BLW - Baby led weaning support thread

[Vee_Bee]

Hi marieclare,

Your LO is clearly ready if he's munching away on anything you give him!

Please don't worry about the vomiting - he is just still getting used to having solid food in his mouth. The gag reflex of babies is actually only halfway back in their mouth (as opposed to adults where it's right at the back). This is to help protect them from choking.

Not all babies gag and vomit when weaning, but mine did and I couldn't believe the amount of milk that came back up with it! You really feel like you're wasting your time. Persevere though, your LO will learn soon enough how to push the food to the front of his mouth to avoid gagging (same as we do) and then he'll be well away! All of a sudden my LO stopped gagging and vomiting - it just changed from one day to the next.

Every now and again after that I could see that the food had hit his gag reflex, but without actually gagging he would just shove the food forward or completely out of his mouth and carry on happily.

Your LO sounds like he loves food, so he shouldn't take too long to get over the gagging.

Keep us posted!

xx

 

[Rmar]

DD was like that up until a couple of weeks ago. It is amazing how one day she was spitting everything up and bits that did go down, she would gag and sometimes vomit on and then the next day, she munched and swallowed anything she could.

It is fine that your LO doesn't actually get food. I can tell that DD gets pretty much all of her nutrition from milk and food is for fun. So it probably wont have the effect on sleeping as you had hoped for another couple of months at least.

 

[DarlingMe]

I am laughing because at my pediatricians this week, among other advice concerning CIO & LO "sleeping in a crib in his own room by now!", I will not be following this either. He said I should start LO on rice so he sleeps better. Well, he wouldn't listent that LO sleeps 12 hours during the night, napping is the issue... Anyhow point is I almost told him we plan on BLW but I didn't want to give the man a heart attack. maybe next appointment!

 

[Natsku]

Got a problem - Maria is wanting to be spoonfed all the time! I let the inlaws spoonfeed her when they look after her (about once a week, if that) as they're so fussy about mess and I admit sometimes I've spoonfed her when she's been feeling lazy but now she just throws the food everywhere til I give it to her on a spoon ARGH - how can I fix this? She even throws her weetabix which is something she never has thrown before as she loves it so much!

 

[marieclare]

thanks so much for the reassurance, its good to know this can be normal. Lo hasn't eaten much over the last few days as we have been away so i have cheated by offering him hard things Just to Gis. He had some raw red pepper sticks and hard pear last night while we had chinese

However today i offered him a mang o stick which turned out to be softer than i thought as he was able to bite a bit off. I was very proud that he managed to spit it out after only a little gag.


Sorry for rushed post, am on my phone but wanted to say thanks x

 

[Vee_Bee]

Got a problem - Maria is wanting to be spoonfed all the time! I let the inlaws spoonfeed her when they look after her (about once a week, if that) as they're so fussy about mess and I admit sometimes I've spoonfed her when she's been feeling lazy but now she just throws the food everywhere til I give it to her on a spoon ARGH - how can I fix this? She even throws her weetabix which is something she never has thrown before as she loves it so much!

Other than Weetabix, what food are you giving her that can go on a spoon? With BLW there's not much that would go on a spoon. Or are you TW?

 

[Thumper]

Nat, we had the same problem recently. We chilled put on the spoons for a bit and gave him food that was obviously finger food, sticks of things and pasta. He's got back into it again now. I do think people get too hung up on the BLW vs TW thing. If it works it works

 

[Natsku]

Got a problem - Maria is wanting to be spoonfed all the time! I let the inlaws spoonfeed her when they look after her (about once a week, if that) as they're so fussy about mess and I admit sometimes I've spoonfed her when she's been feeling lazy but now she just throws the food everywhere til I give it to her on a spoon ARGH - how can I fix this? She even throws her weetabix which is something she never has thrown before as she loves it so much!

Other than Weetabix, what food are you giving her that can go on a spoon? With BLW there's not much that would go on a spoon. Or are you TW?

Yoghurt, porridge etc, scrambled eggs. I mix the yoghurt with muesli so she can pick it up but she still wants it from a spoon and the porridge is thick enough to pick up but again, wants it from a spoon. She even wants her pasta from a spoon

 

[Peanut78]

Hi All, can anyone recommend a good book on BLW?

Also, in the beginning do you offer large pieces of food ie steamed potatoe or brocolli and have them chew/ suck off smaller pieces, or do you offer bite-size pieces? Should I expect that they don't actually end up "eating" much in the beginning, but playing with it and getting it everywhere? Should I expect lots of gagging in the beginning?

Thanks!

 

[Vee_Bee]

Hi All, can anyone recommend a good book on BLW?

Also, in the beginning do you offer large pieces of food ie steamed potatoe or brocolli and have them chew/ suck off smaller pieces, or do you offer bite-size pieces? Should I expect that they don't actually end up "eating" much in the beginning, but playing with it and getting it everywhere? Should I expect lots of gagging in the beginning?

Thanks!

