Jasmiina is Baby-Led-Weaning

Jasmiina is eating! Finally, we can say that she has started shortly before being 7 months old.

We definitely are going with Baby Led Weaning also this time around. We did BLW with Adelaide, definitely started that way (when she was around 5,5 months), somewhere in the middle our doctor's (who, let's admit, has no clue about normal baby development..) pressure got to me, because Adelaide wasn't gaining much weight (which actually was completely normal), so we did give her parallely some pureed food to normal food in pieces. Even though, looking back now, it wasn't necessary at all. She was eating on her own, when she was ready, and me stuffing purees in her didn't make any difference for her weight gain or anything. (After a short puree phase we went totally back on her eating on her own, she was eating independently with spoon and fork before being 1 year old. That's why the same doctor asking now at the 2 year old check-up - is she trying to eat on her own? was quite funny.)

So this time around I'm hoping to stick totally with BLW and follow my instincts as well as common sense.

Our doctor was saying already months ago, that Jasmiina has to eat this or that.. Vegetables with meat stock and porridge, and strawberries.. Which I don't get, because the official guidelines (from WHO and others) say that you should exclusively breastfeed for at least the first 6 months. Which means - only breast-milk. And then IF the baby is otherways ready, slowly start introducing solid food.

This was the part we were a little bit confused with Jasmiina. 6 months arrived, but she was obviously not ready at all for any solid food. She wasn't sitting really even with support. But to do BLW, to eat real food in pieces, you must sit up straight, otherways it is dangerous.
So I followed my feelings and kept just nursing her on demand.. as well as did some googling, and really, 6 months is just the approximate age to begin. The earliest age to begin. Breast-milk only is enough for a long-long time still. Babies start sitting, crawling, walking on their own time, why should they all start eating at precisely the same age? She should slowly start getting to know food, in her own timing, when she is ready. And one main sign of being ready is being able to sit up straight. So we waited.

She became a lot stronger over the last month, and now she is able to sit, for example, in this highchair. (So you could say she "is sitting" after American standards. Some Latvian BLW promoters say we should wait, until she gets into sitting position totally on her own.. But that won't be for many months still. Also with Adelaide we didn't wait for this. We chose to start, when she was able to sit in the chair.) I like this chair for the beginning. It's safe and comfortable for her, if she gets tired, she can recline and support her back. Once she can sit even better, we will switch to the wooden highchair that Adelaide had. And yes, we use highchairs, because she joins us for family meals. The small table and chair as in Montessori might be good, once the children will have some snack-time on their own. But family meals are important to us.

Then there was the question.. What to begin with? Adelaide started eating at winter, so she started with some winter vegetables, roasted in oven - sweet potato, carrots..
Now it's summer. And BLW should be simple and natural. Just something suitable from your own plate. So a few days ago, having a nice family breakfast outside, Jasmiina got her first slice of cucumber, freshly from our own greenhouse. :)

She enjoyed it. :) Since that she has gotten also fresh zucchini and boiled Turkish beans (sviesta pupiņas). We give her some food about once a day, once we have our biggest meal. And I must say - she eats quite much of it! More of it ends up in her mouth than I expected. So she really must be ready for eating. :) BLW is going pretty smoothly so far. (And, of course, she really gets her actual food from breast.)

She is getting stronger every day. Not moving forward yet, but sideways and backwards for sure.. And sometimes it looks like she is trying to get on her knees. It's so worth it to follow their lead and their individual timing!