BLW - Baby led weaning support thread

[CloudyDay]

Lu and Babyshambelle: I agree! How absolutely creative!! I have a question about the spreading on toast idea: according to most of the books I've read on baby nutrition, you should try to avoid introducing wheat until 12 months, to hopefully prevent the development of allergies. What do you think of that?? That's one of the things that's making it hard for me to get fully into BLW... I have to unteach myself all those rules I've learned.

 

[joeyjo]

Cloudyday - I have no family history of wheat intolerances and was told here (UK) that 6 months should be fine BUT I started BLW at 5 months so stuck to gluten free bread at first.
We eat a lot of wheat products so I will probably mix and match some gluten free pasta/bread in his diet just to limit the wheat products a little but I'm not going to worry about it too much.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Yeah, I agree with joeyjo. I think generally we tend to eat too much wheat, so I will be getting Ruby some wheat free pasta aletrnatives just to mix things up a bit.

I wonder if this was a fluke, it prob is, but...Ruby has, at the last 2 meals, shaken her head when she's finished eating!

 

[joeyjo]

First off - way to go clever Ruby shaking her head


Now a long post with questions about milk feeds and BLW
We started BLW proper (3meals a day) about 3 weeks the amount of solids that G actually ingests is pretty low (although their is some evidence in his nappies) and about once a day he has more food and once every couple of day he eats LOADS. We BF on demand and I usually fit 4-5 feeds in the day and 1 (and very occassionally 2 even more rarely none) overnight. He was averaging 6 feeds in 24 hours until about 3 weeks ago....

In the few weeks I've been BLW I've also been waking him up at 7:30 to try and squeeze more BF in the daytime to encourage him to sleep thru 12 hours instead of doing 3 then 9. HE was doing 10/11pm and then waking up at 8:30/9....I obviously did't mind too much if it didn't work coz I'm pretty lucky anyway.

I hope this is making sense so far...

Now this last week we had 1 sleep thru' night, 2 nights with a 9pm wake up then one horrid night (he was awake loads but didn't feed just wanted to practice crawling which he can't quite do yet) and the last 2 nights he has slept thru 7pm until 7:30am when I've woken him

All sounds great but I'm worried.

His milk feeds had dropped from 6 in 24hrs to 5; which was OK coz the 6th one for a while had been offered rather than demanded and got squeezed in with not much gap.

But... with starting to skip his night feed he's down to 4 milk feeds in 24 hours and to add to my concern he doesn't seem to be taking as much in feeds - he's only really taking 1 boob at a time, not draining it so much and not feeding as long. He had an EBM bottle on Saturday - he usually has 1 a week and takes about 6oz but he only took 4.5oz.

Is this normal? I didn't expect dropped feeds so early on with BLW. Should I be worrying? I've posted this in the BF forum too but would appreciate thoughts/experiences from all BLWs BF/FF as to what happened with milk feeds.

 

[Lu28]

Great that Ruby's shaking her head, I'd love Aisling to do that!

Joey, I replied in your other thread

 

[faille]

Joeyjo, I dunno if it'll help much because we FF but it took aprox 2.5 months for Violet to drop a bottle (she was only on 4 anyway). She went from having 32oz a day to 24oz (if she takes all that, realistically it's between 18-21oz).

It took her about a week to readjust herself to the times she'd want them but her eating also improved alot during that week and she went from just 'picking' at the food to really eating a significant amount. I dunno if the eating made her drop a bottle or she dropped a bottle because she started associating food with hunger (which definitely happened around that time).

Not sure how much that helps x

 

[CloudyDay]

joeyjo and mum2b: thans for sharing your experience w/ wheat. I don't have a family history of wheat allergies either but to be safe, I'll talk to the dr. first... I knew a lady who had a wheat allergy and it made life very difficult for her.

 

[cleckner04]

Just a quick question from me again. When Emma throws food off her tray or drops it off, I can give it back right? She tends to drop the food in her lap alot in her bumbo and I have just been putting it back on the tray. That isn't too much interfering is it?

 

[Lu28]

cleckner, I don't see a problem with that, if I didnt do that she'd eat hardly anything! I think you can see the difference between when they're throwing the food off because they're done and when it's accidental. Usually I put it back and she picks it up and eats it. If I put it back and she throws it off again straight away then she's done

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

That's fine IMO...in the early days if I never caught food on its way to floor and gave it back to her, meal times would be over pretty quickly, I don't have an infinite amount of food!

 

[cleckner04]

Okay good to know! Thanks so much girls. I agree mealtimes would be pretty short if I didn't give her the food back. She is still learning and some of the stuff is slippery. Today she had avocados. Not exactly the easiest food to hold onto.

 

[Boothh]

cleck i do this with jesse, we sort of swipes at stuff as hes tryna pick it up and it goes off the end of the tray sometimes i just put it back down again,

thanks for the advice again girls,

we had a problem last night as i was out shopping and my mum decided he was 'hungry' and gave him a baby jar and yoghurt,, spoon fed him obviously, i was soo annoyed i feel like shes undone my hard work and shes made me feel soo guilty that im not feeding him, i dont want to give up though cus hes doing really good and enjoying meal times alot more, he has a rice cake with dairylea on and a banana for breakfast, i mean he doesnt eat a whole lot at the moment but he has a good go at everything,

since weve started BLW though his milk has gone back up on purees he was on 4 8/9 oz bottles a day and now its gone back up to 5 8oz bottles a day, but i have to think he was eating three meals a day for quite a while so he probably is used to his stomach being fuller than it is with BLW yeah? x

 

[Boothh]

he had a cheese cube, cucumber sticks and bread sticks for dinner, he LOVED the cheese chomped nearly all of it, the breadsticks he sucked loads and hes still tryna figure the cucumber out hes managed to get some bits to his mouth and iv seen him licking it but not much else!

