BLW - Baby led weaning support thread

[Missy]

Couple of questions please guys:

How careful is everyone about added salt? I bought a tin of kidney beans for a chilli and was worried about giving them to Saf because they were in salted water. I'm not sure how much is too much!? Also things like humus which I think I'd like to try with Saf has salt added so I haven't tried yet as I'm not sure...and packet mixes e.g. if I wanted to use a packet mix to make a veggie casserole or something...they always have salt. Would that be OK or is it best to make everything from scratch so you can omit the salt??

 

[kirsten1985]

Freya eats a lot sometimes too, it gets to the point where I start to worry she has eaten too much.

I put oil in my pasta too, always have done.

Lol Lu, Jake will only eat pasta shells - no other kind I'm pretty sure I like every kind!

 

[faille]

I do make a point of looking at salt levels and always choose the thing with the least amount (eg, when choosing which bread/crumpets etc to have or which beans to buy etc).

I've also switched to making some things myself whereas before we'd just buy jars (I avoid stock cubes and certain mixed spices now). However, there are some things that we still use jars for so I just make sure that if she's had a lot of salt one day, she has a lot less the next.

I'm pretty sure the bible reccomends no more than 1g of salt a day.


ETA: The dinners that I know are high in salt she only has like twice a week max and only a little bit.. I try and 'bulk' the rest of her dinner up with salad/fruit/veg and make sure she has a low salt day the next day

 

[Lu28]

I put the oil in with the pasta, it's more so that it's moist and the spaghetti and tagliatelli have big flat surfaces so they're just not as easy to pick up

I'm not venturing into Aisling's room to get the bible but might have a look tomorrow about whether it's possible for them to overeat because her breakfast especially is a bit bizarre and if anyone else is in the house in the morning their eyes are out on stalks when they see how much she has! Might start a thread in the main section to see how much other LOs are eating when not doing BLW...

For the salt, I also choose the low salt option - e.g. I was going to get a jar of shepherds pie sauce, saw the salt content and opted for the dry packet instead that had way less. I also use Boots baby stock cubes instead of normal ones. Like Faille, I'll still use jars every now and then and if she has dinner with more salt than I'd like one day, I'll make sure it's a small amount the next day.

 

[TigerLady]

Yeah, I get the low salt canned stuff, too (like beans) if I need canned for something.

I don't remember anything about overeating in the bible. The daycare has my copy, so I can't check.

 

[purple_socks]

We've been 'doing food' for the last week now! prior to this week its been v slow with me only giving Kian a couple of things like veg and salad if he'd tried to grab them/ 'asked' for them coz i wasn't really comfortable offering things even tho he'd been grabbing thigs off me but for the last week i've properly offered him things. We started with once a day but for the last could of days he's joining in at every meal. He's still playing with stuff more than eating them and he's mostly having roasted veg/ salad/ fruit and not proper meals but this eve we're doing stew and he's gonna get a little bowl (i bought a suction bowl to try and minimise spillage!) he'll prob just have veg and a tiny bit of juice...and i've cut him a little strip shaped bit of beef (i'm guessing that'll b too hard for him to eat and he'll throw it over board!) I've made the stock myself so its not salty.

I'm really impressed with how good he's getting at getting things him his mouth (i think the playing with spoons might b to thank for that). I gave him baby cereal and a spoon and he sort of 'dunked' the spoon in the cereal then got it in his mouth (it didn't have anything on it coz he couldn't really 'scoop' with it but it looked like he understood what he was doing with the 'dipping' and 'putting it to his mouth' part) He's been 'biting' tiny bits off and i can see him doing chewing motions. He's also been swallowing coz i found tiny bits of carrot in his poo, loads of aubergine and other lumpy bits which i can't work out what they r (don't really wanna examine his nappy in that closely!) Him having all these skills with food does make me feel like the time is indeed right to start this properly. He was after all 2 weeks over due (and his flakey skin, and the condition of my placenta by the end makes me think he was genuinly over due rather than it being a mistake with due dates) and he meeting all the developement 'signs'...he doesn't have that tongue reflex things anymore, He's pretty co-ordinated when it comes to putting stuff in his mouth, he's sitting up on his own etc

missy: my thoughts on salt r i'll try to avoid it as much as pos by checking salt levels and opting for the lowest choice (same goes for sugar and other stuff like that). where pos i'd make my own stuff (i've made a mini loaf of bread 2day to slice up and freeze for Kian to avoid the added salt of normal bread and i make things like stock to avoid the salt)
u can't really avoid salt completely tho coz its added to nearly everything so i'm just gonna go 4 trying to keep it as low as pos, never adding any to stuff, avoiding processed stuff where pos and offering lots of salt free veg etc.

