Baby's First Foods: No Jars, No Blenders, Just Real Food (Baby-Led Weaning)

Baby Boy V is now a solid food eater! As people who minimize buying packaged food, jarred baby food was never on our radar. Packaged foods just create so much waste. While recycling is great, we try to do things in this order: reduce consumption (or do without), reuse something already produced, and then if there are no other options: buy something new that can later be recycled.

We talked about making our own purees, but that seemed like a lot of work. Something like the Beaba Babycook makes it look easier, but what a price tag! Biggest of all, the idea of purees—and of babies eating special, separate food— just struck me as a cultural thing rather than a universal baby well-being issue.

Enter baby-led weaning (BLW) also called baby-led solids (BLS). This method feeding, where babies feed themselves from the family meal, seemed like the perfect choice for us. The book Baby-Led Weaning by Gill Rapley was a comprehensive resource for understanding the amazingly compelling how and why of this method. The Adventures in Solid Foods blog is another wonderful source.

As V approached six months* old, he blossomed into being ready for solids per BLW guidelines. One week before his “semiversary” he became a sturdy sitter and he went from just lunging for our food to actually mock-chewing while hubby and I would eat. V had already been able to bring toys to his mouth with confidence, doubled his birth weight, and no longer had a tongue-thrust reflex.

*The six-month mark is key to BLW, but there is compelling evidence for six months as a benchmark no matter one’s solids method.

From the first week, we offered a variety of foods that generally corresponded with what we were eating:

Apple Take 1- We picked up a slice of apple from the farmer's market and let V explore while being worn close to daddy in a mei tai. He licked it twice then dropped it. Take 2- We offered another slice at home a few days later. V wasn't a fan that day either. We'll try again later.
Pear A thin slice of pear was a hit! V got off a few bites and swallowed his first food
Pork We shared from pit barbecued pork with V while eating out. He scowled at it, then mashed it around for ages in his mouth, tried a few times to swallow it, then spit it out.
Squash I pulled this out of mixed vegetables that I was sauteing for a wrap for my meal. V was tired and melting down.
Mango This was too mushy and slippery to stay in V's hand for more than a few licks. We'll try again with a heartier piece.
Water V did great with having a few sips of water from a small glass with a curved edge.




In week two he tried
Lettuce I pulled this off my sandwich while eating lunch at Chick-Fil-A with friends. V licked it, ripped it, then threw it on the floor.
Roast beef Beef au Jus was on the menu at grandma's house, so I have V a slice to hold and explore. He got off a few tiny bites and swallowed them.
Eggplant Take 1- I pulled a long wedge of eggplant out of a sauteed veggie wrap I had made for myself. He loved it and sucked all of the flesh out, leaving just the skin. V's cheeks and thighs (where he had banged the eggplant)turned red after. Perhaps something else in the wrap bothered him or maybe garlic and onions cooked in the same pan. He cleared right up with soap and water.
Pizza crust I gave V a bit of crust from a thin pizza that had a wee bit of tomato sauce on it. He like it.
Cucumber I am allergic to cucumber, but I know this is a very rare allergy our doctor said food allergies are not passed down. Cold cucumber is supposed to feel great on sore, teething gums, so I wanted V to give it a try since he got in his first two teeth that week. V mashed on it happily for a minute, then dropped it.
Pineapple Fresh off the grill (but cooled down). It was a hit, even if quite squishy.
Asparagus This was perfect for a little hand to hold onto well. We served it microwave-steamed.
Banana I am banana-phobic so hubby gave V this at breakfast while I was asleep.
Oatmeal V fed himself with a spoon from daddy's bowl
Tuna Steak We have V a small chunk of grilled tuna steak. He was ambivalent about it--just like his parents.

V will still get most of his nutrition through nursing for some time to come. But, for now solid food is great fun for experimentation, socialization, and exploring new flavors.

