Earlier this week we had an interesting day of food refusal and baby led weaning, which was essentially my baby girl refusing anything I was giving her but quite happy to play and feed herself. When my eldest daughter was weaning, the time frame was diffferent, the advice was different and I was different. I was a naive mum who read baby books by the plenty (my favourite phrase was "I read in a book ....") and soaked up all the advice that was given to me by the health professionals. Two years after my daughter was born, it was reported by the BBC that spoon feeding was unnatural for babies and Gill Rapley, deputy director of Unicef's UK Baby Friendly Initiative, suggested that it could lead to health problems in later life.

So what has changed aside from the advice?

Am I any less interested in whats best for my baby, absolutely not, but I think I am probably a little more open to letting the baby lead the way, rather than being pedantic about milestones and time frames. Baby led weaning really was a new concept for me and as a "little" bit of a control freak, I sometimes find it hard to let her fling food around and not get involved.

Through talking to other parents who embrace baby led weaning I know that this behaviour isnt unusual, in fact its fairly standard and throw a bit of teething and a cold into the mix, its hardly surprising that she wants to eat at her own pace.

So what did I do ..... I had cooked a spaghetti bolognaise for dinner (which my 7 year old loves) but I was already beginning to get twitchy as to whether the little one would eat it ..... so she was stripped off and let loose. She can hold a spoon quite adeptly and puts food in her mouth, its just a shame (mainly for my floor) that the bowl usually ends up shoved off the highchair and food is everywhere! But guess what? She loved it!

Maybe I should just stop trying to be in control and led the baby lead the way!

For more posts about Baby Led Weaning, find them in the Baby Led Weaning Carnival over on Circus Queen's blog