BLW - Baby led weaning support thread

[craftymum]

thanks mum2b, think I'll try the pre loaded spoon, does it have to be bay porridge or is normal porridge from oats ok?

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

No it doesn't have to be baby porridge, any cereal is ok (apart from the obvious watch out for too much salt, sugar)

 

[florabean1981]

i'm kinda unsure as to whether what we're doing is blw or not, lol! So far, harry has had baby porridge & a baby tropical fruit cereal for breakfast, which I give him the first quarter spoon fed by me, then the rest on pre-loaded spoons, which may or may not make it to his mouth- I'd say he eats about half of what I make for his brekkie.
This week, I started giving him finger foods (broccoli, green bean, baby corn, carrot stick, sweet potator mash in a little bowl & some normal mash in a bowl & nectarine chunks). the only things he been interested in are raw carrot sticks (not the cooked one tho, lol), sucking the nectarine cunks to death, gumming the grren bean n baby corn, no interest at all in the mash- spat it out, poked it a few times, but he did eat about 1/2 a head of broccoli (lovely nappiy there, lol).

We had a little scare with choking on a baby rusk (not breathing, scared the living hell out of me, which put me off blw, but have got rid of the rusks now & when he's had the regular food that we're having, he hasn't gagged at all).

Sooo.... Is this blw? lol. Sorry, this whole weaning thing is confusing & scary for us!!!

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

BLW mean no spoonfeeding at all, a combo of spoonfeeding and finger foods is TW. so you're not doing BLW but if you're happy doing TW then that's obviously fine!

 

[florabean1981]

hehe, thanks I guess I am TW then.

 

[joeyjo]

I've started doing sandwiches for George when we are going to be out for lunchtime - so far the main base has been cheese spread! I use thin sliced bread and have also put tomato or wafer thin ham or grated apple in them too. He seems to enjoy them and they are "tidy" enough for him to eat in his pushchair if I'm desperate! I cut them really quite small - 1 slice of bread makes 3 or 4 small triangle sandwiches - helps him to manage them

 

[craftymum]

I just tried Jacob on a little bit of well steamed potato and asparagus and he seemed to love it and no gagging at all yay!! Now he didn't actually eat anything but seemed to have lots of fun playing and chewing on it.

 

[dom]

TigerLady, Otter is absolutely gorgeous and Im amazed at how well he is eating. Its just doubled my confidence in BLW, I cant wait to start in a months time. And I love your accent too xx

 

[craftymum]

I gave Jacob some porridge this morning on a pre loaded spoon and he loved it - half it went over the walls mind but all good fun!
Just a wee question, when can we introduce eggs?

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

The official guidelines in the UK is 6 months for eggs. Other countries are much more cautious though!

 

[Mary Jo]

if your LO finishes what you've offered, but you think it was quite a lot, should you offer more till they stop themselves?

Adam's been eating pretty much everything he's been given this week, which is good to see especially as he's had a cold and really not eaten a lot the previous 10 days or so. he still has a bad cough but it's not bothering him. I'm not used to having zero leftovers and I'm questioning whether I am offering enough! should I keep bringing more out till he's finished? (he does clearly signal that by getting upset and pulling at his bib as well as plain pushing the food away)

 

[joeyjo]

I tend to keep offering as long as I have stuff in, he has emptied my fridge a couple of times! I'm trusting him to know when to stop - he also does good stop signals.

He's pretty slight but I think has just gone through a growth spurt coz all of a sudden he's starting to outgrow his 3-6mth stuff. A lot of it must have come from solids coz he didn't up his milk massively but ate loads and started eating a lot more meat too!

 

[bjl1981]

i'm kinda unsure as to whether what we're doing is blw or not, lol! So far, harry has had baby porridge & a baby tropical fruit cereal for breakfast, which I give him the first quarter spoon fed by me, then the rest on pre-loaded spoons, which may or may not make it to his mouth- I'd say he eats about half of what I make for his brekkie.
This week, I started giving him finger foods (broccoli, green bean, baby corn, carrot stick, sweet potator mash in a little bowl & some normal mash in a bowl & nectarine chunks). the only things he been interested in are raw carrot sticks (not the cooked one tho, lol), sucking the nectarine cunks to death, gumming the grren bean n baby corn, no interest at all in the mash- spat it out, poked it a few times, but he did eat about 1/2 a head of broccoli (lovely nappiy there, lol).

We had a little scare with choking on a baby rusk (not breathing, scared the living hell out of me, which put me off blw, but have got rid of the rusks now & when he's had the regular food that we're having, he hasn't gagged at all).

Sooo.... Is this blw? lol. Sorry, this whole weaning thing is confusing & scary for us!!!

From what I can understand you only give him his porridge/cereal partially spoon fed, and the rest he helps himself? To me thats BLW.
I give my LO porridge every day and spoon feed him (I started off giving him preloaded spoons, but he gets bored very quickly and prefers to bash the spoon on the highchair!). I give him options for all his other foods and he uses his hands. He loves BLW and will eat ANYTHING.
To me BLW is giving LO whole foods that they can recognise(not pureed), that they pick up, chew and have a choice in how much and what they eat. One bowl of porridge doesnt change that. I would not say I'm traditionally weaning, and if you ask anyone who watches LO eat they would agree!

