Starting Solids

Reese turned 5 months on Oct. 21 and she has seemed more hungry lately so I decided it was time to start solids. 

When Addy was ready (also around 5 months), I followed everything by the book.  Started with rice cereal then moved to jarred purees.  I did sneak some mashed up avocado in there but she pretty much ate jarred purees for months.  Veggies before fruits to avoid a sweet tooth.  Addy was our first, so of course we didn't question anything.

With Reese, I'm more interested in getting to the good stuff and doing as few purees as possible.  Right now, she's getting oatmeal once a day (we're only on day 5) but I want to do things differently this time.  I want to be able to give her things that we're having for dinner instead of making her a seperate meal.  I want to put some cooked mushy pasta on her tray and let her go to town instead of spoon feeding her everything.

I know it takes time to reach that point, but I think we'll move a little faster than we did with Addy.

One thing that I did with Addy that I think helped her develop a wide palate was to give her chewed up bites of our dinners.  If we were having chicken, I would chew some of the chicken and then give her the mush.  I know it sounds gross, but other than pureeing it (ew) or buying the chicken in a jar (double ew), it was the only way she would get to taste it.  And I like to think that is why Addy is not a picky eater today. 

So we will see what actually happens with Reese and solids.  I've heard it called Baby Led Weaning (BLW) but I need to do more research into it.  I don't actually want her to wean until a full year has gone by so I need to see what it's all about.