Vegetarian Baby-led Weaning
Why vegetarian?
I have been a vegetarian for half of my life – 20 years (I’m 40 now). I was vegetarian before becoming pregnant, during my pregnancy, while breast-feeding and throughout weaning my boys. They are healthy. I am healthy. In fact we are all more than healthy. I’m morally happy with my decision. I have never looked back. Children deserve to make their own choices when they are old enough to understand, and right now they are not old enough to understand or consent to taking another life for their own nourishment. If it sounds a bit hardcore for you then we’re not reading the same book, let alone on the same page. I would love the whole world to be vegetarian for moral and ethical reasons, because it is healthier, and because meat-eaters put a huge drain on the resources of our planet. However, each to her own decision and conscience. When my boys are old enough to understand where meat comes from they are old enough to eat it – that’s all.
Baby-led Weaning
Baby-led Weaning aka BLW is a method of weaning (introducing solid food to your baby). It is not new, lots of us were weaned this way many (many) years ago. It simply involves feeding your babies ‘normal food’. My two have been eating panini at Costa since they were 6 months old. I don’t break it up into tiny chunks, I don’t feed it to them, they pick it up and eat it just like mama does. However, in recent years due to (strange and possibly stupid) guidelines from health organisations the recommended weaning age was brought forward to a very young 4, or even 3 months. At this young age babies would choke on anything other than liquid or puree (hmmm – seems to me maybe they only need liquid at this age…) so purees were introduced. The baby food industry got involved and Bob’s your uncle we all eat from little pre-packed jars. No, I know a lot of people make their own purees, I jest. Anyway, by about 6 months most babies would be eating some kind of finger food if not ALL finger food.
