BLW - Baby led weaning support thread

[Mum2b_Claire]

Can i come in or will i get told off for starting to early

Come on in
The thing with BLW is that LO won't eat if it's too early, so there's never any harm done by starting early.

 

[faille]

Just poking my nose in to see how everyone's doing. Great to see so many new faces doing BLW

we're going to start BLW soon, I offered Jacob some banana yesterday and carrot today today just to see what he made of it all, he made the funniest face when the banana hit his mouth and then threw it on the floor, with the carrot he just chucked it on the floor and wasn't really that interested. Does this mean it's still a wee bit early and he's maybe just not quite ready yet?

TBH hun, he probably doesn't have a clue what it is or what to do with it. The first few weeks are all about playing and learning and experimenting so don't be discouraged at all if food doesn't even go anywhere near his mouth!

Special_Kala, don't worry about starting "early" - they can't eat until they're ready too and a lot of us started about 5-5.5months old.

 

[faille]

I'm back again! Things have been going quite well now that I've relaxed my rigid hangups. DS is getting more variety at his meals and takes in more of the food at most meals.

I'm nearly done reading the BLW book. There's a few things that are nagging at me but I'll just ask about the most pressing one: I find it difficult enough to juggle bottle feeds with the meals (if I feed a bottle too close to a meal, DS is not hungry enough to have much interest in his solids yet don't want to feed solids first then the bottle... he's still too little for that). Breakfast is the one meal that is never consistent... sometimes we have it, sometimes we don't. Mornings are just so packed full and short that we can't always make time for breakfast.

When I do make time for breakfast, we eat what I normally eat for my breakfast - yoghurt. It's an easy, quick, nutritious breakfast. I also throw in some Nutrios for DS to go w/ his yoghurt but that's all he's been getting for all his breakfasts (when we do have them).

I know the book says to try not to feed the same foods all the time. I know that variety is so much healthier but the reality is, I don't have time in the mornings to offer variety! It's already enough to make lunch and dinner different!!

What do you all do about breakfasts?? Is it okay for DS to only eat yoghurt/nutrios at every breakfast??

We struggled with finding the right time to offer solids for quite a while.. It's all trial and error and finding 'patterns' about when LO is most interested in food.
We eventually found that for us, it was a roughly 2hr gap after having milk (and 2hrs before next milk feed was due). But obviously every baby is different and it did take a bit of experimenting tbh.

For breakfast, Violet gets cereal with plain natural yogurt. I differ the cereals (but only once they've run out so she has at least a week of the same cereal) and I sometimes vary the yogurt by adding fruit spread to it. TBH, it's only one meal and it's not exactly the same thing every day every week. She has variety on a weekly basis rather than a daily one tbh as we get supplies for a week - if I got enough to give huge variety for everyday then everything (fruit and veg etc) would go off by time she's got to eat it!

 

[Lu28]

Hiya, I'm poking my head back in too, seems like it's been ages since I've been in here!

Lovely to see so many new BLWers, you're all getting on so well! I remember the juggling to start with, it was horrible. It did calm down though once she started taking less milk

We're pretty dull with breakfast, it's porridge just about every morning, oops! She eats tonnes of porridge so nothing else seems to fill her up now

We had a bit of a funny one tonight though. I made sweet potato chilli (yum!) and it was pretty spicy but she was loving it. About 75% of the way into it, she started crying, really sobbing and I've no idea what was going on. It was pretty spicy but she'd been fine with it until then and all the time she was crying, she was shoveling more handfuls of it into her mouth? She ended up finishing all of it so I took her for a walk around the house and she was happy then for a yoghurt and some raisens. Can only think it was too spicy but she liked it too much to stop!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

Lu are you sure she didn't bite her finger or something?

 

[special_kala]

We started BLW about a week ago and River seems to be doing really well.

Everything goes straight in her mouth and she does this chewing motion or if its meat sucks the life out of it.

We do porridge in the morning off a pre loaded spoon and she loves it. Im sooo glad we chose BLW over traditional as even now she knows what food it (sort of) if i try and put the spoon in her mouth or put food in her mouth she refuses to open it

We have had one instance of gagging and she did well cleared it herself though it did have to be infront of the inlaws who panicked and then the next time they saw us said "has she choked again" I did point out that she hs never choked.

Im trying to offer it 2 hours after a bottle (were on a 4 hour bottle routine) so it doesnt stop her needing her milk to soon

 

[Lu28]

Lu are you sure she didn't bite her finger or something?

I can't say for sure but I don't think so

 

[Lu28]

Lu are you sure she didn't bite her finger or something?

I can't say for sure but I don't think so

Given the state of the nappy I just changed, she's either teething or it was a bit too spicy!

 

[joeyjo]

Lu are you sure she didn't bite her finger or something?

I can't say for sure but I don't think so

Given the state of the nappy I just changed, she's either teething or it was a bit too spicy!

nice suddenly not fancying my snack!
Hope she her tummy gets better soon for u both!

 

[TigerLady]

Lu, she sounds like me... if something tastes good I will power through any spicy induced pain to eat it.

Otter had corn on the cob for the first time last night. It was hilarious seeing him try to figure it out. He would VERY intently watch me eat mine, then look down at his and try to pick it up with this look on his face: He never did quite make heads or tails of it, but did manage a couple of small bites.

