Baby Led Cleaning

One thing to be prepared for when starting baby led weaning is the mess! There is definitely nothing tidy about a baby self feeding, and Indigo is most certainly not the exception.  But although she is far from a tidy eater yet, we have seen some improvement already. Indigo is coming up to 8 months and we have been doing baby led weaning with her for just short of two months; as her ability to grasp, particularly slippery things, has improved, more food ends up on in her mouth and less on the floor.

Things to keep in mind and how we do it, comments welcome if anybody has any better ideas:

You can get place mats and plastic baby plates to place the food on, but we have opted to offer her the food straight on the table. We figured the plate/place mat would only go flying across the room anyway, and we have discovered that if there are any non-food related items within her reach, at the dinner table, they seem to distract her from her food... so straight from the table works great, and it wipes clean easily too.

When picking a high chair, it's definitely worth keeping in mind how easy it will be to clean. We have the Stokke Tripp Trapp highchair, and I would recommend it to everyone. Indigo sits very comfortably in it and it wipes clean very easy too. You can buy cushions to go with the highchair, and although they look very nice I am glad we decided not to buy them as they would need washing after every meal! Besides, Indigo's bum is plenty cushioned in her cloth nappies anyway!

Keeping the floor clean is another thing to think about, as that is where a lot of the food ends up in the early days with baby led weaning. In the book it suggests that you can put down old news papers or a sheet, that way you can easily gather it up with all the food on it and dispose of/wash out. We have laminate flooring and have found it just as easy to gather up any mess with a dustpan and brush or a wet cloth. On the plus side, our floor has never been this clean!

When at home, we have chosen to undress Indigo down to her nappy and then put a bib on her to keep the harness from the highchair clean. Even with long sleeved bibs she was managing to get her cloths filthy, she particularly likes to reach down and rub her leg a bit with whatever is mushed up on her hands... don't ask me why. So getting rid of the clothes completely makes washing sooo much easier! Of course we don't do this when we are out. If I sit next to Indigo I tend to drape a muslin or tea towel over my lap as well, as food sometimes fly my way too!

Most of all, I think it is important to relax and remember that the mess is all part of the learning process. If you can't play with your food and make a mess when you are a 7 month old baby, when can you? And seeing how much she enjoys herself at the dinner table makes the clean up afterwards worth it all the more!

Here is Indigo after a particularly messy dinner of spaghetti bolognaise last week (left), and the mess she made around her (right). That is probably the worst clean up we have had so far.

Baby food

Today I bought my first item of real baby food made especially for babies. When we visited Emma and Oscar earlier for a quick coffee (for the mommies of course) Indigo tried one of Oscar's Organix baby rice cakes. I have hardly cast a glance at the baby food isle in the supermarket since starting Baby Led Weaning as I was expecting to find mostly purees, baby rice and rusks, which of course are irrelevant to us; but since Indigo enjoyed these rice cakes I ventured into the baby food isle to get her some.

I hadn't really thought to offer Indigo rice cakes as I am not particularly keen myself, but they make a good alternative to bread sticks I suppose. You can get normal size rice cakes without added salt, but the Organix baby rice cakes are baby size (surprise surprise) and come in different flavours with a 'no junk' promise. I bought the tomato and carrot flavoured rice cakes, as they had no plain ones left, and I was happy to see that the ingredients listed were simply: Organic wholegrain rice, organic carrot juice concentrate, organic tomato juice concentrate and Thiamin (vitamin B1). So the Organix brand keep their promise about 'no junk' and I thought they tasted okay too, Simon wasn't so keen though (not that we go around eating Indigo's food...).

Anyway, before this turns into an Organix sales pitch... I don't think I will be buying lots more specific baby food products, although there were a few non-pureed products on the shelves (biscuits and such) in aforementioned baby food isle, but I might get the rice cakes again. The best thing about these rice cakes is that they stopped the awful teeth grinding Indigo has started since her first top tooth poked through a few days ago... it is nails-across-blackboard type sounds she produces when she grinds her teeth, so she might be eating alot of rice cakes till that phase is over and done with.

On the subject of teeth, it won't be long until all four front teeth at the top will be through, so I will report back on how or if that changes her eating habits.

Make way for Oscar

Here is Indigo's friend Oscar, who is also doing BLW, enjoying a kidney bean mousakka. Looks delicious, or whats left of it anyway. Just imagine the clean up when the two of them get together for lunch...

Dips and dippers

Since starting with Baby Led Weaning bread sticks has become a staple in our house. They are great for exploring more runny foods such as humus, soups, spreads and the like, and they are super easy to hold. They are also always good to have on hand if Indigo's food hasn't quite cooled down enough or when we are out waiting on our food order to arrive; because once placed in the highchair there is no messing about, she just wants, sorry, needs her food now! It's bad enough having to wait whilst a bib is being put in place and the harness secured.

So, finally I got around to baking some of my own bread sticks. I have been wanting to do this for a while since the bought ones have added salt, and she does have them quite often; I was pleasantly surprised at how quick and easy it was to bake them. They came out nice and crispy, (now I just have to figure out how to store them so they stay crispy, but that is an issue with the bought ones too) and both Indigo and her friend Oscar enjoyed them. Success.

