Woe is Weaning

Woe is weaning
Not really
Fascinating new textures
Juicy new tastes
The joys of food
Discovered

Goodbye breastfeeding
Take an emotional bow
You didn’t create our bond
But you were part of the package
Parting ways is harder than I thought
But we’re ready

Woe is weaning
Not true
Embrace your dependence
Drink your milk
From a cup!
Grow

I said I’d breastfeed for 6 months. Then I said I’d carry on. Now I’ve breastfed for a year and as Chris’ gran so tactfully puts it, “the milk bar,” is now closed. I was told the whole stopping feeding thing could get quite emotional but I didn’t really believe it would affect me in that way.  But it kind of has. 

I could see LLC was ready to be weaned (holding her mouth open over my breast as if it was a free flow cup was a hint!) and I felt ready to stop. Still, what I underestimated was my feeling of loss for the lovely mommy and LLC cuddle time that came with breastfeeding in the morning and before bed. The chance of LLC cuddling up to me at these times is now slim to none. She's just too on the go. Of course we have cuddle time and closeness in many other ways, but I did enjoy giving her something natural and good while having a snuggle.  It's a little sad to say goodbye to that.

Still, we’re both ready, so we move on.  Just not without a little wistful moment.

Weaning Wanders

I recently returned to work part-time and my blogging/reading/commenting has been pretty spotty. This frustrates me, because since I finally got on the blogging bandwagon, I’ve really enjoyed the ride. I’ve told myself to set this right, so hopefully you’ll see a bit more from me going forward if I can figure out a way to write and comment regularly without getting lost for hours on the Internet each night while my husband gets irritated at me (and rightfully so). So many do it so I should be able to find a way too, right? But I digress....

We’re on our fourth week of weaning. We started a week shy of 6 months and we’re doing a mix of finger foods and spoon-feeding. I really liked the idea of baby-led weaning but with all the pressure I’ve had about LLC’s weight, I feel more confident knowing that she is ingesting a bit more than she’d do if left completely to her own accord.  I do like the idea of hear learning to chew sooner rather than later though, as well as identifying a carrot versus a sweet potato so we're doing our own variation of the two methods.

This means avoiding really smooth purees and jumping straight into lumpy foods – veg & couscous; salmon, spinach and potato; stewed apple & pear after a week of just fruit, veg and baby rice. When spoon-feeding, she often takes control of the spoon and aims it at (sometimes in) her mouth, though I do all the spoon loading. From my reading on baby-led weaning I learned that the gag reflex on a young baby is fairly far forward in the mouth but it retreats with time; thus by letting her navigate some lumps and bumps and finger foods early, this reflex should kick in and help her gauge the size of food she can swallow, making choking less likely. I really hope so at least. But it’s going well so far and she hasn’t yet snubbed anything (let me live this dream before it’s shattered!).

In terms of finger foods, we’ve tried the likes of roasted vegetables (sweet potato, carrot, pepper, butternut squash), toast with unsalted butter, rice cakes, cheese, cucumber, cantaloupe, apple and pear. She definitely copes best with long, thin, baton-shaped foods that allow her to grab them with her fist and still have a bit poking out on top that she can suck on. She'll do this for a bit, before throwing the lot on the floor and banging on her highchair for more!  Fruit in particular often slips out of her grasp and I'm not sure about the way around this yet.

Naive to each new twist and turn of the parenting journey, I didn’t realize how very very messy this adventure would be. I also didn’t realize how much time organizing and sitting down with LLC for food would take. We’d fallen into a nice rhythm with her milk feeds and now that’s all subject to the dreaded “c” word – change. We operate on a routine of organized chaos, and now that “routine” is starting to shift, leaving me pondering what time I’ll serve her meals, how this will affect the time of milk feeds, what I’ll serve when....ironically I know in my heart a rough routine of sorts will probably start to emerge once she starts to eat more but sometimes it’s hard to shut off the planning part of my head.  But I'm trying.

So what's worked for us so far?

• Investing in an easy to clean highchair, ideally one that doesn't break the bank - We went for a wooden fold up one from John Lewis. It doesn’t recline or adjust in height but it’s small, functional and really easy to get food off of. Since LLC is now 6.5 months she is able to sit up in the chair unaided.  My friend has the £12 plastic one from Ikea and thinks it’s fab, it just doesn’t fold up. 
• Doubling up on bibs – we use a plastic washable bib with a shelf for catching food on top and a cloth bib underneath for absorbing anything that breeches the plastic bib.
• LLC likes to take charge – I’ve taken the view that eating right now is not just about eating but also about exploring and learning so I’m letting her get as involved as I can.  She's happiest when in control. 
• Wiping LLC’s face clean with a warm cloth – this may sound like common sense, but I kept wiping her face off with a baby wipe (got to love them!) and she hated it! My mom suggested a warm washcloth instead and in the spirit of mother’s knowing best, LLC took to that much better.
• Trying to give LLC a variation of what we eat – again in the spirit of baby-led weaning, I’m hoping to avoid making LLC many separate meals and instead am trying to craft her a slight variation of what’s on our plates (though I’m finding this easier said than done sometimes....)

Now I need your top tips on weaning please. What foods worked best? Did you pre-plan special baby meals or just give your little ones a variation of your own dinner? How do you get the stains out? What will make this adventure all the sweeter for us?!

(I'm on the wrong computer now, but I'll post some of our weaning wanders tomorrow.....)

Now I'm on a roll, and not a good one...

It’s refreshing/comforting to hear parents admit that we do make mistakes.

Thanks for all the support I had following LLC’s bed rolling incident; in fact, the post inspired a post by Expat Mum and led me to similar past confessions from Marketing to Milk.

We’re only human, after all. But after my latest parenting booboo, I felt plain stupid and frustrated with myself.

I fed LLC some honey. Of all the motley weaning advice out there, honey under one year is an established and universal no-no. Having just finished my breakfast of Greek yogurt, fruit and honey, I put the tiniest remnant of yogurt on my spoon and let her have a lick (I've just started baby led weaning). It only struck me several hours later that there had been honey in that bowl. Immediately I was on the Internet, looking up symptoms of Infant Botulism.

Thanks to Chris & my dear MO, both of whom stopped me getting wound up in the wake of this discovery and convinced me not to panic, that LLC had probably not even ingested any honey and that if she had, it would have been only a minimal trace. I realize that infant botulism is quite rare, but this is still no excuse to tempt fate.

It was an accident and one I am, this time, confident I won’t repeat. With all the weaning advice I’ve read and discussed of late, I’m not sure how I overlooked this. Perhaps information overload clouded my view of the basics? Sigh.

This happened last week and LLC appears fighting fit so fingers so hopefully this incident will be a non-issue. I guess no matter how hard you try as a parent, sometimes you still slip up....