Guest Post Week: This crazy thing called food!

(My name is Deborah and I am married to Stefan and we have a beautiful 1 year daughter named Capri. We are Bible College graduates with a heart for ministry. We plan on letting Capri experience the world by whatever means we can. We cloth diaper, baby wear, breastfeed and co-sleep [at times]. )
Note~you can read about Deborah's parenting adventures at www.deborahruth42.wordpress.com

When my daughter Capri was born I had the great idea that I would make all my own baby food. It is way cheaper and more healthy so why not?! As I started doing more research I found an interesting concept in feeding your baby, it is called Baby led Weaning (BLW). What this means is that you give your baby control of what they eat and you do not spoon feed them. They start out with real solids (not pureed solids), and they get to decide what and how much they will eat.


One of the big reasons behind this concept is that when a baby is given purees they learn to swallow and later learn to chew which can bring up many issues with young children. These issues make it hard for kids to try new textures and can actually pose a higher choking factor. With BLW your child learns to chew and learns textures in their mouth and later learns to swallow. The rule of thumb with BLW is “food before 1 is just for fun” because your child will be getting their nutrients from breast milk or formula.

We started giving Capri food just around her 6 month birthday. She started off with toast and since that time has eaten whatever food we put in front of her. She loves steak, chicken, all kinds of vegetables, bread, cheese, fruits and whatever else she can get her hands on. She has a very healthy appetite and swallows pretty much everything that goes into her mouth now (food wise).

One of the big concerns with BLW is choking; it scares a lot of people. While the great thing with babies is that God gave them an amazing gag reflex. So when they swallow a piece that is too big they will start coughing (this is gagging not choking) and they will bring it to the front of their mouth and either spit it out or chew it up again. Choking is when air can no longer get into your lungs, many of us adults have gagged on food and we just cough it up. But it is always important for any parent doing any feeding style to know how to do infant CPR.