Nine months One week

One of my friends suggested me to try Baby led weaning..she was successful with her baby and spoke very highly about it.

I had read about baby lead weaning and decided to give it a try.So I brought couple of variety of finger foods.

The following morning instead of making any puree, I cut some apple, banana into finger slices and offered them to my baby on his high chair tray. Surprisingly instead of putting them in his mouth like all other non-edible stuff, my baby just kept playing with them and spilling them over the floor, not a single piece went into his mouth.

The principle of baby led weaning says not to force babies to eat, let them decide what they want to have, which means that they are on milk for a longer duration till they don't learn to eat.So going by that principle I didn't offer any food forcibly to my baby and he went without food the whole day and just had milk.End of the day I couldn't bear it and offered him some puree which he did have little.

Next day again I tried the same...he just kept playing with the finger food.

On the third day, I couldn't bear that any longer and decided to go with both purees as well as finger food.

I had also started giving the multivitamin drops to my baby.
Slowly I found my baby accepting the purees , don't know whether it was the multivitamins or the temporary strike out phase was getting over or the baby led weaning had made him more willing to eat???!!???

On the forth day when I offered finger foods again I was thrilled to see my baby trying to eat the stuff that I gave him.

Now that he's nine months, he should be learning to chew foods and slowly I have to stop from purees to mashed and then solid foods.

At present I am continuing with a mixture of purees and finger foods.Thankfully he's willing to eat more than the earlier weeks.

This week also the thought came to my mind that perhaps I should start looking for work now, just the thought of leaving my baby and I found myself hugging him and kissing him more through out the week.

Looking for work also means I have to find a child minder and day care for him...and also the exorbitant cost of the same.

Word of caution : Baby led weaning also has the risks of choking and gagging while baby tries to eat on his own.I was always with my baby while he was trying to eat on his own...couple of times I found him gagging, the first time he did I got so sacred, immediately I held him up with his face down and thumping his back....but thankfully he wasn't choking I just got worked up.Neverthless it's good to know these tips.

Cherished moment - I felt so happy when my baby was trying to eat on his own the finger food offered after he got bored of playing with the food for three days.