Crib Part 2: Choosing an Eco-Friendly Mattress

I am not hysterical about conventional products, but I do try to be an educated consumer when I buy something new. I'll be honest. Often what I find is depressing. Mattresses fit this trend. Most conventional mattresses (for babies and adults) are made with things that are concerning when one really looks into them:

• Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) This plastic is restricted in the European Union in children's products. It can leech when put in the mouth (think soft, plastic children's toys), its production is bad for the environment, it is made from politically-charged crude oil, and it can off-gas.
  
  



• Polyurethane is not regulated for carcinogenicity, it facilitates the life of dust mites, and it is highly flammable which means it must be treated with chemicals to be allowed in products.
  
  



• Chemical Fire Retardants These end up in measureable amounts our bodies, breastmilk, meat we eat, etc. and are associated with thyroid and hormone changes including decreased fertility.
  

Knowing all of this, I continue to sleep on my 10-year old conventional mattress (for now), but I wanted to start baby V off on something healthier. In preparing for baby, we used the organic mattress suggestions in Baby Bargains as the basis for our research. Here is what I thought about the suggested brands (which I've divided into two categories):

Seem Like Greenwashing

• Colgate Eco Classica 1- This one is a greener option, but not as excellent as I was looking for. I am leery of anything soft made from bamboo. The amount of processing it takes to turn bamboo into fabric is anything but green. $190
  



• Sealy Posturpedic Springfree- This contains soy which is another one of those things, like bamboo, that sound great but actually are very taxing on the environment. $199
  



• LA Baby Organic- Baby Bargains talks specifically about the one sold at Costco. When I looked into it when I was pregnant, it came across as having an organic cotton cover, but being otherwise conventionally made. It smacked of greenwashing to me. Some of LA Baby's mattresses seem to have more potential, but I do have to wonder what corners they cut to have such a huge price gap between them and the solidly green brands (for example saying no toxic chemicals versus saying no chemical fire retardants as on the solidly green brands. Does that mean they use a non-toxic chemical fire retardant and who is defning non-toxic since the government allows mattress companies to use something that I find toxic but they don't.) The Costco version is $107.
  
  

Solidly Green

• Natura's Latex Mattress- I wasn't interested in latex at the time and I was intimidated by needing a wool cover for this mattress. I am now more educated on the benefits of latex mattresses and wool for water-proofing and would be open to this brand now. Non-organic models run $360, organic are $530.
  



• NaturalMat- This is a phenomenal, artisan-made brand. The mattresses are made of coconut husk, latex, or mohair which are awesome options. They run about $400, which seemed too steep. In retrospect, we should've considered this option more seriously.
  



• Naturepedic- The ultimate hybrid between coil mattress with waterproof cover and natural: organic materials, no PVC, no polyurethane, no chemical fire retardants, made in the USA, comes with a lifetime warranty. This mattress does contain some non-natural components (like the waterproof cover), but they've selected materials that do not concern me. The price is not cheap, but not exorbitant at $250-400. Even the most basic model seemed ample for our needs.
  
  We decided to go with Naturepedic because we could register for it at Buy Buy Baby and then use a 20% off coupon (they take both Buy Buy Baby and Bed Bath and Beyond coupons). We wanted a no-compromise mattress, but we also wanted a palatable price tag. Even factoring in the discount, this would be our highest ticket baby item. But we couldn't think of a better item to splurge on: babies spend about two-thirds of their time sleeping. Also, since most of V's gear was given to us used, purchased used, or is on loan, we could make this fit in the budget.
  
  We watched Craigslist for awhile to see if a used Naturepedic would come up for cheap (one of the sealed, wipe-clean kinds that would be totally healthy used), but no dice. In the end, we were very fortunate that my family chipped in and bought the mattress as a shower gift.
  
  
  
  
  
  

  
  What a great gift! Baby's mattress, complete with a blue bow.

