BLW aka Baby-Led-Weaning

DS, DD, SAHM, EBF, STTN, CIO and BLW.  Obviously, us moms love our acronyms and they come in handy when you are talking about the same things again and again.  The first 6 I’ve known for quiet awhile, especially with the help of Google and various mom/baby forums and boards over the years.  The way information travels these days, which is quicker than ever before, you can do all the paper and library book research you want, but the material could be totally outdated.  I did my library research, then hit up google and mom blogs after mom blogs, and Youtube actually helped the most!

Baby-Led Weaning is not new agey, but I’ve read it’s another cog in the “crunchy Mom” wheel that is so common these days.  It sounds like parents have realized that the way things were done when they were children- or their parents themselves were children- aren’t exactly raising the healthiest eaters each generation.  Companies are capitalizing on charging what they charge so it’s one less things for moms to learn/handle/do in general.  It was a big deal to go from small glass baby food jars, to plastic reusable ones, and then from that to these space-saving pouches.  It seems the original idea was the most green to begin with, because glass doesn’t leach chemicals and make many happy crafty projects when reused.  I digress.

BLW: Baby led weaning is simple= no mushed food, no purees.  Go.

You take what the rest of the family is having, and slice it up into adequate sizes (comparable to either a potato chip, or two fingers in size) and give it to your baby.  You don’t “help” at all! or shove food or do any extra work for baby.  Baby doesn’t need a plate or utensils.  You sit back and eat your food like a family should, together at mealtime.  It sounds so easy!  I keep reading that it’s messy, but since I made all the baby food for Sillyboy at 6 months (never before! please don’t listen to the riffraff or your mom on cereal in a bottle or other scary things), I’d take a mess over the mountains of peeling/slicing/steaming/pureeing/portioning months anytime.  We begin late next week.  Have you tried baby led weaning?  Something similar?  A combination?  RhodeyGirlTests and YoungHouseLove have both tried with differing results, but both of their kids eat real (i.e. not baby) food every day too.

P.S. by the way, DS= Dear Son, DD= Dear Daughter, SAHM= Stay at home mom, EBF= Exclusively breastfed, STTN= Sleeping through the night, CIO= Crying it out.

To TV or not to TV?

Or better yet, does the baby get TV? Or do most people start that at toddlerhood?  Or wait until the recommended (by the AAP) 2 years?  In all reality, I totally know there’s no way to avoid it once the kids get into public school (Sillyboy has enjoyed several screenings of Happy Feet parts 1 and 2 during substitute teaching and awards time during his first year of kindergarten, all without me knowing until afterwards…), and then there’s all kinds of tv everywhere: waiting rooms, mall food courts, inside stores, at the gas stations, etc.  And what about the “educational” tv shows?

I think even for 5 months old, I try to avoid Bambina watching tv.  Her brain is still developing at a rapid rate, her mind is a little sponge- and I’d rather her soak up some board book story reading time than even the Veggie Tales sing-a-longs.  But I get crazy looks when I explain this to the extended family.  Especially since we do limit Sillyboy’s “screen time” which includes his time watching tv, dvds, playing on the wii, gaming on his Vtech Innotab, etc.  (We’ve yet to invest in a Nintendo DS, yet…).  He realizes there’s such a thing as too much screen time, and even brings it up to his grandparents some.  But as we all advance with technology, how do we keep it real by keeping less screen time in our every day lives?  Interactive classroom teaching is everywhere- and Sillyboy sends emails on his own and downloads and reads his choice of kid-friendly titles on the Kindle Fire.  I can’t keep up!

I guess I should get with the times and realize we can’t escape it.  We just need to keep with the old adage “Too much of anything isn’t good for you”- and that includes screen time.  Let’s see how long I can hold out before Bambina figures out who Barney or Elmo are!

Radio Wave Lunch

Returning to work just 6 weeks after new baby Bambina arrived brought with it some routine adjustments (if not a thousand) for me on weekdays.  Before I was diligent about the Dave Ramsey budget plan (insert eye-roll or pat on the back here), I was really good about not bringing a lunch to work.  I was so good, I didn’t mind spending $10-15 for escaping from my office desk for an hour each weekday to unwind and indulge.  Indulge I did.  Besides cleaning out my wallet, I actually got bored with eating out.

So, now I’ve found a compromise that is both healthier for my well-being and my wallet (and that family “budget”).  I bring my lunch three or four days a week and buy lunch on the fifth.  After the U.S.’s BPA craze and plastics industry turn-around on all things labeled plastic and microwave safe, I still didn’t believe sending microwaves through my food through plastic was a good idea.  Some people can eliminate microwave use all together. That is on my future to-do list I’ll admit, but in the meantime, I reheat food in ceramic at work.  Nothing like a spicy black bean burger on a whole wheat bun smothered in hummus with fresh sliced tomatoes and a few radio waves.

From the looks of our shared office fridge, and the line for microwave at noon, most of my coworkers rely on frozen or packaged food for lunch.  All reheated in various “safe” plastics or non-recyclable containers.  It could be the superstitious Asian part of me not accepting that the radio waves are okay for the plastic, wrap, and the food.  Ah well,  How do you do lunch?