As with his older brother, we decided to introduce Baby J to solid food around 6 months old. And once again we decided to follow the baby-led method of weaning. Although we hoped J would choose something healthier than pizza as his first food, which is what N chose!
J usually sat on my lap while I ate and as we approached 6 months old he began to reach for things on my plate. I let him take some of my food to see what he would do with it. Nothing actually reached his mouth though. He would hit it, wave it about, throw it. Anything but eat it. Which was fine by us!
Two days before he turned 6 months old, we went to my friend’s little boy’s first birthday party. As always, J was sitting on my lap while I sat down to eat. I had chosen egg sandwiches, cucumber sticks, houmous and grapes. I was well aware that any day now J might decide to eat something so I was very conscious of choosing food that would also be suitable first food for a baby!
As I began to eat, J made a grab for my plate. I let him take a cucumber stick, thinking that would keep him amused while I ate. My friend came over to sit down and as she did said, “ooh, so you’ve started weaning then?”
I looked down to see J merrily chomping away on his stick of cucumber! He had gnawed away most of the juicy flesh and was chewing on the cucumber skin. Yep, he was definitely eating it!
So at the age of 5 months and 28 days old J chose to begin his baby-led weaning journey. With a VERY healthy stick of cucumber! Hurrah!
