Asparagus and chicken casserole

These posts are going to be a bit less about individual foods since we are starting to give Lainey a mix of whatever we have for dinner. I am not 100% sure if I will go too much further with the BLW/BLS posts since they will all kinda be the same from here on out. I may just do progress ones so you can see how she has progressed with being able to feed herself though and how she does it and how her pincer grip starts to develop more etc.....So without further ado I give you asparagus and chicken and stuffing casserole!

Lainey loved sucking the juice out of the asparagus and although she gave us quite a few "yuck" looks she still kept picking it back up and trying it more and more! Something I feel you wouldn't really get with purees as you would prob give up if they turned away more than a few times! BLW leaves it up to the child though so that THEY can explore and truly try it as much as THEY want to!

Now the casserole was def not too BLW friendly in the respect it was squishy and not too easy to grasp onto etc....but Lainey managed just fine after a bit of practice and was getting handfuls into her mouth!

I took a video but for some reason blogger is rejecting it so I will need to try and load it elsewhere and link up.

PROS: Lainey is learning to eat whatever we have!!!
CONS: sure it is messy at times but it is sooo low stress it more than makes up for the mess (plus if you have a dog the only mess is on the baby haha)

Cauliflower and Chicken!

I wish I would have had more pictures of this eating adventure for Lainey but we were at a Sunday roast at a pub and I just wasn't really thinking of taking pictures. I wasn't even planning on feeding her anything but what we have learned is as soon as you let them start tasting and experimenting and being part of the family dining experience it is hard to NOT let them join in! So mommy licked the gravy off a hunk of cauliflower and much to Nana's disgust handed over a hunk of it to a bib less Lainey! Lainey put it straight into her mouth and was munching away (she does have her bottom two teeth now pretty much fully in) I also handed her a strip of my roasted chicken which she happily sucked and nibbled away on!

Cauliflower

Pros: easy to prep, can serve steamed or roasted etc....just 3 florets provides you with 67% of your daily vitamin C! Also high in folate

Cons: it stinks LOL! Otherwise no real cons I can think of 

Chicken

Pros: readily available anywhere you may dine, not too messy,low in fat but high in protein,vitamins B6 and B12, high in iron (what I learned from the BLW book is that the baby doesn't need to eat the meat to gain the goodness from it, as long as they suck on the piece of meat they are getting the benefits!)

Cons: none I can think of

Cucumber

A great thing about baby led weaning/solids is the fact it makes dining out EASY PEASY! This is def not a lie it is soooo nice to go into almost any place to eat and find something that you can hand over to the baby to nibble on and keep them content! We were out at an Indian place in England and we happened to get cucumber on our plates so I figured why not?! Lainey again was content and happy licking and nibbling at her bit of sliced cucumber (of course sticks would be ideal but she did just find with the slice!) I also have a crinkle cutter at home which I will use to cut up some fruits and veggies for her with to give her extra grip.

Pros: Easy to prep in a variety of ways! Pretty much a clean food doesn't really require stripping baby down or a bib! Cucumbers prob feel great on soothing gums of teething babe! Great source of vitamins A,C, and K along with potassium (of course with the peel on makes it the most nutritious)

Cons: none!

Apples

Miss Lainey like a lot of 6 month olds is teething so anything cool on the gums makes for good munching! I gave Lainey some raw wedged apple while we ate dinner the other night and boy did she tuck in! Gnawing away and just cooing happily as she did so. What I forgot is that apples can leave nasty brown stains! (I am behind on the book and read the bit about the apples leaving stains AFTER the fact of course haha!). But minus the staining incident Lainey really truly enjoyed her first tastes of an apple and now we cannot wait to bring her on our annual orchard trip to pick apples and pumpkins :D

Pros: Super easy to prepare and can be prepped in a bazillion ways! High in fiber and vitamin C

Cons: they stain! Other than that no real cons that I could think of!

Bananas first attempt

Well Miss Lainey was not sure what to think of banana....she wasn't very hungry though and we were not sitting as a family eating (which I think is truly a key step to baby led solids!) So here is take one of bananas

I left peel on at first to make it easier for her to hold...she just kept sucking on peel though LOL

then we gave it a whirl without peel and she held on just fine!

just didn't seem too keen overall but she did keep licking at it so we will try again perhaps tonight!

