Baby Led Weaning

[tinytoes]

So feeding LO mashed mush doesnt seem to work for us. He'll gobble down fruit or porridge / cereal but thats it. Vegetables are a disaster. He'll eat 3 spoon fulls then refuse to open up for any more. The same for meat. And yogurts.
We've been weaning since he was 5 months.

I'm interested in BLW - can I suddenly swap to giving him bits to hold? I did try him on broccoli and carrot sticks which worked out ok, though most did get finger mashed. I worry he wont get enough to eat if we go this direction for all his dinners?
Also, I worry he'll choke on whole foods? he's coming up to 7 months old. Has 2 bototm teeth. Should i cook veges till they're really mushy?

Should I maybe do BLW for the majority of his dinner and then spoon feed him some fruit at the end to be sure he eats enough??


Advice anyone?...thanks!!!

 

[Vickie]

Well we don't really do the BLW though I give Hannah finger foods for her snacks. I can tell you that she has no teeth and can eat toast, bananas, and cheese just fine She mushes it around her gums until it's soft enough to swallow

 

[ryder]

The toast and harder stuff probably feels good when they have teething pain too.

 

[tinytoes]

i tried him on a bit of corn on the cob earlier and he loved it! He didnt eat that much but he was happily giving it a chew! So he does like sweetcorn afterall...he fully rejected a jar of puree with carrot andsweetcorn earlier! he'll be trying hand held asparagus and salmon and potato this eve!

 

[Vickie]

Hannah doesn't really like the pureed carrot. Keep meaning to boil some baby carrots for her to try to see if she likes it better

 

[isil]

We do a bit of both. If we'd made it to 6 months I was going to do completely BLW but Alasdair was just too hungry to wait that long!

I always give Alasdair something on his highchair that he can pick up and eat and then I also have a puree or mush that I spoon feed him. Lately though, he is becoming harder and harder to spoon feed. So I am mainly letting him do it himself. Apart from he spends so long playing with the food that he eventually gets fed up without having eaten much so he is getting hungry every hr/couple of hrs at the moment! I think that will get better as he gets older though.

Alasdair will eat yoghurt and porridge (most of the time) when I'm spoon feeding him so I'm going to continue doing that but I think I might just let him BLW the rest of the time. Today I got so fed up trying to feed him porridge that I just gave him the bowl. He stuck his hand in it and then licked his hand for about 5 mins lol.

 

[isil]

and I really don't think he'l choke. Ally gags occassionally but he's never choked. I think I'm maybe too relaxed about it though. maybe not.

Interestingly, Alasdair didn't like pureed broccolli but loves it when he has it as a finger food. Maybe the flavour is too condensed when they have it as a puree. I'm going to try sweetcorn with Ally!

 

[tinytoes]

We do a bit of both. .

i think this is what we'll be doing from now on too. Ted loves porridge so he'll have this off a spoon, and have BLW for his savoury dinners but then i'll top him up after that with fruit purees off a spoon or porridge with fruit for pudding - so he hopefully doesnt get so hugnry like your little monkey. We'll see if it works...

You should try the sweetcorn, he really enjoyed it!

 

[isil]

it's probably a bit silly but it feels quite nice just to let Alasdair get on with it. I mean, obviously I'm in the room and watching but he gets to choose what he eats and how much. I don't feel like I'm always hovering over him with a spoon now. It's quite messy though lol.

 

[tinytoes]

it is indeed messy! I've been constantly wiping up for the last 2 days!

I've decided I'll be serving Teddy with pieces of food where possible but i'll still spoon feed him some stuff - having started on spoon feeding he's used to getting quite a lot of food in to him now and he just cant manage as much on his own yet. No doubt this will change pretty soon as he gets used to chewing and holding things more.
It feels mroe natural to give him a whole piece of vege ratehr than some sort of vege slop. Like he may grow up with a health relationship with veges now .....or maybe i'm getting caried away.
He loved chewing on a roast parsnip earlier. Scared me by coughing after he greedily took a massive bite...

 

[isil]

Glad he enjoyed the parsnip! I think roasted is really nice for them as it's easier to hold but still soft in the middle if that makes sense.

I think doing a bit of both makes sense, especially when they're used to being spoon fed. Apart from when we're out Alasdair has a bit of both at every meal. Or at least, I try to spoonfeed him at every meal. Sigh!

 

[tinytoes]

Glad he enjoyed the parsnip! I think roasted is really nice for them as it's easier to hold but still soft in the middle if that makes sense.

I think doing a bit of both makes sense, especially when they're used to being spoon fed. Apart from when we're out Alasdair has a bit of both at every meal. Or at least, I try to spoonfeed him at every meal. Sigh!

Sigh indeed. Today Teddy prefered me to hold his parsnip while he nibbled, despite the fact he can hold it himself. cheeky.