BLW - Baby led weaning support thread

[JayleighAnn]

Halen is currently destroying some chilli lol he is covered! He is trying out his pincer grab on the mince lmao I'll post pics later x

 

[saraendepity]

Yay Halen!!!!!!

 

[faille]

Aw Halen sounds so cute!


We tried Violet with some grapes at lunch today, she hasn't had them for over a month so thought I'd see how she gets on as we found the other day that she can now pick up peas no problem.

She done really well with them!! Gave her 3 green and 3 red, so 12 pieces in total and there were only about 5 pieces left - some she'd dropped and couldn't have back, and the rest had been munched on at least

 

[JayleighAnn]

aww thats wicked He had some rice cake with it, they where apple ones and raspberry & blueberry, not what oud normally have with chilli but he really liked it lol the chilli was completel homemade, no sauces or sachets and had some serious kick to it, it was too strong for me but Halen loved it lol

 

[elm]

:wave: love the rice crispies and yogert idea

Popped over with an update at eleven months, I don't think about doing blw'ing anymore really except if we're out with other babies that haven't been blw'ed! It's just what we've always done and I think other babies Elliot's age are getting finger foods anyway now?

He's not 'fussy' about food at all, sometimes he prefers one thing over another and he does go through phases of seeming to want one food over another (he's eating lots of egg at the moment - scrambled egg is going down well for breakfast this week). He does tend not to leave quite so much food on the floor as he did at the start but he'll wipe his tray clear when he's finished or drop things on the floor he doesn't want to eat.

We've gone with a doidy over a sippy cup etc. and he gets full control of it if he's having a bath after the meal and he seems to be more co-ordinated with that although it's still only before baths that it's practical to let him have it!!!

He's doing quite well using a spoon, he'll stick it in his yogert now but still prefers the 'wrong' end at times and for some reason he decided to use it as a hair brush at lunch time...

He's fantastic with raisins and has been for a couple of months, he gets pears and apples whole but cored (easier to hold and it gets rid of the pips which he'd probably eat!).

Not sure what else to update on - I love blw'ing and can't imagine doing it any other way. I'm always slipping it into weaning conversations and am constantly promoting it at 'healthy tots' when they're all on about purees...!

xxx

 

[FsMummy]

hey everyone. little development with us today. we arent quite at the weaning stage yet (only a week or 2 away so not too fussed) but today aimee was on my lap while i was eating my roast dinner and she decided to shove her hand on my plate making a huge mess lol then she grabbed my yorkshire pudding. i was going to take it off of her but i thoughy what the hell and just went with it. she sat there for ages touching it and sucking on it, she really went for it

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

That's great FSmummy!

And thanks for your update Elm, good to know Elliot is doing well. I'm glad I'm not the only one that doesn't always let LO go for it with the Doidy cup, if I did that at each meal then i would spend all day changing her whole outfit and mopping the floor! usually we both hold the cup.

 

[kirsten1985]

Thanks for that Elm, good to hear how Elliot is doing

I hold the doidy cup too Claire, I let her hold it at the end of tea time when she has already had a drink, but apart from that it gets chucked if she holds it!

Freya just had a crumpet for the first time and ate about half She didn't want any tea last night though, I'm finding she is increasingly tired at tea time lately, don't know if it's cos she has been ill or not, I hope it gets better as she won't eat when she's tired.

 

[faille]

Thanks for posting that Elm, it's great to hear how older babies are doing with BLW.


We had a roast dinner last night and we tried Violet with yorkshire pudding for the first time... My god did she like it! She ate a whole one to herself (first thing she picked up and didn't let go until it had gone), majority of 2 small roast potatoes, gave her parsnip a good munching, ate about 2 thirds of her chicken but didn't touch her cauliflower I can't believe how much she ate the greedy piggy

We also found some red grape skin her nappy so she definately did eat them yesterday haha.

We also tried giving her a fork (I know she wont use it yet but it's to try and get her used to it and to associate it with dinner time). But the first thing she did was throw it across the room so she obv didn't want it

 

[faille]

Oh dear, double post
Just wanted to say that V ate a whole banana for her breakfast - I was shocked lol! Only a couple of weeks ago I thought it'd be months before she'd even want half, let alone the whole thing!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Wow Violet, a whole banana! It's amazing how much they can eat isn't it, like I'm always shocked when Ruby eats a whole piece of toast.

