So your baby is around six months old and you are looking to begin baby led weaning - here are a few things to consider...
1. Your baby might not be ready by 6 months - on their 'half birthday' they will not arch their back and spew a rainbow whilst shitting butterflies to alert you of their readiness to recieve solid food stuffs. If, like me, you don't have X-Ray vision, you won't be able to visually tell if their gut is ready, so you'll just have to wing it.
2. If this is your first time you might think it's a great idea to neatly present food to your little cherub on a plate in haute cuisine style - this is a mistake. The plate will be launched at you.
3. You'll probably start with 'something less messy'- like toast, only to discover that toast is very messy and is welded into your baby's hair.
4. You might feel that you have to sit on your hands the first few weeks as the food is studied by the child. They may or may not put it in their mouth - if they do it'll be in slow motion, accompanied by danger music, you'll be like a coiled spring waiting to assist if needed. They will be fine.
5. Your baby will take to feeding the floor. Every meal time. They may manage to eat something themselves, but you won't be able to tell. You'll stand and scratch your head looking for the third carrot baton that's evaporated either a. Into your baby or b. Has became part of your house.
6. This is a great time to consider getting a dog if you don't have one already. If you do have one, you might want to consider throwing them an extra walk 👍🏻
7. Stock up on baby wipes, you'll use twice as many now. The clean up operation could take up half a pack some days and of course, by now you use them to clean the whole house anyway.
8. Occasionally you will have to deploy an after dinner bath - no amount of wipes are enough for some meals.
9. When out you'll probably sit perusing the menu, trying to figure out what will be the least messy food, as you will have to crawl around to retreave the kind donations your baby has made to the floor.
10. You'll worry about when to introduce cutlery, as your baby will eat with their hands and as a result you've been told they'll never be able to use it - of course they will, silly. When they're about two. You've got ages of 'pasta hands' wanting to touch everything in the house to look forward to.
11. Poo - oh my word the poo! If ever there was a reason to wait to wean - this is it 😷
It's messy, but it's great fun. It's fab for hand/eye coordination, play time for your baby and super lazy for you. Win win. It's also a great time to start drinking rum.
Where are the wipes....
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