[blparent] Infant led feeding

[Tara Briggs]

Thanks for your email! I really like this idea and I think I'll give it a shot.

Sent from my iPhone

> On Jan 5, 2015, at 10:57 PM, Jo Elizabeth Pinto via blparent <blparent at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> I was intrigued by Kai's response, so I did a quick Google search.  There's volumes of information on the Web.  You'll be able to find out anything you want about baby-led weaning, and a whole lot more, in thirty seconds or less.  Just beware of Internet overload because, as with anything, the key is undoubtedly moderation.  From what I skimmed over, BLW has some very sound ideas, and ones I would pay closer attention to if I were to raise another baby, which isn't in the cards.  On the other hand, millions of babies have downed strained bananas and pureed squash and lived long enough to feed it to children and grandchildren of their own.
> 
> What I did, I guess, was some combination of the two methods, which I didn't know there were two of at the time.  I used purees, but I also gave my baby, starting at about seven or eight months old, pieces of food on her high chair tray.  At first I used those Meltaway Puffs that are sold with the baby food in the stores, but I was suspicious of them because of the sugar content.  So I bought one of the mesh nets with the ring on it that you could put fruit in and freeze.  Sometimes I froze it, and sometimes I just put cut fruit in it and left it in the refrigerator and then gave it to the baby at mealtime.  She couldn't get bites off the fruit, but she could taste it through the mesh.  When she was taking lumpier solids, I would give her cheese cubes and broken-up scrambled eggs, diced fruit, sliced green beans, Cheerios, and all sorts of different things on her tray to choose from.  She was a good eater as a baby.
> 
> Then someone gave her ice cream, and someone else introduced her to Doritos, and she went to preschool and learned how to say, "Yuck."  And all bets were off.
> 
> Good luck,
> Jo Elizabeth
> 
> Truth is tough. It will not break, like a bubble, at a touch; nay, you may kick it about all day like a football, and it will be round and full at evening.--Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
> -----Original Message----- From: Kai Johnson via blparent
> Sent: Monday, January 05, 2015 8:57 PM
> To: Tara Briggs ; Blind Parents Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [blparent] Infant led feeding
> 
> Hi Tara,
> We did this, from a book called Baby-Led Weaning by Gill Rapley. It worked
> really well for us - the idea is mainly that you give them food that is
> safe for them and they can chew on it, play with it, and soon eat it. From
> a practical point, it let us get away from specialty cooking for the baby,
> which really helped for the second child. The main benefit for the child is
> that at 6 months, they have an excellent gag reflex, so they actually don't
> get down much food, but they are fully capable of chewing with just gums.
> The point at which they gag on food is actually farther forward on the
> tongue at 6 months, so they learn to deal with gagging and spitting the
> food back out, all without risk of harm and much less fright for them. If
> you introduce foods at 10+ months, the gag point has moved back farther in
> the throat, so if they are learning to work with solid foods for the first
> time, the gagging will be more pronounced, require more effort to clear,
> and is closer to actual choking. This isn't to say children who don't eat
> solid foods at 6 months will end up choking and getting hurt, but it is
> letting them learn an essential skill at a time when their bodies are ready
> to learn it.
> 
> More philosophically, it's supposed to give them a healthier relationship
> with food because it is not a choice between regular food and nursing, but
> if you don't have food-related issues like nursing strikes or incredible
> pickiness, I don't know that you'd see any difference in their behavior.
> 
> Anyway, I really liked it, and highly recommend it. The actual takeaway
> from the book is an understanding of how it is safe to give them foods. The
> key being that they are about finger-sized, firm foods that won't break off
> in their mouths, so they can hold with their fists and still have something
> to chew on.
> 
> Good luck!
> Kai
> 
> On Mon, Jan 5, 2015 at 4:49 PM, Tara Briggs via blparent <
> blparent at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
>> dear collective wisdom:
>> Have any of you heard of or practiced infant led feeding? In the UK it is
>> called infant led weaning. Basically, it is letting your child feed
>> themselves starting from about six months of age. You use small pieces of
>> what ever you're eating. There is a book on this on iBooks. It is called,
>> infant led weaning. There is also a cookbook. I got the book on infant led
>> weaning and I am curious if anyone has tried it and what it has been like.
>> Thanks for any help.
>> Tara Briggs
>> 
>> Sent from my iPhone
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