Hello there! Hope Thursday is going superb for you. It’s my extra fun and busy day with many classes to teach. Today I’m joining in on Munchkin Meals with Brittany from A Healthy Slice of Life. I wanted to talk about baby-led weaning for toddlers versus babies. But first, I just have to give a shout out to Brittany. She just released the book A Mom’s Practical Guide to Baby-Led Weaning.
I am so excited for her! First off, I think it’s going to be a well used and much needed book for parents interested in baby-led weaning. Now that I’ve been doing the whole BLW thing for a while, it’s much easier, but for first time moms beginning to feed their kids it would be a super helpful resource. Heck, I’m sure there are things in it that I would totally use and benefit to read about now too. It’s going on my must read list and I can’t wait to get my hands on it. Congrats to you Brittany!
Now onto toddler versus baby feeding.
Since Hunter is 2.5 years old, I really don’t call his eating baby-led weaning. He’s fully weaned and really it should just be called eating, cause that’s what it is. He is still a wonderful eater (as he always has been). He eats fruit, veggies, meats, breads, grains, nuts, seeds, drinks whatever he can get his hands on (which is usually just water) and is normally willing to try new foods. His favorite meal is breakfast. That boy puts so much food down. More recently he’s been eating crunchier foods like seeds and nuts.
Also more recently he’s been voicing his opinions more about food. He is getting somewhat pickier, but honestly I think it’s more of a control thing. Sometimes he’ll say he doesn’t like something before even trying it, Jacob or I will get him to try it, then he says ‘that’s good!’. I don’t make him eat everything, but I do make him at least try a bit because normally he’ll eat more of it. He eats breakfast, a snack mid morning, lunch, maybe an afternoon snack, then dinner. Dinner is always when we have the most challenge, but I try and look at the balanced day.
Zoe is 11 months old and devours everything. She LOVES food. Sometimes she even eats more than Hunter. Actually, pretty much every dinner she eats more food than Hunter. This girl loves dinner and eats so much that I’m sure her stomach is just about to explode when she finishes. Since she still has no teeth everything needs to be gummable. I feed her mostly soft foods of whatever we are eating. If I’m giving her something that’s not very soft (like bell peppers) I chop them up into small pieces.
She is at the stage of throwing food, but it’s only when she doesn’t like things, or she’s just over eating them. Last night we had tofu, udon noodles in peanut sauce, sauted kale, pear and black beans. She shoveled everything into her mouth, but then once she wasn’t as hungry, she would pick and choose what she really wanted and anytime tofu was back in front of her she would just chuck it.
She eats everything with her hands and is insanely messy. The hardest part right now is eating away from home and trying to keep her mess under control. Thankfully almost all meals are at the table. Zoe eats breakfast + nurses, lunch, an afternoon snack + nurses, dinner and then nurses before bed. I’ve been working hard to cut her nursing down from about 6 to 3 times this last month. She loves food and also loves to nurse. I’m glad she is such a great eater! I feel so blessed by our great eaters, but I also believe in the baby-led weaning approach.
More of my previous baby-led weaning posts here:
Baby-led weaning Zoe at 7 months
What feeding stage (or stages) are you in? What areas are easier or harder? What are some of your kid’s new favorite foods right now?
Hunter has been loving walnuts, almonds and we just made some almond crackers he (and I) really, really like. Zoe turns nothing down, but she recently tried wheat berries and sauted mushrooms and could not get enough of them.
Heather
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