The McMurray Life: baby led weaning

I knew I wanted to do BLW (baby led weaning) once I heard about it, long before we were even pregnant. cody and I love eating healthy food, try to avoid much processed food, and want to try our hardest to not have a picky eater (since we are far from picky and we've seen way too many picky eaters)

what is baby led weaning? introducing foods in their actual form to

infants so they can learn what food feels like and looks like, they're

able to learn to grab and pick up and transfer to their mouth

independently. the weaning part is because they wean off nursing by

eating how much they want.

I was SO excited to get started on Evynn's half birthday, i took things slow-introducing 1 food at a time for a few days, then introducing one more... we did straight up food (a half of a banana, a slice of avocado) so she could hold the whole thing and nibble off bites, and then also made mashes and purees for her babysitter with the same foods (to make it less messy). because if we're honest, when Ev holds it and is in charge, much of it ends up on the floor

Now its been 2 months and some days BLW meal planning is easy, avocados for us with tacos, avocado slice for you! other days I'm scrambling to decide what she can eat.. some things aren't soft enough, some things you're supposed to be cautious with, some things I just straight up don't think my baby is ready for! However, I know my 8 month old will be a 1 year old, like, tomorrow and so I need to toughen up and introduce more textures and flavors.

another issue, Ev still has NO teeth! it hasn't bothered her too much, she gums or sucks on anything to get it soft enough, but it still scares me when giving food. I'm weary to introduce meats (until her Dr says so) for this reason.

french toast sticks

broccoli

sweet potato rounds and banana bites

we haven't done strict btw like I mentioned above, we do purees/mashes for her babysitter, and food pouches when going out to eat (until we get better at eating, then we'll just feed her off our plate).

pros of BLW:

it's cheaper! as inexpensive as a 79 cent jar of babyhood costs at the store, I have to say that a single sweet potato or a whole bunch of bananas stills beats the cost

its healthier obviously! we just give her the organic produce that we already have at our house.we know what she is eating is a pure and it can be. have you looked at the ingredients in a jar of babyhood.... 'nuff said.

it's teaching her textures/motor skills as mentioned above, allowing her to grab, pick up, and put in her mouth her own food is teaching her what avocados feel like vs. broccoli and so on. she's able to know to open her hands wide to pick up a whole banana vs using her pincer grasp for little pea.

what we've tried: liked vs. ~~disliked~~

sweet potatoes

avocado

banana

~~carrots~~

zucchini

~~yellow squash~~

egg yolk

brocoli

peas

pears

blueberries

mangos

yogurt

green beans

french toast
black beans
strawberries
raspberries

mommy and me meal ideas:
so now that i'm trying to get creative on what to feed her, it just makes sense that i match our meals together to make cooking a lot easier... so here's some ideas:

baby: ezekiel bread sticks sans crust made french toast with just egg yolk in butter, homemade organic apple sauce from the day before

mom: french toast with the egg whites, bacon

baby: egg yolk scrambled eggs with a bit of breastmilk, pear slices sans skin

mom: scrambled egg whites, bacon, other half of pear

(we just happen to have bacon on hand, I really don't eat it everyday)

egg is an allergen, so we've been very cautious giving eggs and monitoring for signs of reaction-none so far!

baby: roasted sweet potatoes slices with the skin removed, bites of black bean burgers, avocado slices

us: black bean burgers (black beans, garlic, eggs, bread crumbs) on ezekiel buns, with avocado slices and siracha mayo with sweet potato slices on the side