BLW - Baby led weaning support thread

[Elliebank]

Oh & to add to what TL said about the loaded spoon, a good idea to get them used to dipping is to use things like carrot sticks that they can use to dip into things like hummous, so they can practice with that before they move onto a spoon. I think as they get older they start to want to use cutlery after they see the adults using it.

 

[TigerLady]

We call that baked or fried zuchinni here... yum yum! Esp if you dip them in ranch dressing....mmmmmm....

EB, I think Katie is the odd one out. I haven't heard of very many babies starting to sleep through when offered solids. Otter's poos are like that, too, but he isn't sleeping more. Maybe you are just super lucky!!!! Perfect timing as you are getting that soon and will need your sleep!

(And I am not envious of that sleep at all! )

 

[Elliebank]

EB, I think Katie is the odd one out. I haven't heard of very many babies starting to sleep through when offered solids. Otter's poos are like that, too, but he isn't sleeping more. Maybe you are just super lucky!!!! Perfect timing as you are getting that soon and will need your sleep!

I think it just must be a coincidence. Hope it lasts!!!

 

[faille]

Violet was already a good sleeper so we didn't notice any change to her sleep.

As for cutlery, as Elliebank said, it'll come with age / experience of BLW and their natural desire to 'copy' and mimic what you're doing.

As said in the bible, try offering a fork rather than a spoon if you want to encourage them to use cutlery as it's easier for them to pick things up with a fork than a spoon. Like Gill Rapley likes to point out - imagine eating your dinner with just a spoon!

As for the loaded spoon, Violet picked that up pretty quick although she likes diving her hands into the food whilst holding the empty spoon, rather than trying to scoop with the spoon lol

 

[purple_socks]

Kian was always a good sleeper 2 so it didn't make a difference. We've recently hit a phase of random night waking but its def not hunger...i think its either teeth or seperation anxiety.

I don't believe solids r the answer to night waking. IMO if they start getting hungry more often then its their body telling them they need more nurtients/calories to grow...offering more milk will provide far more nutriants and calories etc than solids. Solid food just 'fills' their tummy and takes longer to digest so they don't feel hungry (i consider that fullness to be a false satisfaction iykwim). did that make any sense?

anyway as for spoons etc...i offer a loaded spoon 4 yogart and i give him baby plastic cutlery to play with either b4 his meal is ready (to keep him entertained if his dinner needs to cool but he's already in the chair) or once he's had a good go with his hands (usually the brightly coloured cutlery distracts him so i let him have a go without it first). I think even if u don't offer cutlery at this age they will naturally become interested in it as they get older and they will know what to do with it from watching u.

and jayleigh whats the recipe for the courgette things? Kian luuurvs courgettes. He really likes strips of them them roasted and i generally end up putting them in most meals (actually we had them last night in a veggi chilly and the night b4 in a curry!).

We had mini pizza's for lunch...i put tomato puree, a slice of tomato and then a little bit of cheese on top of a rice cracker and grilled it. It went down very well...he ate a whole one (minus a few mushy bits that ended up on the floor).

 

[Lucy_lu_84]

Joshua can do the loaded spoon pretty well, but he's gotten into the habit of taking it off me banging it on the highchair try and then putting it to his mouth by which time there is no food left on it! lol

After a few days of him not picking up anything we had a break through today. my Oh gave him scrambled egg when I was at work and he said he did well with it. At tea time we had chicken, mash and veg. He dived into the mash with both hand and was ramming it into his mouth. he couldn't get it in fast enough ... his face was covered. it was so cute and so nice to see him eating again

 

[Elliebank]

We took Katie out for lunch on Monday & I just ordered her a side salad. I know you can give them some of yours, but how are you supposed to know how much salt has been added? Even with veg they are likely to have added salt. What do people do about this?

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

I just take the view that she doesn't normally eat salty stuff, so the odd thing with a bit of salt in it isn't going to hurt. Obviously I'll offer plenty of water. If we ate out a lot I might be more bothered though.

You're right to think about it though, A LOT of salt goes into restaurant food (my brother is a chef...)

 

[purple_socks]

the times we've been out and eaten we've offered little bits of ours then ordered Kian something to go with it (once we got him a side order of mixed veg and asked them to make sure there was no seasoning on it and another time we ordered him a kids mealf...was only 2.99 and he got a baked potato, some chicken and loads of veg AND salad! i might start ordering kids meals 4 myself coz u get lot for such little money!

 

[cleckner04]

Hey girls! :wave: Wanted to introduce myself. I plan on getting Emma started on solids in about a week or so. I'm getting nervous!! I see some of my fellow august mummies are already in here. Getting a head start on me I see. I have been sitting Emma in her highchair almost every day but she is so tiny that she can barely even see over the tray.

Would it be bad to just buy a tray for her bumbo and let her feed herself on that?

I haven't finished the book quite yet because life has been hectic but hopefully I can get up to speed within the next few days! I gave Emma a banana once so far. She mostly played with it because it was so slippery she couldn't get a good grip. But she did get it to her mouth once, made a face, than dropped it.

Anyways, hope you guys don't mind me joining in here! I admit I have not read a single page of this section so if I ask a question that's already been asked..Sorry!

