BLW - Baby led weaning support thread

[joeyjo]

Boothh.
It must be really difficult after puree feeding him to see him not eating that much in the way of solids.
The good news is that he is interested in the food; it can take a while for even that to develop.
At the moment solids should just be complementary to the milk feeds anyway and most of his nutrition should come from milk. He will slowly start to get better at feeding himself; he needs to learn what food is etc etc.
We have about 1 meal every 2-3days where G eats lots, 1 meal a day he eats a reasonable amount and maybe 1 meal in every 2days where he is not AT ALL and drops everything on the floor if acknowledges its there at all.

 

[Tacey]

Can I have some advice ladies? I haven't started BLW in earnest yet as LO isn't 6 months yet, but I am giving her bits of fruit and veg which she is delighted by.She was playing with a banana today-I left a band of skin on and had a couple of inches of fruit poking ut the top. Almost straight away she'd squidged the banana out of the skin and had a mushy banana to contend with. She started getting really cross and frustrated that she couldn't pick it up (I know this is common). I wanted to ask whether it's better to let them keep on trying and work through their frustration, or to take the difficult food away so they don't associate meal times with being unhappy. What do you all do?

Also, any tips for making a banana easier to handle are gratefully received!

 

[Boothh]

thanks joeyjo, i know hes fine, he slept exactly the same since weve taken the purees out, and he hasnt been moody or grumpy or anything hes been the same so i know he isnt hungry, its just the thought that hes been having 3meals a day now hes just pikcing at things every meal time, im not gunna give up though cus i feel like this is the right thing for us, and he seems much more interested in food than purees, i think once i get the book and read it ill probably feel alot better, i just feel blind at the moment and cant see whats the best thing to do, i want to stick it out though because i want to give him a chance at this! xx

 

[Boothh]

Also, any tips for making a banana easier to handle are gratefully received!

im sorry i cant help you much with anything else but the banana thing i can,

i gave jesse some today just a peeled banana snapped in half, and he struggled once it went sludgy, so i had abit of a look on the internet, and iv seen people suggesting to roll it in crushed up biscuit or cereal to give it abit of grip, also you could try roasting them? when ever i have roasted or griled bananas they seem to go abit more firm on the outside so i imagine theyd be easier to hold for LO? xx

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Can I have some advice ladies? I haven't started BLW in earnest yet as LO isn't 6 months yet, but I am giving her bits of fruit and veg which she is delighted by.She was playing with a banana today-I left a band of skin on and had a couple of inches of fruit poking ut the top. Almost straight away she'd squidged the banana out of the skin and had a mushy banana to contend with. She started getting really cross and frustrated that she couldn't pick it up (I know this is common). I wanted to ask whether it's better to let them keep on trying and work through their frustration, or to take the difficult food away so they don't associate meal times with being unhappy. What do you all do?

Also, any tips for making a banana easier to handle are gratefully received!

I would let her work through the frustration. You could try offering some easy food and some difficult food at each meal. That's what I try to do, it doesn't always work though, Ruby just tends to eat all the easy food. I'm hoping that one day she'll just start eating the 'difficult' food.

I don't know about bananas, I just offer peeled chunks (which is not very often as I hate them!)

 

[TigerLady]

Cloudy, that handout is a good place to start!

As for banana, Otter still has loads of trouble with it, too. Actually, I need to offer it whole again as I haven't for a while. I tend to offer it mashed in a sandwhich. I usually let him work through his frustration... but I also try to always offer him something that he can handle. That way he doesn't have only food in front of him that he can't actually get to, iykwim?

Boothh, hang in there. It will get better. I am quite sure him not having 3 meals right now is more of a problem for you, then for him. He probably doesn't really notice the difference, especially if you are offering solids daily BLW style.

 

[Tacey]

Ooh, roast banana is an interesting idea! I'll give that a go. I think I'll also try offering her something easier at the same time. Thanks for the advice everyone. BLW would be so much harder without this thread!

 

[Babyshambelle]

Hiya ladies! Just popping in to say all is going fabulously with Liv and her eating. She has started doing the pincer grip much better which is making the whole thing an awful lot easier and we are getting much less waste cos she can get the little fist size bits in too!!

She is a little bit lazy with her chewing though, in the past few days I have had half grapes, strips of beetroot (which stained my nappies! ) pineapple chunks and nearly a whole little mini carrot in her nappies I wouldn't mind, but with my morning sickness it makes me feel a little bit when I see her little purple straining face dreading what I'm going to find in there

With bananas....I peal them and cut them in 3 lengthways, then each 'chunk' I then cut into strips downwards so I have a similar shape to what you would do a carrot like, if that makes sense. She has never had a problem doing it like this and always gets a good grip on them. xxxxx

 

[TigerLady]

I understand the !! Since getting pg again, I am really struggling with these weaning nappies!