 

[cleckner04]

Boothh- Emma loves cheese too. She'll sit forever sucking and gnawing on cheese before she even notices anything else on the tray.

So I'm on day 5 of BLW and there is already evidence of it in Emma's diaper!

 

[Mary Jo]

Okay good to know! Thanks so much girls. I agree mealtimes would be pretty short if I didn't give her the food back. She is still learning and some of the stuff is slippery. Today she had avocados. Not exactly the easiest food to hold onto.

Cleck, I give avocado to Adam with the skin still on - a quarter of a smallish one is the perfect size for him to grip. I have to watch closely that he doesn't eat the skin as little bits break off but it wouldn't harm him anyway, and I don't think he'd swallow it unless it was tiny anyway.

So today - I am a bit shocked. I think he actually ate loads. I didn't see him do it, but then I didn't have my eyes on his mouth the entire time. I gave him 2 ricecakes broken into 4 halves (plain as we didn't have any spread suitable), a quarter of an avocado, a 3in piece of a quartered cucumber and 3 slices of tomato. At the end, after I'd picked the bits off the floor and highchair (very minimal), off him (ditto) and emptied his bib onto the table with his leftovers there was the avocado skin with about 1/3 of the flesh, the cucumber with about an inch of it with chew marks, a few bits of tomato skin/flesh and just 1/2 a ricecake. Am puzzled. I DEFINITELY didn't eat any of his as I might otherwise have, because I was consciously only having my own lunch, so as to get an idea of how much he was having. I've looked everywhere for some more bits of ricecake I might have missed but nothing. We don't have a dog, and our cat isn't even interested in dropped bts of chicken and salmon so it wasn't her.

I thought it would be weeks till he was having anything more than tiny bits...

 

[indy and lara]

Hi everyone

Haven't really posted here since Emma choked but just wanted to pop back on. We did stick with BLW although it was very tough at first as DH and I were paranoid about pieces getting stuck. However, Emma has taken it all in her stride and is very much a foodie these days!

She will eat basically anything we do! She is eating lots with just her hands but we do give her a preloaded spoon too. She is now amazingly competant with it and although bits end up all over her face, it is rare there is a spillage! Chilli and a baked potato has been an enormous favourite and there is barely anything left on the tray even though it is a hand fed meal. Rice pudding is another fav and I just do it in the rice cooker for 20 mins- both DH and I hate it but Emma loves it and I don't bother adding any sugar to it.

Just wanted to say to anyone who is swithering about BLW to give it a try. We had such a fright when Emma choked and I was ready to pack in and puree but I am so glad we stuck with it.

Want to share these piccies of Emma a few weeks ago tucking into a chicken casserole....

Lesley
x

 

[cleckner04]

MJ- Yeah I gave her one without the peel and one with just to experiment with her. Yay for AE eating a bunch!! Good for him. Which means less mess for you.

indy and lara- Awww She's adorable. I love seeing someone else using the bumbo and tray too. I don't know what I'd have done without my handy bumbo. I'm so sorry you guys had a scare with Emma choking. That must've been scary.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Lesley that's great to hear. Massive well done for persevering with BLW after the choking incident, that must have taken guts.

 

[TigerLady]

SO glad you stuck it out and it is going well!!

Now you all have me questioning wheat! The only wheat Otter has is bread... and I switch back and forth between wheat and oat bread, so he only has it for a week or so at a time, with a week or so break, etc. I wonder if this is a problem.

JJ, as for dropping feeds, Otter hasn't dropped any of his yet. Though I would be happy if he would consider dropping some of his night ones!!!!

OMG... Otter had his first nearly grown up pooey nappy last night!! Not good with me being pg!!! I want the non-stinky mustard poos back please!!!

I had suspected he had started eating loads more in the last couple of days... apparently I was right judging from that nastiness.

 

[NIfirsttimer]

hey everyone
TL otter & ruby seem to do everything at the same time.. just the last 2 weeks shes suddenly started eating LOADS!!! its fab, and she gets so enthuiastic about her food now!
she ADORES celery sticks with philidelphia in, and kiwi fruit too! tonight we had homemade veg soup (first attempt at new soup, much better than my usual... thank you jamie oliver ) with baked bread, carrot, broccoli, apple & banana! shes started to dunk a bit too which is good..makes getting soup into her a lot easier! also.. up until now she would spit out any big bits after retching on them, now she just retches, chews some more, then swallows! its amazing to see her progress, and it totally reassures me im doing it the right way!
also.. i saw some girls talk about milk loaf/ roll in another weaning thread & had to find out what it was, and its FAB! we both love it, and its the perfect shape / size for little hands to grip! a big wedge of that toasted with (unsalted) butter & fruit spread is going down a treat in the mornings, she gets so excited when i offer it to her!

still no sign of dropping a bottle her tho.. we are still on at least 40oz a day, on top of 3 decent meals & a snack!