Baby Led Solids: Research & Experiments

Baby Led Solids: Research & Experiments

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Lessons Learned


Some random thoughts for you on the topic of baby-led solids:
  • In case there were any doubts, our pediatrician confirmed that Buttercup is doing just fine with baby-led solids. At her 9 month appointment her weight gain proved to be consistent, and she is healthy. The interesting thing to me is that her fine motor skills were more developed than most babies her age. I definitely think this is because she feeds herself. Food is a great motivator.
  • One of the questions I hear regularly is, "how can my baby eat table food if she doesn't have teeth?" My response is, "you have obviously never been bitten by baby gums." Buttercup is still toothless and still happily chomping away at her food. If babies really needed teeth to chew their food, it would stand to reason that they would get their molars first rather than last. Those little bitty front teeth that babies get first are useless for actually grinding food down. 
So, be encouraged - baby-led solids is healthy for your baby and makes sense!

4 comments:

  1. YAYYY Buttercup! I am a bit excited for Lainey's 9 month appt coming up in December to see how she is growing (looks just fine to me but you know how we need that confirmation from our docs haha). I have a question do you now cut Buttercup's meat into bit size hunks etc? Lainey is 8 months today and I just started wondering when I should stop giving her huge hunks to tackle and move onto bite size hunks instead....thanks Charisma!

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  2. Hey there!
    I guess I do give Buttercup smaller chunks of meat now. I didn't really think much about doing it on purpose - it just happened. If I give her huge hunks now, she'll try to stuff the whole thing in her mouth, then spit out the excess. CLASSY! So, yeah, everything is pretty much bite-sized now. A bit more work, but whatever... It's still easier than spooning puree into her face, right? HA HA!

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  3. Cool thanks! Also do you find Buttercup storing food in her cheeks? Lainey has been doing this a lot lately with meat and egg and then she gets fussy wanting out of her chair...I sit and try to get her to say "ahhh" and have her take sips of water etc...but it usually still results in me digging it out! Maybe once I switch to more bite sized chunks she won't do this as much LOL

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  4. She used to do that. I mentioned it in a couple of previous "Lessons Learned":

    http://baby-led-solids.blogspot.com/2010/07/lessons-learned-so-far.html

    and

    http://baby-led-solids.blogspot.com/2010/09/lessons-learned_05.html

    Maybe Lainey is fussing BECAUSE she has food stuck in her mouth? That's what Buttercup used to do. I haven't noticed her doing it in awhile, though, so maybe it's a phase?

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