Assume the Perpendicular

I don’t think it would be too confusing to do a bit of both. I was actually going to mention that in  my last reply, but I forgot. 

This morning I looked back through the Baby Led Weaning book to see what they suggested. They mention that spoon feeding uses different parts of the mouth, since babies learn to suck food off of the spoon rather than chew it, but I don’t see why a baby couldn’t suck food from a spoon while also learning to chew on a piece of carrot. The book says that spoon feeding isn’t really “bad” so much as unnecessary, but if you like doing it or see utility in it, I say go for it. It makes sense that a baby could get both the calories of spoon feeding and the learning experience of Baby Led Weaning.

One distinction between Baby Led Weaning and spoon feeding is that spoon feeding often begins at 4 months, and Baby Led Weaning really needs to wait until at least 6 months. Since you are giving babies big chunks of food, it is imperative that they be able to sit up well without back support and have a good amount of trunk strength, because in the inevitable gagging phase at the beginning they need to be able to lean forward to help them spit the food out of their mouths. But then again, most pediatricians recommend waiting for solids until after 6 months these days anyway.

Baby Led Weaning, according to the book, doesn’t use any sort of time table for food introductions. The authors say to just start giving a little bit of everything right from the start (meaning 6 months+), so Eleanor has already had meat. I’ve given her rolled up slices of nitrate free deli turkey, bits of hamburger, roasted chicken, and steak. She mostly just sucks the juices out of them since they are too tough for her to bite. You just have to be wary of the sodium intake from meats since sodium is hard on babies’ kidneys. 

Eleanor is pretty average sized. She weighed 18 lbs. at her 6 month well baby check-up, and right now at 7.5 months she is wearing a mix of 6 month, 9 month, and 6-12 month sized clothes. She still fits really well in the medium sized Gs. I saw your post about wondering about moving up to the larges, and I’d say it certainly wouldn’t hurt to buy a few large size gPants. The good thing is that you won’t have to buy any additional liners or cloth inserts, so the price won’t be too terrible. I’d hold on to your mediums for a while instead of selling them, just in case Mo slims down a lot when she starts to get more mobile and they fit again.