BLW - Baby led weaning support thread

[Lu28]

God we're all having issues at the moment! Aisling is driving me insane, some meals just point blank refusing to eat anything but if a rice cake appears, she'll happily munch on that. I don't want to keep giving her sweet stuff but don't want her to go hungry either

Fantastica, I think we've all had times like this when things are just frustrating, it does get better though. I doubt the tummy pains are related to BLW though

Cleckner, you poor thing, that must have been really scary I second Claire, maybe do baked apple instead?

Kirsten, we've been having some weird poo days too although the food is usually digested. Sweetcorn doesn't digest for anyone though so don't worry about that. I'm not sure if there's a connection with teething but I wonder if their tummies are a bit out of sorts with teething, are things passing through more quickly than usual so their bodies don't have time to break all the food down?

 

[kirsten1985]

Yeah maybe Lu. Nothing is being digested properly, it's not normal at all and has been going on almost a week now! Hope it stops soon.

cleckner, scary when that happens, hope you're ok now! I agree, maybe raw apple is a bit hard.

 

[Lu28]

Ok, need a bit of advice please. Aisling's eating is seriously driving me nuts now

She has only really eaten one dinner out of the last 4 and that was because it was her favourite. For everything else, she's just sat in her highchair rocking backwards and forwards moaning. Tonight she had omelette and baked potato. She hadn't had baked potato before but I can't see what there is in it that she wouldn't like. She has had omelette before and liked it but tonight point blank refused. Same on Friday, shepherds pie which she used to like. I had been thinking it was her teeth because I think the top ones might be coming in soon but they're not so sore that she can't eat yoghurts, rice cakes, porridge and toast etc.

Anyone have any ideas? Her sitting in her chair rocking like that and moaning just sets my teeth on edge and I have to keep myself from shouting at her now. She also does it during the day alot now regardless of what we're doing unless it's something different every 5 minutes. So by the time it gets to dinner, I can't stand the sound of it anymore

She ate a cheese stick for dinner and that's it, we decided we weren't going to offer yoghurts or rice cakes as we usually would in case she's refusing her main dinner to get to the bit she likes - and there was me thinking that wasn't meant to happen with BLW?

Sorry for the essay, just extremely frustrated!

 

[kirsten1985]

Lu, we have a similar thing sometimes, although not as often as you by the sounds of it. We also have had to stop ourselves giving her other stuff like fruit/yoghurt incase she thinks she is getting what she wants.

I think the best thing is to stay calm and not worry about it, I sometimes find myself talking about Freya, or looking at her, or poking food in her direction and if I ignore her completely she may start to eat a bit. Other times it takes her til we have finished to eat stuff. Occasionally she deliberately picks everything up and throws it across the room, a trick she only mastered a few days ago, and a very annoying one!

I think maybe they are getting to an age where they know the things they prefer to eat and think they can get away with not eating stuff they are not so keen on. I think I would continue to offer proper stuff and just hope it passes. Try ignoring her a bit too, and just chatting with your DH as if she is not there, lol. Works here anyway.

Hope it passes, it's really hard to tell why they're doing stuff like that isn't it.

 

[kirsten1985]

Well we just had a right tea time palava. Since Freya has really mastered her pincer grip (about 3 weeks ago properly) she has been eating less and less large pieces of food, and only really enjoys eating tiny pieces for some reason?! So tonight she refused lasagne, her favourite, and I gave in (because she has a cold and hasn't eaten all day ) and got her diced carrots, diced cauliflower, peas, blueberries, rasperries and some chopped up mango.

Is this ok? She ate it fine, but I am dreading the next dirty nappy now! Is this a phase some babies go through? Will she eat normally again?!

 

[JayleighAnn]

Seems like were all having problems with eating

Halen decided tonight he didnt want lamb casserole, he wanted to wipe his tray with it and then swipe it all off and watch it fall onto the settee, then sit there sucking the juice off his fingers
Everyone keeps telling him he's such a good boy and he should eat it all up blah blah when we're at other peoples houses and its driving me INSANE! No one listens when we say not to, they go "ooohh it was different in my day" then carry on

 

[Lucy_lu_84]

Gosh what is going on with our babies!

My LO still won't feed himself... opens his mouth and lauches at food I offer. If i don't hold something out to him he rocks and moans in his high chair.

he had cheesey mash, lamb, and veg tonight. usually loves mash, but he decided he was going to pick his peas up and drop them onto the floor. Followed by throwng everything off the tray! Argh

He will eat yoghurts tho, so thinking we'll stop offering them to.

Just getting so frustrating...

 

[TigerLady]

What's with all these stubborn babies??

