Again a day behind. Will I ever catch up? Wrote this yesterday, never got to post it:

There will be no mention of “Sleep Bootcamp” today. None whatsoever. I won’t be talking about how amazing my little boy is at falling asleep by himself now or how he had another really good night and gave me a lie-in til the ridiculously late hour of 7.30 am. Or that there was just one feed in eleven hours. None of that.

I mean there must be something interesting I can share besides how many hours my baby slept for. How about the amount of porridge he managed to eat today? Would that do?

I mean the mess it created alone (literally lumps of soggy gooey oatmeal in every crease and surface area within a two mile radius) is quite extraordinary. But that’s the thing when you attempt baby-led weaning, aka, letting baby learn to feed itself, aka, complete and utter chaos.

The thing with this way of introducing solids is that not only do you let the child try to feed himself you also allow them to try foods other than just pureed carrot; you give them actual solids, ones that are safe enough for them to bite off and chew (and usually spit out!). They say that allowing babies to have more interesting foods than just pureed mush has all sorts of benefits, from improved motor skills to being better eaters as young kids to improved speech.

Here’s hoping, because baby-led weaning is not for the faint-hearted, certainly not with porridge. From Bowie grabbing the spoon by the part with all the porridge in it, to flinging said spoon half-way across the kitchen, to ramming the porridge-filled spoon into his cheek/eye/nose/ear (basically anywhere but his mouth) to finally sticking it in his mouth the wrong way round… you can see why it might get a little messy.

The steamed cauliflower wasn’t so bad – a lot easier to clean up given our sweet little shetland sheepdog quite likes it. The odd bit of bread is another good one, although it gets rather soggy and sticky by the time he’s ready to fling it across the room. Mushy lentil curry (minus the salt and most of the spices) isn’t too bad, until he catches the spoon in his mouth and flicks it at your Aunt’s face during dinner. (Note to self: perhaps don’t let feed baby himself when there’s company at the table.)

But there’s one that definitely took the biscuit for mess and far-reaching consequences. Beetroot (boiled of course). He loved it. He held the large piece in his pudgy hands and sucked on it like it was a straw. Cute! Yeah, cute until he decided to jam it in his eye, squish it on his leg, throw it across the table and remind his Mum just how hard it is to get rid of beetroot stains.

So there you have it. I have a feeling I may have bombarded Bowie’s poor little digestive tract recently with such a wide variety of foods, so I’ll be keeping it simpler for the next while but so far, he’s doing great. Taking it all in his stride and, well, not eating much of anything – you’re lucky if he manages to get half of it in his mouth, never mind keep it there.

There’s a saying though:

Food before one is just for fun.

And it is fun! Fun watching him figuring things out, learning to swallow and discovering new tastes. Fun cleaning up afterwards? Not so much. But hey, you win some, you lose some, right?!

Ciao darlings!

Liz