of food, my milk supply is still staying the same.
Alrighty friends, I’m calling this part 1 and for part 2 we’ll get into the foods we’ve offered! If you have any questions about baby led weaning or specific foods leave a comment below and I’ll get to them in the next post!
Heather
6 month6 month old babybaby-led weaningbabyled weaningBLWfeeding babiesHolland Sloanstarting solids
