Baby Led Weaning Rosie at 11 months

 

11 Months Old

Rosie has recovered from her illness and as expected is back to normal eating and sleeping through the night. Hurray! She has now dropped her breast feeds to one in the morning and then one at bedtime. Very occasionally she may wake around 4am for an additional feed but this has probably only happened two or three times in the month. I still haven’t had the opportunity to weigh her properly although on the house scales she is just over 1 ½ stone. Most of her clothes are 9-12 months and are starting to look a little small.

Last week she cut a couple more teeth so she now has six at the top (not in a row) and two at the bottom. Both of my children seem to cut their teeth with a cold and cough so as you can imagine it’s all been fun and games in our house. If your baby has teeth please make sure that you get in to the habit of cleaning them. We use an excellent product that Rosie can use herself. It’s called the brush baby teether and is sold in John Lewis and Waitrose (you also get these on Amazon).

Baby Teether Brush

As you know all babies develop at different times but it can be frustrating when everyone else’s baby is doing things that yours can’t do. Rosie has been very static for quite some time. She is perfectly happy to just sit and observe everything and everyone around her. Her brother was crawling at 8 months but didn’t decide to walk until he was 16 months old. Rosie is currently showing no signs of wanting to crawl or pull herself up. She does however like to roll over and much prefers to sleep on her front. I expect that when she does finally crawl she will not do so for long before she gets up and walks. If you have more than one child you will understand that I am perfectly happy for her to be immobile for as long as she likes!

This past month we have attended the Paralympics with our children and this is where baby led weaning really comes in to its own. Eating out with a BLW baby is so easy. Rosie is now able to eat pretty much anything including a whole apple. On the way back from our day out we stopped at Bluewater and had a lovely meal in Wagamamas. Both my children are used to eating all sorts of foods from different cultures and spicy foods are no different. Rosie thoroughly enjoyed her food at Wagamamas and as always attracted plenty of attention for her excellent eating skills at such a young age.

Rosie enjoying her meal out at Wagamamas!

When your baby gets to this age (11 months) they will be eating so well and with ease that you often forget how young they actually are. Those on the pureed food route will be desperately trying to get some lumps in to their food at this stage but those on the BLW route will be eating anything and everything (usually with their hands or spoon).

It’s a good idea at this age to start introducing a plate or bowl instead of putting the food directly on the tray. The idea is to start thinking about moving your baby from using the tray on the high chair to eating from the main table. If you are using a high chair like the Ikea one or the Trip Trap then you can easily remove the tray and sit the baby directly up to the table. You can start by laying a place for them at the table with cutlery so that they can see themselves being incorporated in the family dining environment.

Another thing to watch out for at this stage is complacency. Make sure that you have plenty of variety in your meals and try not to let salty or processed foods creep in. Until your baby is 1 year old their maximum salt intake should be no more than 1g a day (a slice of bread contains nearly 1/2g on its own). Keep an eye on the dotting Grandparents as well as they will desperately want to treat their Grandchild with food treats (especially one that eats so well). Try not to just stick to the foods that you know your baby will eat, keep trying new recipes and foods to keep both you and your baby interested. Fussy eating starts to creep in when parents let their children have what they like in order to have an easy life. Believe me, in the long run this is NOT an easy life!!

For more information about baby led weaning and nutrition please visit our Spring Nutrition website. Our next BLW course is due to start on Thursday 15th November 2012.