Oh my god Ruby is not happy today, teething I think. But she has still eaten ok, most of half a weetabix for lunch, most of a slice of cheese on toast, some yoghurt, and sucked on some mango, but it was a bit hard, she kept shoving it in her mouth only for it to fly out while she was trying to chew it.

Ruby has started sometimes eating like a dog, if she has trouble picking up a piece of food, the face just goes down to the table! Very funny!

 

[fantastica]

Hey...just thought i'd pop back in! Been a few days but this thread moves SO quickly!! Thank for everyone who replied the other day about the problems I was having with other people and BLW...anyway...eventually I took the advice and through a bit of a hissy fit! Told my mum to do some research and come back to me with facts..not hearsay!

So...gave her the BLW book, and she went on the internet and eventually decided she couldn't find anything to prove me wrong! So is now willing to be supportive. She's not 100% comfortable with it if she has to look after him, but that's ok, it's a start...she was babysitting last night for about 2 hours (around dinner) and she gave him sweet potato wedges..which he loved! So everything seems to be falling in to place!

Another thing...if I was to give him pasta...what type is best? And will he be able to have a go at it or would it just slide down his throat?!!

 

[Connah'sMommy]

I want to try a bit of BLW maybe at lunch time when we have more time and maybe breakfast with some toast...but should i wait til 6 months?

He takes purees fine,in fact,he loves them but is always trying to grab the spoon and do it himself

He has just had lunch,apple&banana pureea and i also put some rice cakes on the highchair for him to play with.

I dipped a rice cake in the puree and gave it him to hold and he sucked it a bit but he hasnt got great grip on food yet.

So im thinking maybe wait til 6 months for the BLW part or keep at it and his grip will improve?

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Charlie you could try finger foods alongside purees, at about 6 months, this is the norm for traditional weaning I think. Before about 6m, he may not have the skills to pick up and chew food, and his gag reflex may not be fully developed, so there is more of a risk of choking. To do BLW, you don't spoonfeed LO anything,you let him do it all himself. You could load the spoon and hold it out for him to take? This is what I do with Ruby's cereal when she has it.

Fantastica that's great! I do hate it when people object to something with no basis to their objection. Glad he liked the sweet potato, Ruby likes them too

Pasta bows are good, Ruby could pick them up ok when she'd just turned 7 months I think.

 

[Connah'sMommy]

I think this could work for Connah then

Until he is 6months ill load the spoon with his purees and at 6 months ill do BLW/purees but let him do the purees himself.

How long did it take Ruby to get the hang of chewing/swallowing and actually eating the food?

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

It took Ruby about 6 weeks to start to really eat. By about 6.5 months she was chewing, but then most of the food was being spat out, or just falling out of her mouth. By the time she was a little over 7 months, she was taking bites, chewing and swallowing deliberately.

 

[kirsten1985]

How long does it take your babies to eat a meal? Freya takes aaaaages! I made soup for lunch (well, I made enough for about 100 people, looks like we're eating that for a few weeks!) and I have eaten mine, helped her dip some bread, texted my mum, sat and watched her eat for about 10 mins and I'm now sneakily on the computer at the table

I haven't got the patience to sit there for like an hour with her on my own It's not so bad at tea time as I just talk with Jake, but on my own it's not so much fun.

She is covered in bright orange soup and eating her first bit of bread ever

Does everyone take hours over this?!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Ruby sat at the Christmas dinner table eating for over 2 hours! OH panics that she's eaten too much and wants to get her down from the table...

Glad the soup went well, I need to make some more soup, the last lot I made wasn't very nice though and forget the hoummous I made on saturday, yeurrrrgh! I can't just keep giving cheese or avocado on toast!

 

[kirsten1985]

I made some really gross houmous a few weeks ago, it was yucky.

Freya's new favourite is big oranges, sliced with a knife (not peeled) and then slice the skin off - soooo much easier than peeling. She ate about half an orange yesterday, lol.

The soup was bascially one big squash, one big sweet potato and some vegetable stock, then herbs and spices. Pretty simple.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

I don't know what is going wrong with my houmous, it has all the right stuff in it but it's so gross.

Yeah I usually make my soup with squash and sweet potato, I must get round to making some veg stock myself actually.

Ruby likes oranges too! She likes to hold a segment up in the air, squeeze it and watch all the juice run down her arm!