 

[Mary Jo]

thanks joeyjo. guess I need to start preparing more than I think he'll eat then. never thought a 7 month old would eat as much as he does. I thought I was offering pretty generous portions, allowing for a fair amount of smearage and spillage, but it seems not... it's so hard to know. he's been so active this week, though, I can understand why he's really packing it away.

 

[pinkbow]

i have a question lol....mason had his dinner tonight and he boked quite alot, omg my heart but i let him be and he seemed ok, but then towards the end he was sick a little....then again he was sick just now

have i given him something wrong etc or has lumps not agreed with him today? he is teething quite bad today so...i dunno lol...help!!!

 

[florabean1981]

i'm kinda unsure as to whether what we're doing is blw or not, lol! So far, harry has had baby porridge & a baby tropical fruit cereal for breakfast, which I give him the first quarter spoon fed by me, then the rest on pre-loaded spoons, which may or may not make it to his mouth- I'd say he eats about half of what I make for his brekkie.
This week, I started giving him finger foods (broccoli, green bean, baby corn, carrot stick, sweet potator mash in a little bowl & some normal mash in a bowl & nectarine chunks). the only things he been interested in are raw carrot sticks (not the cooked one tho, lol), sucking the nectarine chunks to death, gumming the green bean n baby corn, no interest at all in the mash- spat it out, poked it a few times, but he did eat about 1/2 a head of broccoli (lovely nappiy there, lol).

We had a little scare with choking on a baby rusk (not breathing, scared the living hell out of me, which put me off blw, but have got rid of the rusks now & when he's had the regular food that we're having, he hasn't gagged at all).

Sooo.... Is this blw? lol. Sorry, this whole weaning thing is confusing & scary for us!!!

From what I can understand you only give him his porridge/cereal partially spoon fed, and the rest he helps himself? To me thats BLW.
I give my LO porridge every day and spoon feed him (I started off giving him preloaded spoons, but he gets bored very quickly and prefers to bash the spoon on the highchair!). I give him options for all his other foods and he uses his hands. He loves BLW and will eat ANYTHING.
To me BLW is giving LO whole foods that they can recognise(not pureed), that they pick up, chew and have a choice in how much and what they eat. One bowl of porridge doesnt change that. I would not say I'm traditionally weaning, and if you ask anyone who watches LO eat they would agree!

yep, that's what I do. The only thing he has spoonfed is the breakfast, everything else is whole foods (whatever I'm eating basically) & I just put in on the tray & let him get on with it. It all gets played with & everything goes in his mouth, but so far only broccoli, carrot, parsnip, nectarine & a bit of the leg of my homemade gingerbread man has actually been eaten. Both my OH & me have agreed that we wont offer purees, jars etc, & only offer mash when we have it (eg when we have sausage & mash or something like that).

 

[triplemom]

Yesterday We offered pancakes to baby for breakfast, well, I think She liked the smell or something, because She pushed it into her mouth, chew a little piece and swallowed it!!! By the way, those were pancakes made with pancake mix...

We are all amazed!! my husband said: "People is going to think We are crazy, giving a six month old baby, pancakes!!", haha!!

I have a question, Do you give your babies pre-cooked food? like fish sticks, or meatballs???

I am so new to this

 

[Mum2b_Claire]

I don't give pre made food because the salt / sugar content is usually too high. I often make my own versions of stuff like chicken nuggets, really easy. I make my own meatballs too, Ruby really loved these when we had them on Sat.
The only exception is fish fingers, but the salt content isn't too bad and she only has one of them, once or twice a week.
Pancakes are a hit with her too - I make my own batter and it only takes 5 mins.

 

[firegal]

i have a question lol....mason had his dinner tonight and he boked quite alot, omg my heart but i let him be and he seemed ok, but then towards the end he was sick a little....then again he was sick just now

have i given him something wrong etc or has lumps not agreed with him today? he is teething quite bad today so...i dunno lol...help!!!

Hi Rach!

How's Mason doing now, any better? Just wondering if it was a one-off thing or if you're still having probs?

 

[firegal]

Anyone had experience with their LO going through a phase of not wanting solids? We were steaming ahead with BLW, Finn seemed to be loving it, and then last Thurs he came down with a high fever and was sick for 3 days. While he was sick he went off his BLW, just wasn't interested in solids, and now he's better he still doesn't seem up for it. I'm trying not to push it so that I don't put him off, I'm just offering things occasionally, but mostly he just plays with it at best.

Any opinions on whether I should keep offering him things or if I should just leave it for a few days? I kinda feel like the whole process of putting a bib on him, putting the sheet down, putting him in his chair, etc, is a bit too stressful at the mo but even if I just hold him on my lap and offer something he's not that interested....