The BLW bible seems to be the book by Gill Rapley - I can highly recommend it! You need to offer pieces of food that are big enough for LO to get a good grip on whilst still leaving enough to chomp on. My LO did swallow bits right from the beginning but I don't think it matters if they only play with it.

My LO also gagged and vomited lots at the beginning but this stopped soon enough as he learned to push food to the front of his mouth if it got too far back.

HTH

x

 

[T8ty]

Yaay just thought we would share tht Isabella had her first blw experince today with Daddys homemade bread and tomato soup...she loved it and got completely covered but it was so much less stressful than i thought it would be! she really enjoyed herself .. and i enjoyed watching! xxx


oh and shes 5m and 3weeks x

 

[Dragonfly]

13 months old and still not really eating though today he did try a bit of yoghurt, helped himself to that and does nibble on pancake and toast so I think we are getting somewhere.

 

[blondey]

13 months old and still not really eating though today he did try a bit of yoghurt, helped himself to that and does nibble on pancake and toast so I think we are getting somewhere.

That's good

Are you sticking with formula instead of moving to cows milk as LO is not eating so much?

x

 

[blondey]

Don't worry, just looked at your ticker and see your BFing!!

Well done by the way on how long you have done it for!

xx

 

[Dragonfly]

I dont bnother with high chair any more he dosnt like it, just wants out of it soon as i put him in and its not helping him at all that so I put his food on the floor on a plate and just see what he does and today he picked up pancakes and ate some! not loads but I say he ate a good bit and had some yoghurt, one of them things he can hold and work himself. He given me no choice but blw with him. I dont think I will go to dietician I feel a bit crap going to someone who is going to tell me what to do with my baby to eat when you cant force any one to eat he is just doing in his own time. Plus I know they will be forceful and say stop breastfeeding and make him eat which is just nasty.

 

[Dragonfly]

13 months old and still not really eating though today he did try a bit of yoghurt, helped himself to that and does nibble on pancake and toast so I think we are getting somewhere.

That's good

Are you sticking with formula instead of moving to cows milk as LO is not eating so much?

x

is that for me? I dont formula feed? I dont give cows milk either he only gets breastmilk. I tried for months to get him to eat he wasnt having it. I just offer food and eventually now he is lifting and eating.

 

[EmyDra]

He looks big and healthy Dragonfly, and very handsome like his brother. I'm reading 'breastfeeding older children' by Ann Sinnot atm and a couple of mummys in that have said BM sustained and grew their children for two years or more whilst they chose to eat very little.

 

[linzylinz]

I just want to share my blw story.
lo is my 3rd baby my oldest were both tw,
I read about blw on bandb when i was pregnant so once lo was here i ordered the recipe book.
I explained all to oh on how it all works and his response was "what ever you want to do babe"

I had the usual rubbish from wanna be experts in parenting on the goodness of rusks in bottles and weening at 2 hours old
I just did the smile and nod

when we started lo was 5 1/2 months she was basicly just sucking on fruit and veg just exploring all was well and good.

after a few weeks i started other things like toast and bits of veg off our plates ect by this time lo was biting of bits and moving it around her mouth she did alot of gagging, which really turned oh off baby led weaning. i had explained it all to him its normal bla bla bla but after a while it was upsetting him and he said i cant do this now trying to eat my dinner watching her choke

this made me doubt myself so much i nearly gave up but i kept on and just gave her stuff she was less likely to gag on when he was home.

she is now 7 1/2 months and doing great she will munch through lots of different things and we give her 90% of what we eat she still has no teeth but doesnt seem to trouble her.

oh now goes round bragging to everyone how we feed her the natural way lol

I really hope this will make lo a less fussy eater as she gets older as my middle child is the worlds pickiest eater and makes dinner times a battle. this was my main reason for blw has anyone else with older children who have blw but still has a fussy eater?

 

[summer rain]

^My OH had the same worries-even though we did do BLW with second eldest he seems to be suffering from amnesia thankfully he now understands how it works. In my humble experience, and this is just my experience only and not scientific or anything, my second eldest (who was BLW though didn't know it at the time!) is the least fussy out of all my boys, the only things he doesn't like are mediterranean veggies like courgette and aubergine. My eldest who was TW is quite a fussy eater though he has slightly improved as he has got older-he is nearly 8 now and while he will have sauce on pasta etc (before he insisted on the pasta only!) he will pick most of the veg or any other lumpy bits out. Second youngest as well was TWed and has the same problem-he has a huge appetite always saying he is starving hungry but when it comes to actually eating he will eat very little and only a limited range of foods, then again with him he always had food aversions even when we first started and he had a very strong gag reflex for quite a long time as well so it took a very long time for him to be eating a wide range of foods to start with xx

 

[linzylinz]

thanks for the info summer rain, my fussy one sounds just like your second youngest.

oh and i must say i have to thank you for sooo much advice that i have gotten from your posts on this board
im a bit of a fan from afar