Pros: Super easy to prep! Can be given with lots of other foods to make some great tasting blends, great texture for a first food, good source of fiber, good source of potassium, both helps with constipation and also for the runs! Magical!

Cons:none really except she didn't seem a fan on first try....

Avocado- we have a winner!

Lainey got to try avocado and we could not believe how well she tucked in! One thing though is that this was the first time we offered her food around a normal nursing time. The other couple of attempts she nursed around an hour or so beforehand so prob was not very hungry. This time we offered the avocado while we were eating our dinner and then I bathed her THEN nursed her. And here is how it went....

ok what u gonna toss at me now?

hmm looks interesting

she grabbed a piece of pizza crust first and of course loved it...how could you not?

mommy decided to hold the piece of avocado so she could easily taste it

ok now THIS is good!

mmmmmm

trying to eat the piece that slipped out of her hand onto her bib haha

and a video of Lainey bear enjoying her avocado

Pros: Fat free; saturated fat free; very low sodium; cholesterol free; high in vitamin A; high in vitamin C; good source of folate. Lainey loved it! Great texture!

Cons: can be difficult to pick out (I chose ones that were almost black and they taste great!), slippery and messy, don't last long in fridge storage (maybe a day or two once cut)

Cantaloupe take one

Lainey didn't seem to like the taste of cantaloupe on her first go....but I do have to say that it is at the end of it's season here so this wasn't a particularly tasty one and was in fact quite bland. I offered her a chunk on it's own and also a chunk in a mesh feeder. Don't think she took in any of it to be honest and here is a look at how it went down....

ok now what?

like this right?

oohhh no no noooo

umm let's try it this way

YUCKO!

forget it ma!

my tray tastes nice though!

Bruno says he will try it next!

Pros: easy to prep, fat free; saturated fat free; very low sodium; cholesterol free; high in vitamin A; high in vitamin C; good source of folate.

Cons: none really! Well except the fact Lainey did not approve of it quite yet

Baby Led Weaning/Solids: The Begining

Well I was going to wait until we returned from England but I figured Lainey turns 6 months this next week and has been showing LOTS of interest in our food so figured I would take a very laid back approach and start tossing some goodies her way ;)

I have decided we would go the Baby Led Weaning/Solids approach (will share favorite informational links at bottom of this post) as why bother with purees if you don't have to? We can make normal meals for the family and include her by letting her sample a little bit of what we are having (within reason,not like I am gonna toss pizza her way anytime soon haha!).

Today Gabby and I were chopping up some carrots, potatoes, and onion (all from local organic farmers YAY) for tomorrows curry dinner and I decided "what the heck let's start with carrot today..."

I need to find better ways to prep Lainey some goodies but today I just washed off, cut up, and put into micro for a bit to soften the carrot....(off to look up better ways after this blog post and also my copy of the  Baby Led Weaning book should arrive this next week too)...

Without further ado pictures of Miss Lainey Bear sampling carrot

woopsie there goes my carrot!

And a short video clip of her chowing down...don't mind Miss Gabby gabbing away in the background ;)

Pros: easy enough to prep, rich in vitamin A; good source of vitamin C

Cons: none that I could think of!Taste great cooked or raw and easy to prep! Lainey wasn't 100% impressed but it was her first taste of anything food related....ETA..Lainey seemed quite gassy the rest of the evening and not sure if this was from the carrot or the fact I had more caffeine than normal (oops! sorry baby!)but thought I would put this down and wait a bit before we do carrot again...

A main thing is that Lainey is still getting all her nutrition from Mama milk and we are starting to explore nutrient rich foods so that once she is a year old she can really start diving in and eating what we eat! No trying to force spoons into her mouth or messing with mucky flavorless cereals! Lainey will learn to feed herself from the begining and develop her fine motorskills and (hopefully) diverse taste buds as we let her explore! Favorite links for information on this method/approach. Why Delay Solids(including cereal)? Wholesome Baby Food(ideas and more info about the approach) Nourished Kitchen BLW Recipes(UK mummy) Adventures in Solids(blog by a fellow BLW'r that has also been documenting their adventures) Please feel free to comment and share any of your faves as would love to have a whole page dedicated to these links!