Week 4
Our suspicions from last week were right and Rosie now has two bottom teeth. Teething can really upset the baby led weaning process sometimes causing a disinterest in food. Before the teeth arrive the gums and mouth can be very sore and trying to eat solid food can be painful. Sometimes a baby will prefer to take pureed food as they can suck it to the back of their throat without having to break the food down with the tender gums. If you think your baby may be teething and they are losing interest in the usual food you are giving them you can always use mashed or pureed foods loaded on to the spoon for them to feed themselves. Do not be tempted to opt for spoon feeding as you will disrupt the progress you have made with baby led weaning.
This week Rosie had her first outing to a restaurant. On this occasion we took a small packed lunch for her as sometimes she just isn’t that bothered at lunchtime. Our toddler thoroughly enjoyed the bread dipped in olive oil and balsamic vinegar and had great fun picking up olives with the tooth picks! One of the biggest problems with eating out with a baby this young is that most of the high chairs used in restaurants are the wooden ones without a tray. The high chair itself is fine but without a tray or proper access to the table top most of the food ends up on the floor! This is very frustrating when you have a limited food supply with you. This problem is soon overcome when the baby gets better at handling the food so don’t let this out you off eating out.
Rosie has still been suffering with constipation this week but in the last couple of days (and ironically since her teeth have appeared) she has been passing a more normal stool. She is still waking up at night and there is no pattern to the times at all so when we go to bed we never know if she is going to wake up 2 hours later or 7 hours later. It’s very frustrating but is a normal part of demand feeding!
Today Rosie has eaten a huge amount of food. For the first time today she has swallowed the majority of the food she tried including chicken strips. Her favourite food this week (it does change) includes broccoli, yoghurt, sweet potato and cherry tomatoes. Last week she really enjoyed kiwi but this week she has pretty much ignored it. Another food that she just will not entertain is egg. Some babies will avoid foods that they are allergic to, almost ignoring that they exist on the tray. This is exactly what she has been doing with egg. It’s been served as an omelette, poached, hard boiled, scrambled and soft boiled and yet she is refusing to even touch it!
Her breast feeds continue as the previous week with 3-4 feeds during the day plus one at bedtime and one in the night.
If you are interested in baby led weaning then why not check out our Happy Little Eaters courses. The next one starts on 28th June.