First Foods - 23wks+4days

These first posts are going to be retrospective as we started weaning our little Baby Bean on September 19th, exactly 1 calendar month ago, but the journey has already been so extraordinary an experience that I've come to feel the need to write about it!

So here goes......

I'd always planned on waiting the specified 26weeks before starting solids, but in week 20 the first tooth emerged; week 21 Bean suddenly sat all by herself, and in week 22 she stopped sticking her tongue out the moment something touched her lips. She still wasn't grabbing for food, but she wanted to be sat at the table, she watched us intently and anything she did get her hands on went unerringly into her mouth!

So on September 19th I had the "talk" with my husband about whether she was Ready! We agreed we should wait a little bit longer......and then my resolve crumbled and I admitted that I really really wanted to try her with something!

So....despite being pro-baby led weaning we did what so many first time parents did and reached for the baby rice. We started making it up as per the box instructions - 1 spoon of rice to 10 spoons of breastmilk. But by the 8th spoon it was as liquid as plain milk so I stopped there and took the pot into the living room where Bean sat, with her Dad, in her Bumbo. As she saw the spoon and the (vaguely thick) milk she got VERY excited, grabbing at the pot and spoon! It was so cool!!!! My baby wanted to eat!!!!

And eat she did. The whole tub was swallowed and we swelled with pride. It may have just been like milk, but she drank it from a spoon (this is a baby who's all about the boob) and most of it stayed in her mouth! Woo hoo!!!

And so began our journey, with bland, safe baby rice. To be fair, I'd spent the first 5months of her life dairy-free so was a little anxious about anything new coming into her diet; and I didn't know what I know now about how nutritionally poor baby rice is (see 9 Good Reasons Not To Use Baby Rice). Plus we were going away that weekend and I thought that this wouldn't put an additional burden on our host and we could serve it thicker and thicker each day.

So that night we went to bed full of joy that weaning had Begun. And we slept......for 8 whole hours!!!