We haven't gone through a phase like that yet, so I don't really have any advice. Sorry! But I will be watching closely for what happens so I know what to do when it does happen to us.

Lu, I don't have any idea if this will help or not, but do you have something else you can set Aisling in? Like a bumbo? Or maybe try a picinic on the floor? Do you think a change of scenery/sitting might help? Maybe go out for dinner one night and see if that encourages her to get out of her funk??

C, I am so sorry to hear about Emma choking. That had to be so scary. You did the right thing, though, which makes you a good mom, not a bad one! I agree with maybe baking apple for a bit. Don't let it put you off BLW, though. Choking can happen with purees, too!

So far Otter is still doing well. We went to dinner at MIL's last night and he ate loads of BBQ ribs, broccoli, cauliflower, and egg noodles. He even gnawed on the rib bones. I think they felt good as he is teething BAD right now. Then, we had carrot cake for dessert. I couldn't let everyone eat in front of him, so gave him some. It was homemade with good ingredients, so wasn't too bad. He LOOOOOVED and would have gobbled down the whole cake if I offered it! MIL was right impressed with him.

Oh, and he cut his first two bottom teeth on Friday. They are still trying to poke all the way up, but you can feel one and see the other. Poor guy.

 

[cleckner04]

Thanks so much girls! I will definitely bake the apples whenever I give her some next. I guess we live and learn right?! I am wondering if this is against BLW 'rules'.https://www.amazon.com/Nuby-Nibbler...ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1265674094&sr=1-3 ...I have one of these but didn't know if it was okay to use.


So sorry to everyone that is having issues with their babies wanting to eat. I'm so new to this so can't offer any advice but wanted to send everyone hugs!

 

[TigerLady]

My friend has one of those and LOVES it. She kept trying to get me to get one, but I never did as I didn't really think it necessary for Otter and didn't think it fit well with BLW.

BUT, you don't have to follow every rule to a T. Just the ones that make sure they have a safe, happy overall learning experience. IMHO, if you find something that really works for you and your baby and it doesn't undo what they are learning with they BLW, then go for it.

If you already have it, try it. See what Emma thinks. If it is a big hit and doesn't seem to take her backwards on being able to eat BLW style, then I don't see a problem with it.

My friend liked it best when LO was teething. She would but cold, almost frozen fruit in it and her LO would munch it to help with teething.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Well we just had a right tea time palava. Since Freya has really mastered her pincer grip (about 3 weeks ago properly) she has been eating less and less large pieces of food, and only really enjoys eating tiny pieces for some reason?! So tonight she refused lasagne, her favourite, and I gave in (because she has a cold and hasn't eaten all day ) and got her diced carrots, diced cauliflower, peas, blueberries, rasperries and some chopped up mango.

Is this ok? She ate it fine, but I am dreading the next dirty nappy now! Is this a phase some babies go through? Will she eat normally again?!

Yes Ruby is the same. She only really wants 'small' food. She throws her strips of toast after a few bites, so I chopped them in half. The food will be practically pureed at this rate
I think it might be a lazy thing, I guess it's easier to pick something small up and pop it straight into their mouth whole, than to bite off a bit and keep hold of it for the next bite.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Ok, need a bit of advice please. Aisling's eating is seriously driving me nuts now

She has only really eaten one dinner out of the last 4 and that was because it was her favourite. For everything else, she's just sat in her highchair rocking backwards and forwards moaning. Tonight she had omelette and baked potato. She hadn't had baked potato before but I can't see what there is in it that she wouldn't like. She has had omelette before and liked it but tonight point blank refused. Same on Friday, shepherds pie which she used to like. I had been thinking it was her teeth because I think the top ones might be coming in soon but they're not so sore that she can't eat yoghurts, rice cakes, porridge and toast etc.

Anyone have any ideas? Her sitting in her chair rocking like that and moaning just sets my teeth on edge and I have to keep myself from shouting at her now. She also does it during the day alot now regardless of what we're doing unless it's something different every 5 minutes. So by the time it gets to dinner, I can't stand the sound of it anymore

She ate a cheese stick for dinner and that's it, we decided we weren't going to offer yoghurts or rice cakes as we usually would in case she's refusing her main dinner to get to the bit she likes - and there was me thinking that wasn't meant to happen with BLW?

Sorry for the essay, just extremely frustrated!

