We're finally BLW-ing!

For a couple of days now we have been doing actual and pure Baby Led Weaning! :)

It's so much fun for all of us! 

The biggest problem, why I didn't do it earlier and why I was giving some pureed food with a spoon to Adelaide, was because she was sitting in her recliner chair, where she is in a laid back position. According to BLW "rules", it's forbidden to give food in pieces while in this position, as baby can choke on the food that way. And I saw it as well - she was coughing quite often even with puree, when too much food was in her mouth. Each time I lifted her up, so she would be with a straight back, and she managed to cough it out herself.

So, to be eating pieces, baby should be sitting with a straight back.

But then I had a problem.. She is interested in food and otherways seems to be able to start some eating, but she is not sitting on her own.
People in Latvia are very strict about this. Not putting babies in sitting position, as long as they are not sitting on their own. (It is very, very different from, for example, USA, where propping up babies to "sit" is acceptable a lot earlier.. Which, I think, is very wrong.)

Of course, I agree with that. Not stimulating and not doing something before they are developmentally ready. But with this "sitting" is tricky, because most babies actually sit down on their own a lot later.. At even 9 or 10 months.
But it seems ok for them to sit in lap of a parent a lot earlier, at 6 months for sure. Of course, a lot depends on a baby as well..

So this was a pickle for me. What to do. Finally, I decided, that I will put her in the plastic Britton Hip high chair. The position is not any worse than while occasionally sitting in my lap, she's not there for any very long time, it's nice and supportive, and stable. So I think it's ok.

That was our first step towards BLW, and she loved it from the first second! :D I don't know, is it the height (so she can see better), the position, but she was laughing and smiling instantly, as we first put her in the chair!

And then we offered her some food from our own dinner. She had: some oven baked potato and sweet potato, peace of oven baked pork and avocado.

Food was seasoned, but without salt.

And she really loved to eat on her own! She was taking the food, putting it into her mouth, and really chewing on it. Of course, many (most) of the peaces got lost somewhere on a way from plate to her mouth, it wasn't easy for her!
But she didn't give up, she was so motivated and interested, and kept going and going, after we were long done eating, and even though she had gotten really sleepy, she wouldn't stop eating. (I lifted up the lost peaces of food and put them back into her plate.)

In the end, she was dirty, everything was dirty. There was food in her nose, in her eyes, in her ears, in her hair, and - of course - on all of her clothes. :D She had to be washed really properly and all of the clothes had to be changed.

The surroundings, however, weren't at all that dirty. I'd say - the puree was sometimes flying more and ending up all over our dining area, peaces don't fly that way and don't make everything so dirty. Only her plate and table.

It's really hard to tell this way, how much she actually eats. But it sure felt like she ate more than, when I was feeding her with a spoon!

Chocking wasn't a problem at all. I think, she coughed less than when fed with puree. Maybe once or twice a bigger peace of avocado was in her mouth, she coughed it out on her own without any problem.

And really.. she enjoyed it so much, that it was an amazing experience for all of us! :) 

We are definitely fans of BLW.