 

[Shiv]

Things are going well here, I think Sophia had her first "proper" poo yesterday. It was a very thick paste and there was tons of it! So she must be eating some, althoguh I must admit I look forward to the day when her tray is nearly empty and I don't find it all on her lap!! There is still so much "wasted food"!

 

[joeyjo]

George is seeming to eat about half his food now and I think part of the bits he leaves are him being lazy because if its something he really likes he eats the whole piece! With other things like tomatoes he loves them but they do get slippery and difficult.

Tomatoes are funny because he'll eat any but I bought posh plum tomatoes last week and offered them alongside normal ones and after tasting the normal ones he threw them on the floor and started waving the skin of the posh tomato at me & shouting.... i gave him another segment of from the posh ones and he dived on it!!

He's also working on his pincer grip - he can mange grated cheese and pasta shells but sweetcorn and peas are still a it small for him.

 

[craftymum]

I gave Jacob some broccoli and carrot tonight while we were having our dinner, he wasn't too interested in the carrot but was really intrigued by the broccoli, when he eventually managed to get a grip of it and ate some he gagged, started coughing like mad and then threw up all over his highchair tray please tell me this is normal as it's quite scary to see

 

[CloudyDay]

Okay, sooo glad to hear I'm not alone in the "same thing for breakfast" club! DS is enjoying the plain yoghurt and cereal right now so I won't be changing things until he starts refusing either. Great idea to add jam to the yoghurt for some flavour! Unfortunately, the box of cereal is HUGE and he only eats a tiny handful each day so the cereal won't be changing for about a month.

Anyone have ideas for other easy breakfast foods??

BTW, it's still a struggle to manage DS's naps, bottle feeds and BLW meals but I think just talking about it helped to take the stress off. I know things will just work out in time.

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

George is seeming to eat about half his food now and I think part of the bits he leaves are him being lazy because if its something he really likes he eats the whole piece! With other things like tomatoes he loves them but they do get slippery and difficult.

Tomatoes are funny because he'll eat any but I bought posh plum tomatoes last week and offered them alongside normal ones and after tasting the normal ones he threw them on the floor and started waving the skin of the posh tomato at me & shouting.... i gave him another segment of from the posh ones and he dived on it!!

He's also working on his pincer grip - he can mange grated cheese and pasta shells but sweetcorn and peas are still a it small for him.

haha Ruby seems to prefer any 'posh' food I happen to buy. She likes the expensive baby plum tomatoes way more than normal cherry tomatoes. And she likes salmon fish fingers but so far doesn't like the cheap ones!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

I gave Jacob some broccoli and carrot tonight while we were having our dinner, he wasn't too interested in the carrot but was really intrigued by the broccoli, when he eventually managed to get a grip of it and ate some he gagged, started coughing like mad and then threw up all over his highchair tray please tell me this is normal as it's quite scary to see

Yes this is normal. Ruby hasn't done that but I've heard loads of the girls on here saying their LO has done that.

 

[TigerLady]

@ ruby having posh tastes!

CD, I find eggs to be easy -- scrambled or over hard (so they aren't runny). And Otter likes them.

 

[CloudyDay]

Had two crummy meals in a row: last night's dinner and breakfast this morning. DS kept getting cranky and angry at me, angrily swiping at his tray and rocking back and forth in his high chair. He didn't like any of the new foods I offered him then stayed mad until I gave him some foods he likes.

I don't want him to start learning that he doesn't need to eat things that he doesn't want to and then will get foods that he does like if he stays mad. But, I'm reluctant to end his meals early when he gets like this because he hasn't gotten much in and still seems hungry. What should I do if he gets into these fits?

I've also been giving him practice using a spoon at breakfast w/ his yoghurt. I've been trying to show him that he can't throw the spoon around or wave it around like a toy. So, when he throws it to the ground or waves it around playfully, I say "No" then take it away for a few minutes. He got so angry at me every time I took it away.

Is he too young for "No" right now?? He seems to understand it because we've worked on him drinking from a cup and were able to teach him not to shake the cup by saying "No" and taking it away.

I keep hitting these bumps as DS and I go through BLW together... it seems so much smoother and enjoyable for all of you when I read about your experiences.

 

[Lucy_lu_84]

Cloudy day : its not always smooth, we had a nightmare and I nearly thru in the towel! My LO still throws and waves his spoon around...i'm not really trying to teach him No tbh, I don't want to turn it into a game. Not sure if I should be teaching him no or not tbh!

Dunno what to do about offering more... I try not to offer something I know he likes if he doesn't eat what we give. It its something he likes previously I just let him get on with it and if he doesn't eat he has his milk anyway so it's not to much of an issue

 

[TigerLady]

I don't know what others do, but I don't offer more or something different if Otter doesn't eat what I give him. I just figure he'll make it up in milk later on (and he usually does). There are meals where he doesn't eat hardly anything at all. And meals when he is fussy and mad. I just do what I can to ignore him while DH and I eat... or talk to him to try to distract him. Then I finish my meal asap, clean him up and move on to the next.

I don't think ANYone doing BLW (or TW) has perfect experiences 100% of the time. Babies are not built to be that cooperative!