For dips I have been getting a bit more adventurous, I think she has been trying to tell me that the world of dips extend beyond humus... So far she has tried:

Mashed avocado
Baba Ganoush (aubergine dip, homemade)
Mushroom pate (homemade)
Cottage cheese
Humus (keep meaning to make my own, but not quite got there yet)
Hazelnut butter (Indigo likes this, but mummy loves it, yummy!)
Butter bean and horseradish pate (tried this in a cafe, might try and make my own)
Tomato soup

Out of those the Baba Ganoush has been the biggest hit. I was surprised how much she liked it as I put quite a bit of raw garlic in it... she has had garlic breath all afternoon. Both the mushroom pate and Baba Ganoush were really quick and easy to make and lasts quite a few days in the fridge too, so I will definitely be making more veggie pate's. It has also been quite nice for me to have something different on my sandwich to cheese. How does she find all this time for cooking you ask yourself, we recently booted the television is the answer, I highly recommend it by the way, all the things you can do when baby is alseep and the telly is gone... the list is endless.

Anyway, to get back to the subejct of BLW, we are still dipping for her and handing her the food. Although she tries her best to get her hands on the pots with the dips in, she can't manage to dip her own food yet.

Indigo with a humus beard...

Mexican.

I came across a recipe for the Mexican dish quesadilla and thought I would give them a shot, and to stay true to the theme I made some re fried beans to go with them.

The quesadilla's were well received, but the re fried beans stole the lime-light and were a huge hit with Indigo (and the rest of us). As you can imagine the beans were very messy, we tried giving her a pre-loaded spoon to begin with but she seemed to prefer using her hands.

The quesadilla's were super easy to make and you can use lots of different fillings, so we will definitely be trying them again. Here is how we made them:

Quesadilla.

2 flour tortilla
1 big handful of chard or spinach (steamed)
some grated cheese (we used cheddar)
125g ricotta cheese

Mix the steamed chard/spinach with the ricotta and grated cheese and spread the mixture evenly on one of the tortillas, then place the other tortilla on top to make a sandwich. Place the Quesadilla on a dry fryingpan (medium heat), cook till golden and then turn over. You can also spread the filling onto half of the tortilla and then fold it over, this way it is easier to turn over in the fryingpan.

I made some patties with the leftover re fried beans and a courgette the next day for lunch, they were really nice too but Indigo preferred eating the beans the messy way and didn't have much of her patty... typical.

Quesadilla and re fried beans (left), one baby sized portion and one adult sized portion, and messy Indigo using the spoon to eat re fried beans; Simon commented that it looked like she'd had her face in her nappy... nice one..

Dexterity

Since we started Baby Led Weaning, I have notice how much Indigo's fine motor skills have improved. She is definitely getting the food in her mouth more easily now, and she's discovered that using both hands to guide the food in the right direction leads to less pokes and prods in the eye. Once the food gets to the right destination (mouth, obviously) there is then the problem of it dropping out again... Indigo's solution to this is holding the food in place with her index finger whilst chewing it. I am surprised she hasn't bit her finger yet with those sharp teeth.

We gave Indigo alot of pear to begin with, as it is nice and soft, but had stopped offering it when the skin was causing some problems. It would get stuck on the back of her tounge and cause alot of gagging, but most problematic: when I checked her mouth, for hidden leftovers after eating, there would almost always be a bit of skin stuck to the roof of her mouth. Imagine me trying to get this peice of skin out of Indigo's mouth before she goes for her nap.... my poor finger nearly got bitten off on a few occasions, so pear was off the menu. When we offered some nice ripe pear again the other day, it was a surprise to see that after chewing a good mouthful and swallowing most of the flesh, she then went on the retrieve the skin from her mouth with index finger and thumb... I was very impressed to say the least, who taught her to do that? She has since done it with tomato skin as well.

Another thing I have noticed her do alot recently as well, and she gets this from her greedy father, is wanting to hold a piece of food in each hand. She will eat off one piece of food whilst the other gets a good squeeze. Once she has got a bite off the first piece of food, she then moves on to the second piece and tries to fit in another mouthful; trouble is there is generally no more room left in her mouth at this point. Must teach both children, sorry... husband and child, not to stuff their mouth quite as much!

BLW and breastfeeding.

When I started thinking about weaning I was interested to know how quickly Indigo's milk intake would change. With Baby Led Weaning Indigo should naturally start taking less milk when she is eating more 'real' food, so no need to try and control how much milk she gets and when.

So, we are about a month into our weaning experience and so far I don't think Indigo is taking any less milk. I am still feeding on demand, and although the amount of feeds she takes hasn't changed much, the spacing of them seem to have. She has generally slept long nights and fed frequently during the days, she was feeding every 2 hours during the day untill we started weaning. Now she seems to cluster feed in the morning and evenings and then have one long stretch between feeds in the middle of the day. She goes up to 4 hours, sometimes even 5, between feeds in the middle of the day.

I should mention that she normally joins us for meals 3 times a day (unless she happens to be sleeping), and although alot of food ends up on the floor, some does get through - the proof is in the nappy (need I say more...?). So I assume that this new feeding pattern is a result of her taking in more solids.

I will try and update on breastfeeding every month or so to see how things change. At the moment I am definitely her main source of nutrition.