 

[joeyjo]

HELP SUDDEN CRYING

LO has been sitting with us and having a few bits and pieces for about a week now. He's really enjoyed sucking/gumming pear, red pepper, broccoli, toast, pitta bread & pizza base (naughty mummy)
Not been sure how much has actually been eaten but I know yesterday a bit of pear got swallowed OK. He's gagged a couple of times and brought up bits no probs.
Today we had fajitas so he had some soft tortilla, salad, pepper and a small finger of beef. He really enjoyed the tortilla and I could see him chewing some in his mouth, he was sucking happily on the beef and all of a sudden pulled it out, swallowed, took a deep breath and burst into full on crying. Hubby Took him out to comfort him but he just got more and more upset - only BF worked to calm him.

Has this happened to anybody? Its upset hubby so much he's talking about trying purees instead Does anybody have any idea what could have triggered it??

 

[nikkip75]

maybe it just hurt going down, do you ever get that where you swallow too quick and it feels like it scrapes down the throat?

maybe something like that happened?

im new to this aswell tho so maybe im totally wrong

 

[TigerLady]

I honestly don't know, JJ. But I highly doubt it was a problem. It is impossible to say what may have upset him -- but I think you are just as likely to run into a similar problems with purees. Babies sometimes cry when they get upset because it is the only way to communicate. Hasn't he every cried suddenly when playing with toys? Does that mean you should take the toys away from him?

I would just keep at it, hon.

 

[Lucy_lu_84]

Also no idea what caused the crying! Could have hurt going down. Could he had been hungry for his milk and got annoyed cos he was having to try eat proper food?



We tried tomoto's yesterday and LO can't get enough of them. Manged to suck all the inside out and just leave the skin on the pieces we gave him. He ignored everything else on his tray and jsut went for tomoto!
he is getting good at picking up smaller things now, he transfers between hands brilliantly he also manages to get things from out of his fist...kind of flattens his hand against his mouth!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

HELP SUDDEN CRYING

LO has been sitting with us and having a few bits and pieces for about a week now. He's really enjoyed sucking/gumming pear, red pepper, broccoli, toast, pitta bread & pizza base (naughty mummy)
Not been sure how much has actually been eaten but I know yesterday a bit of pear got swallowed OK. He's gagged a couple of times and brought up bits no probs.
Today we had fajitas so he had some soft tortilla, salad, pepper and a small finger of beef. He really enjoyed the tortilla and I could see him chewing some in his mouth, he was sucking happily on the beef and all of a sudden pulled it out, swallowed, took a deep breath and burst into full on crying. Hubby Took him out to comfort him but he just got more and more upset - only BF worked to calm him.

Has this happened to anybody? Its upset hubby so much he's talking about trying purees instead Does anybody have any idea what could have triggered it??

To me it sounds like he bit his finger! Even if they have no teeth, gums can be really hard! Ouch!

 

[joeyjo]

Thanks girls - still no wiser really but a bit calmer now. I guess it must have just hurt or surprised him. The only other time I have known him to cry in quite the same way was when OH sneezed really loudly and scared him!
I don't think he was hungry for milk because although BF calmed him he just took a few big gulps then was comfort suckling rather than feeding.

Guess we'll chalk it down to experience and start trying again tomorrow. He's in bed now and I think I might just have to have a little bit of chocolate and maybe a small

 

[joeyjo]

HELP SUDDEN CRYING

LO has been sitting with us and having a few bits and pieces for about a week now. He's really enjoyed sucking/gumming pear, red pepper, broccoli, toast, pitta bread & pizza base (naughty mummy)
Not been sure how much has actually been eaten but I know yesterday a bit of pear got swallowed OK. He's gagged a couple of times and brought up bits no probs.
Today we had fajitas so he had some soft tortilla, salad, pepper and a small finger of beef. He really enjoyed the tortilla and I could see him chewing some in his mouth, he was sucking happily on the beef and all of a sudden pulled it out, swallowed, took a deep breath and burst into full on crying. Hubby Took him out to comfort him but he just got more and more upset - only BF worked to calm him.

