Weaning off the baby is a big milestone and I am sure that just like me, every mother must be very excited about it. We make a lot of plans. We imagine our baby to be eating all the healthy options that we would be offering him. But does that happen? Well, it did not happen with me. My daughter turned out to be a terrible eater and gave me a very hard time. After years, I revisit and try to contemplate what went wrong. And now I realize that I actually made a few mistakes that might have led to this. So, here, I am sharing the mistakes I did while weaning off my first child, and that I would never repeat with my second. This is the first article in your baby led weaning guide. More will come as I move forward in my baby led weaning (BLW) journey.
1. Giving Puree always (instead of hand mashed)
Thinking that my baby is too young, and giving food in pureed form will let her eat more, was my first mistake.
The food should be given in hand mashed form, so that the baby feels the texture of the food and gets acquainted with it. The baby will develop an inclination towards the food only when he knows his food, when he explores his food.
P.S. few foods need to be pureed and not just mashed. For example, grapes, or peas. With hand mashing, the peel will remain intact which might stick in baby’s throat. This point needs to be kept in mind when the baby is too young.
2. Trying to avoid the mess
I tried to make it easy by preventing any mess. “Just feed the baby pureed food with a spoon, and that’s it, done, no mess,” this is what I thought. But this was a mistake. Let the baby touch and feel his food (for the same reason above). Let him create the mess. Mess can be managed, but the baby needs to feel, touch and smell his food to be able to like it.
3. Not trusting my baby’s hunger cues
I myself decided how much my baby should eat, and I was adamant to make her eat that much. I should have trusted her when she signaled that she did not want to eat more.
4. Force feeding
Yes. I am guilty of doing this. My mistake was forcing her to eat even when she did not want to. I guess this has led to her hating food and her meal time.
5. Not encouraging Baby Led Weaning
I never tried baby led weaning with my baby. I believed it’s easy and quick to feed my baby myself. We mothers often fail to understand that the purpose of baby led weaning is not to lessen our responsibility of feeding the baby, it’s important because that way the baby becomes a better eater. Ideally, it should be a balance between traditional weaning and baby led weaning. But I never thought of anything other than traditional feeding.
6. Underestimating the role of High Chair
Again, I thought what’s the need of a high chair. The baby can simply sit on sofa and eat. But it does not happen that way. High chair, kept with the dining table, helps the baby understand that it’s meal time and I too have to eat like everybody else at the table is eating.
7. Giving Cerelac (marketed packed foods)
Is cerelac a mistake? Yes it is. Cerelac is a processed food, and no processed food can be completely healthy. It contains chemicals like preservatives. And even if it contains a few healthy ingredients, their nutrition is lost during the processing. No matter how healthy a product claims to be, if you analyze it’s risk to benefit ratio, it is always a bad idea. And I knew it always. Still I gave it to my child, because as I said she was a terrible eater, I just wanted to try everything, I just wanted her to eat something, and in that desperation, I gave her processed foods. But I definitely won’t repeat this mistake with my second child.
By the way, if you are planning to give home made cerelac, do read this article first: Is Home Made Cerelac actually good?
8. Distraction feeding
My desperation to feed my child also made me try distraction feeding. I gave her screen after she turned one and half years old. And honestly, that helped. She ate while watching screen. But soon I realized it is wrong. Then I told her that she would get screen for 15 minutes after she finishes food. Thankfully, she agreed. By that time, she had turned two. Then onwards, she started eating, and then got 15-20 minutes of screen time. Then I reduced the screen time to only once a day (for 20 minutes). So this is how it went. Luckily, I could control the damage. But giving screen time to feed the baby is a blunder, that I did.
Distraction feeding does not let the baby interact with the food. He would not know his food; he would never enjoy his food. I understand it’s difficult, but giving screen should never be an escape.
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So these are the mistakes that I did with my first child. And my second has just turned 6 months old, and I would not repeat any of these mistakes now.
I will keep sharing my journey with you. So if you want, you can join me on my Instagram page for daily updates and quick tips. You can also follow the Facebook Page to be notified of more such articles in future.
Come back for more articles in the Baby led weaning guide and concerns related to babies. Bye bye until next time.
Also Read
Baby turned 6 months? Do NOT give these Foods
List of Foods for 6+ months old babies
