BLW - Baby led weaning support thread

[BritAcrossSea]

Hope you don't mind if I join you... I've been secretly viewing this section over the course of this week 'cos my love of blw had been faltering (our little girl's had her 2 top teeth through so has really not been interested). We started blw when our baby girl was 5 1/2 months - how I remember sitting on the edge of my seat just cms away from our girl when she had her first carrot stick (I was of course anticipating the worst when all that happened was a few sucks and then on the floor they went - a treat for our dog ).

I've been such a fan of blw and tonight the feeling has once again returned because I think we're over the teething again so she was tucking into her beef stew and dumplings with no probs. In fact, earlier today she even had herself some lettuce, which shocked the heck out of me. These babies really are amazing!

 

[blondey]

Hope you don't mind if I join you... I've been secretly viewing this section over the course of this week 'cos my love of blw had been faltering (our little girl's had her 2 top teeth through so has really not been interested). We started blw when our baby girl was 5 1/2 months - how I remember sitting on the edge of my seat just cms away from our girl when she had her first carrot stick (I was of course anticipating the worst when all that happened was a few sucks and then on the floor they went - a treat for our dog ).

I've been such a fan of blw and tonight the feeling has once again returned because I think we're over the teething again so she was tucking into her beef stew and dumplings with no probs. In fact, earlier today she even had herself some lettuce, which shocked the heck out of me. These babies really are amazing!

The good thing with BLW is that it doesn't matter if they have a bad couple of weeks are they're usually on a bit more milk, which easily compensates for less solids!!

But glad she's back on it!! xx

 

[celine]

Hi all Ive been blw-ing for about a week now, she is only 6m on Wednesday so its been strictly fingers of fruit or steamed veg and so far its awesome!! I think my baby could well be the poster child for blw lol, compared to my 2,5 yr old who has never been a great eater with him we started tw then blw but he never caught on and even til this dya food is a huge fight, so haveing a hungry child simply fills my heart with joy!

So my silly question is I can literally giver her any of what I have for dinner from Wed? As in if I make a homemade fish pie and have peas and cheese sauce etc in it I can give her that if I dont add salt?
What about risottos?
meat? eggs???

 

[Natsku]

If there's no history of allergies in your family then yeah!

 

[feeble]

hello baby-led weaners

i have a question;

we have a very relaxed approach to feeding, J feeds himself a banana, marmite on toast in the morning and then generally we go out and he has some sort of snack whilst i have a coffee (half a muffin... more toast etc)

when we eat lunch (usually quite late, after his nap at 3) i generally let him pick at it for the rest of the afternoon, generally he either doesnt finish his lunch and eats a fair portion of dinner... or he eats his lunch and is a bit lax with dinner

my question...

does anyone else 'encourage' veg eating after a while? tonight we had a lovely roast lamb and J wandered about as he usually does but didnt really eat too much of his veggies, so i grab his plate and sort of offer them to him... i dont force him but i do sort of spoon feed him i suppose... just tell him he has to eat a few trees and we have a giggle about it...

I know its not 'strictly' blw, but we both enjoy it and he gets some veggies in him that he would otherwise push around his plate...

anyone else do this? I think it will be easier when we move and have a dinning room table, but right now we just eat on our knees on the sofa

I just hope i am not runing his food exploration but i do want him to eat his veggies...

 

[Tacey]

hello baby-led weaners

i have a question;

we have a very relaxed approach to feeding, J feeds himself a banana, marmite on toast in the morning and then generally we go out and he has some sort of snack whilst i have a coffee (half a muffin... more toast etc)

when we eat lunch (usually quite late, after his nap at 3) i generally let him pick at it for the rest of the afternoon, generally he either doesnt finish his lunch and eats a fair portion of dinner... or he eats his lunch and is a bit lax with dinner

my question...

does anyone else 'encourage' veg eating after a while? tonight we had a lovely roast lamb and J wandered about as he usually does but didnt really eat too much of his veggies, so i grab his plate and sort of offer them to him... i dont force him but i do sort of spoon feed him i suppose... just tell him he has to eat a few trees and we have a giggle about it...

I know its not 'strictly' blw, but we both enjoy it and he gets some veggies in him that he would otherwise push around his plate...

anyone else do this? I think it will be easier when we move and have a dinning room table, but right now we just eat on our knees on the sofa

I just hope i am not runing his food exploration but i do want him to eat his veggies...

Personally, I have just left Alice to it. She has very distinct phases where at times she'll only eat the protein on the plate, and other times just the carbs. It was more obvious when she was younger, but I can still see a pattern. For example, she's obsessed with broccoli at the moment and won't touch meat whereas a couple of weeks ago, it was the opposite. It indicates to me that she knows what her body needs. You have to do what you feel comfortable with though, and if nobody is upset, then I can't see any real issue.