  
  
  

  
  Newborn Baby V Sleeping on a Naturpedic Mattress
  

Crib Part 1: Choosing an Eco-Friendly Crib

We have always planned on being a co-sleeping family during the nursing years, but figuring out how that would work logistically in our small bedroom took some time. Bed-sharing seemed like the most simple, logical option. After all, bed-sharing is a very safe, healthy way to sleep when done properly (info on how and why: here and here) and is the lowest-gear configuration. But, it wasn't a fit for us. I thought we'd be crowded in our queen-size bed and we don't have space for a king-size. So, we thought we'd borrow a full-size co-sleeper from a friend and keep that in our room for the long haul, plus have a crib and twin-size bed in baby's room just in case we needed to switch up our sleeping arrangements. As I realized how much effort I was putting into picking the healthiest crib and mattress, we eventually decided to ditch the co-sleeper plan and just sidecar baby's crib to our bed so he could get maximum usage out of the equipment we were putting so much thought and money into. Join me for a multi-part series on choosing a bed for baby: choosing a crib (this entry), choosing a crib mattress, and how to sidecar a crib to an adult bed.

Choosing a Crib

I knew that I wanted a crib that was made of solid wood rather than with pressed wood product like medium density fiberboard (MFD) or particle board. The glue used to hold together the bits of wood that makes up these composite materials contains formaldehyde (a probable human carcinogen) and they off-gas volatile organic compounds (VOCs) for several months. Many mass produced cribs are made with a blend of real wood parts (albeit often soft woods like pine) and composite parts (such as a drawer underneath) and off-gassing is a genuine issue with them.

Additionally, I wanted the wood to have either an eco-friendly finish or no finish. I was a crib gnawer as a baby, and I figured that our baby might also spend some time doing some soothing chomping on his crib rails (crib rail protectors exist, but are made of plastic which we avoid).

I consulted the ever-popular Baby Bargains book and got a list of green cribs and had sticker shock. I figured that as much we love cheap, simple living, this was one area that I was ok with splurging since a baby likely spends more time in a crib than any other single space, but wow. WOW!

• Romina cribs are made of beech with a beeswax finish and range in price from $700 to $1,100


• Pacific Rim makes unfinished wood cribs that are $1,000+


• Stokke Sleepi is made of beech and is a lovely oval shape, but the round mattress and curved sheets make an expensive crib even pricier


• Ducduc cribs are fabulously modern and run $1,000 to $2,000+


• Capretti's green cribs Verde and Fino are $1,600-$1,900 and I am not sure that they are still in production
  

Thank goodness for the lone dirt cheap option: Ikea Sniglar. Sniglar* is a very basic crib made of solid, unfinished beech and is a mere $70. It does have a fiberboard base, but…well—I am just too cheap to pay a thousand bucks for a crib. This was in the realm of being a reasonable compromise. Especially because the Sniglar has some versatility: an adjustable-height mattress and one side can be removed to create a toddler bed (or, even better for us, a sidecar configuration on to an adult bed). Ikea has cuter cribs, but Sniglar is Ikea's only unfinished crib.

Before making a decision, I stalked Craigslist for used** versions of any of these cribs. Even though the Sniglar was cheap, a used one would be even cheaper and the base would probably be done off-gassing. Time went on and no Sniglar came up. A couple of the premium brand cribs came up but not for a price that was acceptable to us. So, we bought the Sniglar early enough that it could air out for a few months. When we went to pick it up, we were happy to see that it is a little more attractive in real life than the stock pictures make it out to be.

The Sniglar was fairly easy to put together, which was a good thing because I assembled it in the living room and it is wider than our bedroom doorways. Oops! Eventually we got it out of the living room and into the guest room (decorated to be baby V's room someday) where it aired out until we moved it in our room when he was born.

Sniglar airing out in the guest room/someday V's room

*There is a precautionary recall out on some Sniglar cribs. Ours was not impacted, but it looks like an extremely easy fix if you have one that is part of the recall.

**I am pro used cribs, but it is vital to make sure than any used crib meets current safety standards. Here are several resources: Crib Information Center (the latest information and a list of recalls), a summary of things to look for, and a long list on choosing a crib.