Starting Solids (pt. 1)

It's about a month or so out from when I'll be starting Little Owl on solids. I have been doing a bit of research and been giving it a lot of thought. As part of my whole Weston-Price-daiper-free-crunchy-momma-philosophy involves minimalism and what I think if healthiest and best for baby and me I was thinking the other day about blenders.

Are they necessary? I like the idea of "Baby-Led Weaning"(BLW). It makes more sense to me than spoon-feeding mush to my baby. Yet even advocates of BLW still use blenders for that interim stage when babies begin to eat solids but don't have teeth to chew tougher things like meat, etc.

Yet who besides mothers in the Western World own baby blenders?? Um, no one. Besides the fact that it sounds like work (which I try to avoid if possible) to blend up babies food into a puree it also doesn't make sense with how we as humans have lived almost the entire time of our existence (sans electricty). In the same way that breastfeeding over bottle feeding made more sense to me I thought, doesn't pre-chewing my babies food makes more sense than blending it?

That's right. I said "pre-chewing my babies food". 

Here's why this makes sense to me. When we give birth through our vagina, breastfeed, kiss, cuddle, use our saliva to clean their little faces, our babies come in contact with germs, germs, germs. And antibodies. Our germs and our antibodies. Our babies guts' grow stronger as their exposure grows. If we pre-chew their food they come into contact with even more. 

Also, enzymes in our mouth begin to break down food to make it easier for our stomachs to digest. By pre-chewing your babies food, your making it easier for them not just because they don't have teeth, but because their mouth enzymes are less mature and numerous. 

Turns out I wasn't totally out there. Check this out. 

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