To wean or not to wean…

Weaning

So today has been an interesting day. I feel like a zombie. Clara had THE worst night last night, she had us up practically every hour and a half all night long and as a result was very irritable throughout the day, refusing to settle for any naps. Not really too sure what the cause is but she seemed to want feeding almost constantly so I’m thinking it could be either a growth spurt, teething, or her desire to start on solid foods as she just doesn’t seem to be fully satisfied after her milk feeds these days.

Information is very hard to come by – each forum paints a different picture for what the reason may be, but as Clara is now five and a half months we have decided to start offering her solids from tomorrow onwards and see how she gets on. Initially I was reluctant to begin before the recommended age of six months, but having done quite a bit of research I’m starting to feel less sure about what we are really waiting for! I’ve read that introducing solids too late can increase the risk of food allergies (although the jury is still out on this one) and I’m keen to avoid these as much as possible so definitely don’t want to miss the boat on weaning.

Another massively confusing issue has been whether to go with traditional purees or baby-led weaning (BLW). They both seem to have their pros and cons but it is so tricky to get a fair view as the majority of books on weaning seem to pick a side and write a very biased view. I finally decided that I was not altogether comfortable with the idea of BLW when I started trawling through forums for food ideas and came across a concerning number of posts about choking and the dangers that whole foods can pose. YES I know that babies are ‘supposed’ to be very good at managing the size of food that they swallow, but I was surprised to see how many people seem to have had experiences of choking with their BLW babies. I was also equally surprised to learn that there doesn’t seem to have been a whole lot of research done into whether the claimed benefits of BLW are actually proven – it sounds logical that a baby in control of their own feeding and eating whole foods will be able to regulate their own hunger better and be less fussy but who is to say that this really matters or is actually true? I was puree fed as a baby and am of slim build and will eat absolutely anything!

In the end we have decided that we are going to go with puree – I’m just not comfortable with offering my child a chicken leg and I would hate for her to become deprived of nutrients just because she wasn’t able to feed properly for a couple of months! We are going to compromise slightly though by encouraging her to feed herself as much as possible from day one. We have bought Salmon Luke bowls and Num Num Gootensils to make this as easy for Clara as possible and this at least makes me feel like we are getting some of the pros of each feeding method without too many of the cons. So watch this space, we will find out how well this works out over the coming weeks!!

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