 

[faille]

Hi cleckner04

We had to pad Violets highchair out so she was tall enough for the tray when we first started so don't worry about having to do that. Cant comment on the bumbo as we don't have one so I dont know how well it supports them - I'm sure the others will have better advice tho!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Hi Cleckner! Bumbo and tray sounds ideal - Ruby has always been a big girl but she had the 'barely seeing over the highchair tray' problem as well - so yeah I would save the highchair for when she's bigger. Ruby unfortunately got too big for the bumbo tray to be used, before she was ok in the highchair so we had to buy a different one. Ah well.

 

[Mary Jo]

hey cleck

decided to move Adam along from the vegetables and see how he'd react to something else, so yesterday I did us rice cakes halved and spread with cream cheese and mashed avocado, and a banana - he managed great with the rice cakes, they were just the right size for him to grip and he sucked them quite a lot and I saw him chewing. the banana - I peeled each half halfway down so he could hold the bottom part, he managed better with the stalk end, and chewed a fair bit.

and today his poo has been different. I didn't think he'd ingested much but he must have, I haven't changed anything else, he's been getting Aptamil as usual... it's been the first poo that held its shape and I could peel off the cloth liner and flush! that felt like a bit of a milestone (hope he does more like that, he's been pooing for England the last month, 4x a day. )

so today I decided we'd have breakfast together so we both had porridge. it is ok to give them normal porridge oats, isn't it? I cooked them with milk and then mixed in some more milk to cool, and it ended up pretty thick. I loaded a spoon and he took it from me and it was straight in his mouth and bits of porridge went EVERYWHERE. had a feeling he'd be ok with a spoon as we sometimes give him Dentinox colic drops before bed and he has been trying to take the dropper from me. obviously he couldn't get the porridge out of the bowl with the spoon himself but he went in with his hands and got handfuls out... it was funny and cute and messy.

does anyone have recommendations for overalls for him and something to cover the floor? I'd like something I know is clean each time so I can get big bits of dropped food and let him have them again.

 

[Tacey]

I haven't actually started BLW properly yet, bu have a question. I often cook with wine in things like gravy or bolognaise sauce. I've heard that when you cook it through properly, the alcohol content is removed, but is it safe for babies? I suppose I could always hold back some food separately for Alice when I'm using alcohol.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Yeah the alcohol is burnt off - but wine can contain some things that you might not want LO to have, certain chemicals. I think when Ruby is eating large quantities of our dinners I'll stick to organic wines.

 

[cleckner04]

Hi Cleckner! Bumbo and tray sounds ideal - Ruby has always been a big girl but she had the 'barely seeing over the highchair tray' problem as well - so yeah I would save the highchair for when she's bigger. Ruby unfortunately got too big for the bumbo tray to be used, before she was ok in the highchair so we had to buy a different one. Ah well.

When you used the Bumbo did you just have her sitting on the floor or where did you sit her? I'm thinking I can easily just sit her on the floor and than sit down there with her picnic style. But I didn't know if that'd be weird.

 

[tmr1234]

Cleckner~ wellcome over Lucas can hardly see over the tray on his high chair so i put a follded blanket under his bum so he is high anof.

MJ~ i got lucas some bibs with arms these
https://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370170092242&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT also a shower curten under the high chair dose good as it can wipe clean.

A.F.U
Lucas is going good loves cheese strips atm and crumpets. When he pooed yesterday you could see he had eaten some. Gunna try him with weetabix agane this am so i know he will need a bath after such fun lol

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Hi Cleckner! Bumbo and tray sounds ideal - Ruby has always been a big girl but she had the 'barely seeing over the highchair tray' problem as well - so yeah I would save the highchair for when she's bigger. Ruby unfortunately got too big for the bumbo tray to be used, before she was ok in the highchair so we had to buy a different one. Ah well.

When you used the Bumbo did you just have her sitting on the floor or where did you sit her? I'm thinking I can easily just sit her on the floor and than sit down there with her picnic style. But I didn't know if that'd be weird.

You could do that, definitely, but mostly we just sat her on the table in the bumbo. Maybe that is weird though!

 

[kirsten1985]

Haven't been in here for a few days and there are loads of new people!

I just wanted to say I gave Freya a bowl of weetabix about 15 mins ago and the bowl is still on the table! I must say I am regretting it though as we have to leave for swimming in 10 mins and she is covered head to toe in the stuff, lol.

Oh and we got some long sleeved bibs from Ikea, they were really cheap and seem to do the job (when we bother to use a bib!).

 

[purple_socks]

Hey girls! :wave: Wanted to introduce myself. I plan on getting Emma started on solids in about a week or so. I'm getting nervous!! I see some of my fellow august mummies are already in here. Getting a head start on me I see. I have been sitting Emma in her highchair almost every day but she is so tiny that she can barely even see over the tray.

Would it be bad to just buy a tray for her bumbo and let her feed herself on that?

I haven't finished the book quite yet because life has been hectic but hopefully I can get up to speed within the next few days! I gave Emma a banana once so far. She mostly played with it because it was so slippery she couldn't get a good grip. But she did get it to her mouth once, made a face, than dropped it.

Anyways, hope you guys don't mind me joining in here! I admit I have not read a single page of this section so if I ask a question that's already been asked..Sorry!

Hi cleckner
We used a bumbo and tray until very recently and that worked well 4 us. The only down side was that the tray was really small so food went over board quite often.