That sounds very frustrating.
Do you think they have the capacity yet to deliberately refuse their main course to get to the next bit quicker? I'm not sure Ruby does anyway. But if Ruby does eat loads of fruit after ignoring the savoury then I assume that she needed the fruit more. Maybe Aisling just fancies more bland foods at the moment for whatever reason.
As you're offering all healthy foods then personally I think it's ok she's just wanting a few foods at the moment and ignoring the rest. I'm sure it's a phase.
As none of us believe in forcing/cajoling our babies into eating we don't really have a choice, do we, other than to let them get on with eating what they want. It's tough at times though isn't it.
I met up with my antenatal class friends yesterday and they are all reporting that mealtimes are a battle...

 

[kirsten1985]

Well we just had a right tea time palava. Since Freya has really mastered her pincer grip (about 3 weeks ago properly) she has been eating less and less large pieces of food, and only really enjoys eating tiny pieces for some reason?! So tonight she refused lasagne, her favourite, and I gave in (because she has a cold and hasn't eaten all day ) and got her diced carrots, diced cauliflower, peas, blueberries, rasperries and some chopped up mango.

Is this ok? She ate it fine, but I am dreading the next dirty nappy now! Is this a phase some babies go through? Will she eat normally again?!

Yes Ruby is the same. She only really wants 'small' food. She throws her strips of toast after a few bites, so I chopped them in half. The food will be practically pureed at this rate
I think it might be a lazy thing, I guess it's easier to pick something small up and pop it straight into their mouth whole, than to bite off a bit and keep hold of it for the next bite.

Yes I guess it could be laziness. At nursery they all get the same meal so if Freya doesn't eat it, she doesn't eat. It was cheese and potato pie yesterday and peaches for pudding and she ate nothing. She had a bottle after so wasn't hungry, but it is a bit frustrating when I have been going on and on about how good BLW is to them.

Do you think this will pass then?

Oh and Lu, I am going to start giving Freya her 'main' and 'pudding' together, she happily ate little bits of fruit with veg yesterday and it means she is getting what she wants and what I want too!

I don't know...these babies!

 

[Lucy_lu_84]

Well Lo wouldn't touch his tea, but while I was at work he ate a whole slice of cheese on toast and some organic crisps things! Looks like he will eat for Daddy and not for me! lol

 

[Lu28]

Well today was much better, maybe she thought she'd better get some in her after not being offered yoghurt and rice cakes yesterday!

Claire, I'm in 2 minds about whether they can decide not to eat their mains in order to get their sweet things but I guess given that she didn't eat anything, I could just say that she mustn't be hungry?! And her body certainly doesn't need rice cakes!

Today she ate all her porridge with fruit stirred in, all her toast with sweet potato and parsnip puree on it and a decent amount of lasagne with baked potato, followed by some raisens and 2 Activia fruit layer yoghurts! I don't understand it

I've basically decided that if she point blank refuses to touch her main then I'm not going to offer anything else. If she does have a go at her main then fair enough I'll give her more. And I'm banning rice cakes for a while!

She didn't do the rocking at least which was something, maybe she just does it when she doesn't like what I've cooked!

 

[Lu28]

Oh, meant to say as well, I posted a while back that Aisling had started refusing fresh fruit so I started on those fruit pots with juice. She then started refusing them so I started dried fruits (eg dried apricots). Now she's started refusing that too The only fruit she'll eat now are raisens (and she ate them yesterday for the first time, thought they were toys before that! ) and fruit smush which I still into her porridge - any ideas? I thought at first that maybe she didn't need the fruit at that stage for some reason but it's been like a month now

Lucy, sounds like a daddy's boy, daddy might have to take over one of your tasks from now on!

 

[joeyjo]

Sorry to hear some of u are having issues - like Tigerlady I'm nterested as how to tackle possible future issues.

We are still having hit and miss days but yesterday he ate really well -
roast veggies - butternutsquash, carrot, sweet potato & asparagus
he much prefered the squash to the other root veg and it was interesting watching him taste testing all the "chips" to find the ones he wanted
also transferring the asparagus between his hands to get at more of it.

It's soo amazing watching his skills develop.

Today we met a friEnd for coffe and George ate more than half of my croissant not sure how good for him that was but I decided it was better than cake

 

[TigerLady]

Lu, maybe offer fresh fruit again? When is the last time you tried it? She might have changed her mind and come full circle.

 

[Lu28]

Lu, maybe offer fresh fruit again? When is the last time you tried it? She might have changed her mind and come full circle.

You're probably right, the little tyke! It's been a while actually, I was getting disheartened at all this lovely food being thrown to the dogs!

 

[Lu28]

Today we met a friEnd for coffe and George ate more than half of my croissant not sure how good for him that was but I decided it was better than cake

Sounds like George is doing great!

I wouldn't worry about the croissant, it's not like it's an everyday thing