Has this happened to anybody? Its upset hubby so much he's talking about trying purees instead Does anybody have any idea what could have triggered it??

To me it sounds like he bit his finger! Even if they have no teeth, gums can be really hard! Ouch!

That actually sounds more likely than swallowing something sore coz he really seemed to be getting into it!

 

[purple_socks]

JJ. Kian has done this when sitting with us and not having food...he was happily playing with his spoon and toy food and he suddenly wailed (it was a propper big wail rather than his usual 'p*ssed off* sounds and as far as i could tell he hadn't done anything to himself coz we were watching him). And he's done it before when he's playing on the floor...nothing ever seems to b the matter and sometimes just saying 'what' in a funny voice makes him stop and smile.
Could just be that something made him jump...could b anything really. could b a random shooting pain (i know i get random shooting pains for no apparent reason every now and then?!). i don't think its anything caused by BLW. Unfortunately its hard to tell whats wrong with them because they can't actually tell us. If it was something to do with the food tho its actually a good learning curve. Babies learn how to handle food from things like gagging and if they swallowed something too large and it hurt. Its a bit like the fact we've all learnt not to do certain things because we did it before and it hurt (like standing infront of a moving swing...anyone else remember that as a child? never again eh?)

 

[joeyjo]

Its a bit like the fact we've all learnt not to do certain things because we did it before and it hurt (like standing infront of a moving swing...anyone else remember that as a child? never again eh?)

I once tried to step straight off the moving roundabout instead of going with the movement of it

 

[Lu28]

The only time Aisling has done that sudden crying thing is when she's accidentally bitten her finger like Claire said so I'd guess that might be what happened

We had a roast dinner at FIL's tonight and they were so impressed with the amount she ate! They've always been pretty critical so it was nice to see them coming around. Aisling was still working away on her dinner when we started our pudding of chocolate cake and I figured I'd give her a little of the sponge bit given that they're meant to have exactly what we have if we're properly doing BLW. She stopped eating her chicken and looked fascinated by the cake. She picked it up, put it in her mouth, pulled the funniest face, spat it out and started chewing on her parsnip again!!! Was really pleased and MIL was amazed!

She's refusing to eat fruit at the moment for some reason Just overnight a few days ago she stopped and won't take anything unless it's mushed in her porridge which I'm doing at the moment. Any ideas? She's eating everything else...

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Ruby is refusing tinned pears at the moment which she previously LOVED - she now takes them and then spits it all out. Having said that I gave her a tin from the Co op when previously they had been from Waitrose, so maybe she's just fussy!

I think phases of refusing a previously favoured food are really, really common in babies /young children, from what I understand.

 

[faille]

I know babies on puree go through stages of favouring sweet or savoury (usually refuse the savoury though) so I guess it's very plausible that it can happen with BLW too.

Or maybe she just doesn't "need" the fruit and "needs" the nutrients from the other food offered?

I wonder if it's just boredom of the same fruit as well? If it's something they have a lot of then they might be more fascinated by another piece of food that maybe they haven't had quite so much of?


Anyway, glad that Aisling showed everyone just how well BLW can work

 

[purple_socks]

Its a bit like the fact we've all learnt not to do certain things because we did it before and it hurt (like standing infront of a moving swing...anyone else remember that as a child? never again eh?)

I once tried to step straight off the moving roundabout instead of going with the movement of it

doh!



well done with the roast Aisling!

doesn't it say in the BLW book that babies will go through phases of eating certain types of food depending on what they need...infact wasn't there something abt eating certain food groups during certain seasons? (like stocking up on fats 4 winter?)

2day Kian had a really gross poo! (sorry if this is TMI) Since we started offering him stuff properly last week i've noticed a few little bits in his nappy but they generally looked and smelt the same as b4 but 2day was much darker, more solid (well not really solid but less runny) and was really stinky! there was also a massive bit of mushroom in there! i'm shocked that its having such an effect on his nappies already! he much be eating and digesting a lot more than i thought!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Yeah the nappies are a bit of a shock at first aren't they! Ugh.