Feeding Miss Madison

I thought I would write about how I am choosing to feed my now 8 month old. I am sure some people think I have lost my damn mind. And others are going sit there with their mouths hanging open in absolute disbelief.

First things first...I purposely chose to wait until Madison was 6 months old before starting any solid food. Our pediatrician had suggested that we start cereal at 4 months and I told him "um...no". I had done some research and many of the new recommendations are to wait until 6 months because that is when a baby's digestive tract becomes mature enough for food. So in all this research I happened upon a school-of-thought (Baby Led Weaning or BLW). I read and read and read some more until I knew that it was definitely how I wanted to handle food with Madison. The basic gist is that you offer healthy food...usually whatever you are having...and let your baby feed themselves. No jar food...no mushy baby cereal. So we were off....

Madison's first food was bananas. She was not really sure what she was supposed to do and boy were they slippery! But she did try to put some in her mouth. It was awesome to see my tiny little girl eat big people food. Just a couple of days later we went back to the pedi...and he was really pushing at least some baby cereal because of the extra iron. And while most babies do not need the extra iron...that is not the case with preemies. They kind of miss out on all the benefits of the 3rd trimester and end of pregnancy when thy get all the minerals and whatnot. So I decided to give her baby oatmeal in the mornings. But I was going to do it my way. We mixed about 1/2 a jar of pureed fruits in with the cereal and kept it on the thicker side. Of course I used a spoon but I let her help if she wanted to. This means that she gets oatmeal everywhere. LOL!

This has evolved into a combination of both feeding worlds. We still do some BLW...mostly at lunch and dinner...but we also use jar baby food. I am pretty laidback about what Madison eats. I let her try just about anything with a few exceptions. And for the most part there is almost nothing she does not like...so far carrots have been the only no go. She has had Indian food, Chinese food and even enchiladas! She loves flavor and a little spice. If something is bland she will spit it out. She truly is our daughter because we love food!