Baby Led Weaning Keto Style

With myself living a meat based keto lifestyle my goal was to continue this with my son.  He was about 4.5 months old when I started.  He was sitting up on his own and showing an intense interest in the food being eaten around him.

I wanted to minimize the risk of choking on food, but I also didn't want him eating purees.  I started with steamed veggies such as broccoli and carrots.  I gave him large strips of cooked steak and let him gum on it and suck on it.  He loved this the most.  He absolutely loved cheese sticks as well.  He would suck on them and gum them forever.  As he got better at moving food around in his mouth I moved on to berries.  Mushed blueberries and raspberries.  Eventually I gave him blackberries.  He wanted to try everything he saw me eating.  I let him taste almost everything.  He usually just wanted to lick it and taste it.

Now that he is 3 he eats or at least tries almost everything.  He has no qualms to going up to anyone eating and asking for a bite.  He prefers food with flavor.  He will stick his nose up at bland food.  

A short list of foods he started out with:

    1.  Steamed veggies

    2.  Cheese Sticks

    3.  Large pieces of cooked meat

    4.  Avocado slices

    5.  Keto Ratio yogurt

As he was more and more able to move food around and mash it in his mouth I added in:

    1.  Mushed berries

    2.  Steamed and seasoned squash cubes

    3.  Scrambled eggs

    4.  Sausage sticks

   

Once he mastered chewing and swallowing his food I added in:

    1.  Small bite size pieces of tender meat

    2.  Small pieces of cheese

    3.  Keto Ratio yogurt with berries and granola

    4.  Shredded chicken

    5.  Pulled Pork

As he continued to master chewing, swallowing, and using utensils I started to offer him everything I was eating.  He has developed his own taste preferences.  To this day he seems to prefer his food either cold or room temperature.

With drinking in mind I started him on a small shot glass size cup with a tiny amount of water in it.  It took him a lot of practice to actually get it to his mouth and drink it.  He preferred to dump it, stick his hands in it, and splash in the spilled water.  It was well worth the mess.  At 3 years old now, he uses a regular cup easily.  Uses the water dispenser on the refrigerator to fill it.

I had a huge fear of him choking when I started out.  I quickly learned that he was capable of knowing his limits.  He had a few times of gagging on food, but coughed it out all on his own.  He seemed to learn from these incidents.  Food was played with more than eaten for a long time.  That is ok.  He was learning from this through feeling and manipulating the food.  He was engaging all his senses and thoroughly enjoying himself.