 

[kirsten1985]

Lol Laura! I do feel sorry for you and TL, Freya pooed out half a mushroom this morning and it made me heave, I don't know how I'd cope with MS too!

As for the banana, I gave up with them til about 7.5 months, Freya will now eat half a banana as it is.

 

[Babyshambelle]

Lol Laura! I do feel sorry for you and TL, Freya pooed out half a mushroom this morning and it made me heave, I don't know how I'd cope with MS too!

As for the banana, I gave up with them til about 7.5 months, Freya will now eat half a banana as it is.

Hahahah, I don't think I'm going to be seeing a mushroom in her nappy any time soon....she thinks they are repulsive! Every time I offer them to her, she puts it to her mouth and then looks at me as if to say "mum, thats not food....its just plain disgusting" and does this little shudder and blows a raspberry as she spits it out. She makes is very clear when she doesn't want something!! She did the same thing at first with scrambled egg but then finally realised it was quite nice! Strange child

 

[kirsten1985]

Lol Freya does the shudder a fair bit, with broccoli, tagliatelle, scrambled egg, it's funny! I guess mushrooms are fairly hard to chew, lol.

 

[CloudyDay]

So now that I will be doing BLW, what shall I do w/ all the nicely frozen containers of veg purees in my freezer? I gave DS a frozen cube of pureed apples last night and he had fun w/ it... but it's winter so I don't think it was as nice a treat as it would be in the summer! And I don't think they'll still be nutritionally valuable come summer. What to do??

 

[Lu28]

Aisling now point blank refuses to eat banana at all in any shape or form so can't help there I'm afraid

Boothh, I was the same as you starting out, I had started Aisling on purees on silly docs advice and then was pretty paranoid when we fully switched to BLW because she knew what food was and just couldn't get it into her mouth so I was worried she was going hungry. I'm a bit of a wimp (!) so I ended up helping her more in the beginning that you're meant to e.g. I held things like banana for her if she was having alot of trouble so she'd pull my hand to her mouth and I'd hand her things more often than you're meant to. It meant it took her a bit longer to do it all independently but she got there and it stopped me panicking!

The others are right though, it's probably more for our benefit than theirs so if you can stick it out doing it properly then great!

 

[Lu28]

So now that I will be doing BLW, what shall I do w/ all the nicely frozen containers of veg purees in my freezer? I gave DS a frozen cube of pureed apples last night and he had fun w/ it... but it's winter so I don't think it was as nice a treat as it would be in the summer! And I don't think they'll still be nutritionally valuable come summer. What to do??

I stir mushed fruit into Aisling's porridge so that could work for the fruit ones. The veg and meat ones I spread on toast for her which she loved and is good for them so I'm actually making more now and then to have in the freezer for this

 

[Babyshambelle]

Cloudyday, I agree with lu with the fruit in porridge and puree on toast, you could also use them as sauces for pasta/spaghetti/noodles etc, make LO a 'pizza' and use puree as a sauce for the base, add it to stir fry vegetables....loads of things really! Anything you would use a sauce for yourself.

 

[TigerLady]

she thinks they are repulsive! Every time I offer them to her, she puts it to her mouth and then looks at me as if to say "mum, thats not food....its just plain disgusting" and does this little shudder and blows a raspberry as she spits it out.

This is so cute! Otter has done the shudder and look at me like "How dare you let me eat that" before... but has never spit it out. And usually goes right back to it and eats it in the end. Piggy child!

Otter is such a piggie that even his teacher at daycare was commenting today. She said, "He certainly knows what food is. Everytime I eat he looks at me like he expects me to share. This morning he was very upset that I wouldn't give him some of my Pop Tart."

Yes, my child suffers from serious food envy.

Great ideas for those purees, Ladies! I would have thrown them out! Not very creative, am I!!

 

[Lu28]

Otter needn't bother having food envy with a poptart, blugh!

I have a sweet potato and a parsnip that I keep meaning to puree for her toast, best get on and do that tomorrow before the grow roots

 

[TigerLady]

I know, Lu! Blech. But I SWEAR this child will eat anything! It is actually already worrying me as I am afraid I will have a constant battle with him to instill good eating habits and prevent him from overeating until FAT.

Don't feel bad about the sweet potato and parsnip. I have half a bag of potatoes about to sprout roots! Should really take care of that!

 

[faille]

Glad to see some new faces in here


Havent had time to read through the last couple of pages just wanted to share what I do with bananas...

Peel them completely and then cut in half.. Then cut each half in half again long ways, so it leaves nice long thin slices. I put the rounded edge on the tray so it doesn't stick and the flat edge fits nicely in V's hand.

I've noticed that she can pick up the banana no probs, she loses her grip when she tries taking a bite. So now I do the same as above (leaving one flat edge and one rounded) but cut it into smaller /biteable sections.

HTH someone x