BLW - Baby led weaning support thread

[TigerLady]

Kitten!

 

[Lu28]

Yay Kitten, that's great!!

Claire, sounds like Ruby's really getting the hang of things

Freya, I'd say Kirsten will get there in her own time, at least she's still drinking lots of milk so you know she's getting what she needs

Had Sunday dinner at MIL's yesterday and she couldn't get over how much Aisling ate, apparently she ate more than her 2 cousins would and they're 3 and 5 - won't eat veggies, literally just the chicken and potatoes

 

[kirsten1985]

Freya, I'd say Kirsten will get there in her own time

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Haha!

Lu I'm not surprised Aisling ate more than the 3 and 5 year olds tbh - my cousin's little girl (4) seems to live on thin air and is very fussy. Kids that age often seem to be 'bad' eaters. I just hope our babies carry on eating things like veg into childhood, I don't see why they wouldn't. Ruby currently eats more veg than my OH.

 

[kirsten1985]

Ruby currently eats more veg than my OH.

Same here, it's not hard though, my OH is so fussy. I keep trying to tell him that one of our reasons to BLW was to get us eating proper healthy meals....he seems to think he got out of that one.

 

[Mary Jo]

How do you know when to consider the meal over and start clearing up the food debris? I've read that some of your LOs have signals, like swiping the food onto the floor and pushing away from the table. Adam doesn't and I am a bit concerned I am taking stuff away before he is really finished - the only sign he's given is tired/eye rubbing, once. the rest of the time I think he'd go on for hours. but I don't want it to be an all-day thing and usually stop between 30-45 mins.

he's still really young so isn't eating a lot though everything goes in his mouth and gets sucked/licked/gummed. and if I brought out seconds or another course he'd be all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and keen to get going on that... am I meant to carry on while he is still showing interest?

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

At this stage I'd just let him go on for as long as you're both happy. He's not really eating yet, so he won't be 'full'. He probably just finds food very enjoyable to play with, when he starts to eat more he will probably want to stop once he is feeling full.

 

[TigerLady]

It took Otter a couple of weeks to give signs that he was done... well, maybe it just took me that long to realize what he was doing. They can be subtle.

Usually, he just gets distracted, stares off in the distance, etc. Sometimes he'll actually get fussy and pound on his tray, but not often.

TBH, if I really question if he is really done, I take a piece of food, hold it in front of him and ask him if he is done. If he doesnt take the food, then I know he is done. If he takes it, then I know he was just distracted for a minute.

 

[joeyjo]

I do much the same as TL.
Also G started pretty quickly to hold his arm out to the side & drop things over from his highchair if he doesn't want them. I usually offer something different at that stage and if he takes it I may reoffer the original stuff a bit later in the meal. If he drops loaded spoons of yoghurt I KNOW he's done - its rare for him to refuse yoghurt (i only give him plain natural yoghurt - no sugar or fruit in it but he loves it!)

 

[joeyjo]

Just gave G leftovers from the weekend - he had Moroccan lamb stew with couscous on Saturday but wasn't that into it.... today was a different story; he ate loads!! He chewed on a strip of lamb and bit a chunk off; he chewed it for ages & I can't find it so can only assume he swallowed it! He was unimpressed with the sweet potato bits in the stew but liked the tomato and onion pieces. I mixed the sauce into the couscous and gave him loaded spoons - he kept giving the spoon back to get more
I have decided tho' that when he wants to eat couscous is very messsy!! I found bits all over him and in his hair - which considering how little he has is pretty impressive!!!

 

[Lu28]

Freya, I'd say Kirsten will get there in her own time

Can you tell I'm a bit tired?!

 

[TigerLady]

^^ I didn't even catch that until Kirsten pointed it out... but it did have me

Actually it is very cute! Baby is parenting mummy... and just has to be patient... mummy will eventually figure these things out!

 

[Mary Jo]

thanks Claire, tigerlady and joeyjo

guess I'll let him have as much highchair time as he likes, he clearly does enjoy it. that said, tonight it was obvious when he'd had enough, he was exhausted and rubbing his eyes. think we ate a bit too late for him. poor thing was still so keen to try new things though. will need to bring dinner time forward I think.

 

[TigerLady]

Yeah, I have found it a struggle to make sure dinner time suits Otter. It needs to be relatively close to 530-600pm as DH and I are both starving when we get home... but Otter seems to think that is the pefect time for a nap!

Sometimes it makes it complicated.

 

[Lu28]

^^ I didn't even catch that until Kirsten pointed it out... but it did have me

Actually it is very cute! Baby is parenting mummy... and just has to be patient... mummy will eventually figure these things out!

Took me a couple of times reading over it to realise why it was funny, my brain really isn't working tonight!

 

[faille]

Violet can still take a good hour to eat her meals but when she's finished, I just kinda know. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is she does, it's a couple of subtle little things. Although the last few days, she pulls her bib off and plays with that whilst ignoring the food so I'm guessing that's a pretty obvious sign lol

We had spaghetti for the first time last night, and whilst I don't think she actually managed to eat much, she loved playing with it!
We also had houmous for the first time today (I've never had it before either) and that seemed to go down well too

We tried blueberry yogurt last week which she loved so I got some blueberries when we went shopping and just some natural yogurt and today she had rice krispies and chopped up blueberry coated in yogurt. Went down well and a very good alternative to having to get yogurt with sugar in.

