Jocelynn's follow up/BLW

Took Jocelynn today to the Pedi for a follow up for the RSV. Dr. said everything looks good, she weighs 13 lbs 3oz, 23 in. long! He said she is good on the growth charts. She still has a bit of a cough he said to give her the breathing treatments "as needed" if she is coughing a bunch.

I've been looking into what we are going to do when Jocelynn turns 6 months and is ready for other foods. Been looking at baby led weaning.

Baby-led weaning (often also referred to as BLW) is a method of gradually weaning a baby from a milk diet onto solid foods. It allows a baby to control his solid food intake by self-feeding from the very beginning of the weaning process.

Infants are offered a range of foods to provide a balanced diet from around 6 months. They often begin by picking up and licking the food, before progressing to eating. Babies typically begin self feeding around 6 months, although some will reach for food as early as 5 months and some will wait until 7 or 8. The intention of this process is that it is tailored to suit each particular baby and their personal development. The 6 month guideline provided by the World Health Organisation is based on research indicating the internal digestive system matures over the period 4-6 months. It seems reasonable to posit that the gut matures in tandem with the baby's external faculties to self feed.

Initial self-feeding attempts often result in very little food ingested as the baby explores textures and tastes, but the baby will soon start to swallow and digest what is offered. Breastfeeding is continued in conjunction with weaning and milk is always offered before solids in the first 12 months. Although breastfeeding is the ideal precursor to baby led weaning (as the baby has been exposed to different flavours via its mother's breast milk and the jaw action used during breastfeeding helps the baby learn to chew), it is also entirely possible to introduce a bottle-fed baby to solids using the BLW method. Bottle-fed babies can successfully wean using BLW, although it may take a little longer for the baby to get used to flavors and develop the ability to chew.

Although I don't think the process as a whole is right for me, I think I will be using some of the practices of BLW but still introduce purees.