Miss Scarlett is Seven Months Old!

Today Miss Scarlett is seven months old!

So, what is she up to lately, you ask?

She really likes to sit up, and doesn't fall over much.  Sometimes it seems like she's making the movements to start crawling, but really ... she just enjoys rolling all over the place at this point.

She's been in the nursery at church on Saturday evenings for a few weeks now, and is doing really well.

Scarlett gets the biggest kick out of Christian, whose newest goal in life is to make is baby sister laugh.  He really had her going the other day (and though he was a bit too loud and crazy, in my opinion, Scarlett enjoyed it!).

Scarlett STILL isn't into eating  baby food.  At best, we can get a few partial spoonfuls into her mouth, but she very quickly loses interest and starts to protest.  Today she seemed to enjoy this new food better than some of the other food we've been feeding her.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, according to the "Baby Led Weaning" theory I've found, infants can eat the same food we adults eat.  Here's an unofficial description:

The basic concept is that if you eat healthy things the baby can actually eat them too (at 6+ months old) – and feed him or herself, so you can all eat together as a family (which is a novel idea after months spent switching off with the baby so nobody in the house eats together). Apparently it’s popular in many areas of Europe. There are no jars of baby food. And no homemade purees. And no spooning things into the little man/lady’s mouth. Just the same healthy food that adults eat prepared in a way that many 6+ olds can handle, which is then set on their tray and they go to town.

 the general belief is that at six months old many babies have the capacity to feed themselves, and if the item is soft enough (ex: small pieces of steamed veggies like tiny broken up broccoli florets that are very soft, chunks of banana that they can nibble on, soft overcooked spaghetti, etc) there shouldn’t be an issue with choking or being unable to chew things since a baby is programmed to masticate and swallow at that age (of course you always need to be right there as they eat, supervising as you would during any other feeding experience). The potential pluses are:

• You can eat as a family instead of someone having to spoon-feed the baby while others eat
• Your child may be a more adventurous eater because they control intake and think of it as a fun activity
• You don’t have to puree things (or buy jars of baby food) so the baby can eat whatever you’re having for dinner (tailored to work for them of course, perhaps without a lot of spices/herbs and steamed a bit longer so it’s softer)
• Your baby won’t have issues with gagging or chewing later on when you segue from purees to more solid foods because they learn to chew food thoroughly from day one instead of just swallowing blended foods
• Hand-eye coordination can be honed/improved due to learning how to use a pincher grip and get things into their own mouth

In fact, this weekend a friend of mine shared that none of her kiddos (age 4 to 1 year) have eaten baby food.  They've always eaten what she eats, just cut up into small pieces.  So there is a real-life example of how it works!

So ... I'll buy the book (because that is how I am - I need to have a book about things).  I've already tried doing this with banana chunks.  And she grabbed them and brought them to her mouth ... so maybe there's something to it after all! :)   And maybe - just maybe - doing this type of feeding will help Scarlett to become a far better eater than Christian is to this day.