Mama in the City

The other week I popped into my work for something (note: I still have nearly 4 more months off work!!!) and ended up having lots of lovely hellos with friends and Josie had many baby cuddling sessions too. These coworkers of mine really do love babies! One of my pediatrician friends, who also happened to attend both of my births, read my original blog post about baby led feeding and stopped me to remind me how important it is for babies to try lots of different tastes and textures during the 6-12 month age when they are first starting on their food adventures.

"Josie has become eager to eat more food and is no longer satiated on breast milk alone. There was a big shift for us around the 8 month mark and now at 9 months old she eats solids regularly every single day."

It is important that babies experience a range of different tastes and textures before they become too opinionated about being introduced to new foods. Babies are like little sponges and it is our job to give them the most opportunities to really flourish and grow. If they just have exclusive milk until 12 months of age, they may have a difficult time adapting to new textures and than the struggle begins.

Classic baby photo alert!! Josie devoured homemade meatballs with my made from scratch tomato sauce. Loved watching her enjoy eating it so much that I didn't even mind the mess.


I get a lot of reader emails asking me what is Josie eating now. First, I'd love to say that baby led weaning is not some hokey pokey hippy crapola. It is really just a term given to how we feed babies and letting the baby make the decision. Does my baby like food mushed up or do they like whole stalks of broccoli? My baby eats basically eats whatever I'm eating within reason. It also turns out that Josie does love a bit of mushed up food some of the time. I offer her different things and she is telling me what she likes. I think she likes the mush because she wants me to shovel the mushed up food into her mouth as it means faster service for her. Give me food now!!

We still do not do too much store bought baby food. On a recent trip I did use some store bought food for my own convenience. Her favourite foods include shredded chicken, sharp aged cheddar cheese (ha), her dads homemade applesauce, bananas, meatballs with tomato sauce and the occasional biscuit. Josie has become eager to eat more food and no longer is satiated on breast milk alone. This was a big change for us around the 8 month mark. I feel like from 6-8 months everything was just a tester and food was really just for fun; now food is for fun but for fuel as well and we've gotten into a great eating flow.

Of course, this blog of mine is not ever meant to be medical advice. That is like the big disclaimer of the entire internet really. I think that when you have been given the lucky job of being a parent it means you get to make decisions for your family that feel right for you! Happy eating babies!