If you Google anything about feeding your infant, you can find enough ammo/info to justify whatever you want. You could Google "I only want to feed my kid the marshmallows from Lucky Charms until they're 14" and WebMD will probably give you 12 reasons why that's smart and you're the best mom EVER. Golf Clap.
I looked into a few different styles -
1. Prepared Baby Food - Buy it, spoon it in to your kids mouth. AKA the Hallmark of baby feeding (per my husband. He's convinced they are profiting for no reason other than excessive marketing)
2. Make your own- Buy the food raw, steam it, mash it, then spoon it into your kids mouth.
3. "Baby led weaning" - aka the hippy stuff. Giving your kid food (soft, non-choke-able) and letting them feed themselves. You never buy baby food, you just feed your kid whatever you're eating and they figure it out.
Buying baby food is expensive. It's about $1 for two containers. Making your own baby food is cheaper, but how much is your time worth? I'd love to spend all day Sunday smashing carrots into mush and packing them in baby sizes portions, but I'd also rather spend time with my kid. Giving my kid a whole carrot... makes me nervous and makes my kid angry. So... We're kind of doing a combo of all of them, and none of them at the same time.
What we've learned is M doesn't particularly like to be spoon fed. She gets bored and decides to suck her thumb instead. She also is a little too young to pick up a piece of slimy avocado with her hands and get it to her mouth. So we're mixing it up. We bought one of the feeder thingies. I have no idea what they're called, but they're nasty and she LOVES IT. She gets to be in control of how much she eats and when, the little mesh part prevents any large pieces for her to choke on. She will sit in her bumbo for almost 30 minutes and eat with these.
We started with avocados, and have introduced bananas and sweet potatoes (that we baked ourselves).
Not quite sure what to do with it yet...
Figured it out! And loves it!
Day 2. We got smart and removed the clothes.
Bananas! Hands Free!
I'm pretty sure we have an eater on our hands. Not that I'd expect anything less from her, considering how much her parents love food :)
The bottom line is - there's no tried and true way to feed your kid. Do what works for you. We're sending rice cereal and baby food to daycare, cause this self feeding business requires immediate baths. And then at night, she gets to party. So far, so good. She's happy and healthy and that's all that matters!
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