 

[celine]

Tacey thanks for that answer, my 2,5 yr old is a terribly fussy eater and I do worry

 

[feeble]

I suppose i worry about it more because he is not sat at the table with us (which means he eats more really) and so ends up wandering around the living room etc

often he will eat food on my plate rather than his own

 

[BabyBoo36]

OK girls.....counting on your advice. I've been TW Freya but she's refusing the spoon - just clamps her mouth shut - so I've been thinking of steaming some veggies/fruit and letting her play about with them. I don't want food to become a battleground for her so I'm not prepared to push purees if she doesn't want them. I'm wondering..

1. How "soft" should I make the veg? - I'm thinking carrot strips for later

2. How big/small should I make the strips for her?

3. Have any of your LO's got constipated using BLW? Freya has spina bifida, and because of this we were doing TW - her consultant thought she might get constipated on BLW. It's just not working for her thou. My thoughts were she's probably not likely to get constipated as she'll still be having her milk?

4. How long did it take before your LO's started "eating" the food rather than playing.

Thanks ladies. As you can tell, I'm a little nervous, but want to do what's best for her x

 

[feeble]

Jasper started eating the food around eight months . We just made sure he had access to water, boob and fruit to prevent consipwtion. Is never been a problem

 

[Dragonfly]

Anyone elses baby starting out lift thngs chew and drop out of mouth again? suppose its better than eating nothing and a start for Alex. He dosnt seem to like anything I give him, dosnt trust what I give as it always looks bitter to him yoghters and stuff. sometimes he does take the spoon and lick it depends whats on it. I hope I am getting somewhere with him anyway.

 

[Natsku]

Maria will chew stuff for a bit then spit it out and throw it on the floor, I guess she just gets fed up with it. She's not eating much at the moment anyway, teething.

 

[Vee_Bee]

OK girls.....counting on your advice. I've been TW Freya but she's refusing the spoon - just clamps her mouth shut - so I've been thinking of steaming some veggies/fruit and letting her play about with them. I don't want food to become a battleground for her so I'm not prepared to push purees if she doesn't want them. I'm wondering..

1. How "soft" should I make the veg? - I'm thinking carrot strips for later

2. How big/small should I make the strips for her?

3. Have any of your LO's got constipated using BLW? Freya has spina bifida, and because of this we were doing TW - her consultant thought she might get constipated on BLW. It's just not working for her thou. My thoughts were she's probably not likely to get constipated as she'll still be having her milk?

4. How long did it take before your LO's started "eating" the food rather than playing.

Thanks ladies. As you can tell, I'm a little nervous, but want to do what's best for her x

Hi

I had to go for BLW as Ethan wanted nothing to do with purée either. Can't say I blamed him, it stinks!

I would steam stuff so that it is soft, but not so soft that it gets crushed easily. Do pieces that are big enough for little hands to clamp on, with enough left sticking out to get a good bite on.

We give Ethan bananas, grapes (cut in half lengthways), washed dried apricots/figs to stop him getting constipated. Plus we get him to drink water, although he never wants more than a few sips.

He seemed to swallow bits almost immediately, once he had got over the gagging/vomiting bit. Not all babies go through this, but he got past it quite quickly and he was never choking.

Hope it goes well!!

 

[feeble]

This morning I left j nappy off as he's got a bit of nappy rash... Whilst making coffee he ate his cereal in the lounge... I came in, to find he had abandoned his cereal and had proceeded to use his spoon to sample a rather large poo he had done on the floor...

Extreme blw!

I of course stopped him and removed said poo and spoon... Just thought I would share!

 

[Thumper]

but well done him for using the spoon!

 

[feeble]

It did make the clean up easier I must say!

 

[Natsku]

 

[BabyBoo36]

Ewwww! x

Just found a fab website with all sorts of recipes and tips for BLW - bookmarked it, and feeling bit more confident now! x

 

[BabyBoo36]

So, it looks like I'm definitely doing the the BLW route with Freya, who is refusing to let me spoon feed her! She goes to nursery in 3 months (she'll be 9 months) when I go back to work (a well known nursery chain). What have people's experience of BLW in nursery been? I'm worried that they'll try and "push" spoon feeding on her, and although she'll take a mouthful or so, she soon clamps her mouth shut and refuses anymore. I've been putting cooked broccoli, pasta, carrot sticks etc on her tray and although not a huge amount is going in, she does pick them up and pop them in her mouth, and she's had some grated cheese as well x

 

[linzylinz]

babyboo. hopefully in 3 months time freya will be eating pretty much everything, i know when you start you think they will never be eating properly because its so slow at the start but they just suddenly get there then you start to bloody worry they are eating too much .

lo has gone from weeks of eating bits of veg, bits of toast, and bits of fruit to all of a sudden eating roasts, spag bowl, casserols, chicken wraps she loves it all.

do you have to send in a lunch to the nursery or do they provide food?
if they provide it just tell them what she eats, at the end of the day you are paying them they have to respect your wishes xx