 

[CloudyDay]

I'm new to BLW but completely on board w/ it! Can't wait to start! DS has been fighting the purees and spoon feeding a lot the last few days. I really hate that I could be developing negative associations for him to food/eating. So, we're going to give the solids a break for now, until I can go out and buy some foods to cut into baby-sized chunks for him.

I can't get a copy of Gill Rapley's book anytime soon so I'd love to get some support in the meantime from my fellow BnBers! Some questions I have:

1. BLW promotes offering baby food from our own dinner plates. How do you do that when your own dinner consists of many different ingredients that could potentially be allergenic? What happens to that "one new food every 4 days" rule, to help pinpoint any food allergies?

2. Any suggested foods to start w/ for BLW? DS has already tried pureed carrots, apples, sweet potatoes and banana pieces. Should I just start w/ those, cut into baby-sized pieces and steamed? Or, are there better foods to start w/?

I'm so excited to start! I'm off to do some Googling about long-sleeved bibs! Never heard of such things before!

 

[TigerLady]

1. BLW promotes offering baby food from our own dinner plates. How do you do that when your own dinner consists of many different ingredients that could potentially be allergenic? What happens to that "one new food every 4 days" rule, to help pinpoint any food allergies?

You don't follow such a "rule."
The only things you don't give are:
honey (botulism risk until age 1)
Whole nuts (choking hazard)
Anything of a size to be a choking hazard (usually described as grape sized)
Anything with a history of allergies in your or the father's family

Other than that, you make a healthy meal. Keep it low salt. And give LO a portion of it.

The other day we had soft tacos... I just got a veggie one for Otter. It had the soft shell, lettuce, tomato, rice, beans, cheese, guacomole, and sour cream. He tore right into it no problem.

2. Any suggested foods to start w/ for BLW? DS has already tried pureed carrots, apples, sweet potatoes and banana pieces. Should I just start w/ those, cut into baby-sized pieces and steamed? Or, are there better foods to start w/?

Fruit and steamed veg are good. Don't "cut into baby-sized pieces" as is normally thought of baby size. Big pieces are better. One of the MOST important rules of BLWing is to NOT feed LO. You offer the food and let them get on with it. Don't encourage them. Don't put it in their hands, don't (especially) put it in their mouths. That means they need to have pieces that are big enough to grab with their fist and still have part sticking out of their fist to get in their mouth.

As they get more skilled they will learn to manage smaller bits, but need bigger bits to start with.

If you can't get the book, make sure you know all the basic rules of BLWing first. In order to be done safely, it has to be done right. Make sure LO can sit up on his own without help. Put the food in front of him and (like I mentioned) don't help him with it in anyway. Even if he doesn't seem interested in it. He will pick it up and eat it when he is ready and able to handle it, not before. If you force it before, he might choke.

Also, don't intervene unless he is choking. Which is different from gagging. Gagging is normal for BLWing.

 

[CloudyDay]

You don't follow such a "rule."
The only things you don't give are:
honey (botulism risk until age 1)
Whole nuts (choking hazard)
Anything of a size to be a choking hazard (usually described as grape sized)
Anything with a history of allergies in your or the father's family

Other than that, you make a healthy meal. Keep it low salt. And give LO a portion of it.

Thanks! It's that simple, huh? I'm glad!

Fruit and steamed veg are good. Don't "cut into baby-sized pieces" as is normally thought of baby size. Big pieces are better. One of the MOST important rules of BLWing is to NOT feed LO. You offer the food and let them get on with it. Don't encourage them. Don't put it in their hands, don't (especially) put it in their mouths. That means they need to have pieces that are big enough to grab with their fist and still have part sticking out of their fist to get in their mouth.

As they get more skilled they will learn to manage smaller bits, but need bigger bits to start with.

Yup. I did come across those basic guidelines on the BLW and Gill Rapley's websites. What do you do when offering very soft foods that will break up in baby's grip? (e.g. fish) Do I wait until he's developed his pincer grip to intro those kinds of foods?

Letting baby call the shots... I soo love that aspect of it. It makes so much sense.

If you can't get the book, make sure you know all the basic rules of BLWing first.

I'd like to start BLW right away but the earliest I'll be able to get my hands on a copy of the book is a week. Are the basic guidelines on Gill Rapley's leaflet here: https://www.rapleyweaning.com/assets/blwleaflet.pdf enough for me to get started? Does the book give much more information than that that I absolutely must know before doing BLW?

 

[Boothh]

iv ordered the book now so should be here by the end of the week, iv been giving jesse real food for a while aswell as spoon feeding him, weve recently decided to stop the spoon feeding and go with blw route, we did a full day yesterday, and sunday, and he has coped fine but he has eaten a considerable amount of what iv offered, this morning i gave him breakfast, just a low sugar rusk and 2 halfs of banana on his tray, he hardly ate anything just mushed abit of banana and rusk in his face and squished it around then threw it on the floor, i know this is normal but i feel really guilty like hes hungry and im starving him! i know im not but im struggling not to feed him anything myself, hes perfectly happy playing now but i still feel bad, bit of advice please? xxx