BLW - Baby led weaning support thread

[mistyscott]

I've not noticed this with meat but it has happened with cheese, banana and bread.
My lo does eventually spit it up or swallow after lots of gagging so I just toast all bread, grate the cheese and slice banana thinner.
How do you cut the meat?
x

Thanks for replying it varies meal to meal how the meat is cut but chicken is usually strips (goujon type thing) and he got stuck with some pancetta cubes too - though tbh I should have anticipated that one as theyre chewy little buggers.
He also seems to do the same thing with other foods like potato and today, fish. Gonna encourage the water drinking I think... Trouble is he gets really worked up about having it in his mouth so it seems the best thing is to help him get it out

 

[RaspberryK]

Aww bless him, I was going to say strips is easier for them to handle but you're already doing that.
My LO coughs and gags and thinks it's funny
x

 

[mistyscott]

Today LO was gagging but shoving more handfuls of food in at the same time! Shows how relaxed we've become that we just chuckled at him doing this

Btw - banana, how does your LO eat this? We've tried every way possible but LO either squashes it to death before it gets to his mouth, or it's just too slippery. The only way I've found vaguely successful is to give him a bit of mine in the same way as I eat it (and keep his hands out the way!)

 

[RaspberryK]

I tried leaving the skin on for grip but it didn't work so now I cut a whole banana in thirds lengthways then cut that into thirds or quartets also lengthways so he has little sticks.
X

 

[chysantheMUM]

We struggled with banana to begin with but persevered and shes now able to eat all the banana with no trouble at all. I just completely peel the banana and give her half of it. She grabs it with both hands and doesn't let go till she has a just tiny bit left that she can't get to. She seems to have learned how to get a pretty good grip with it somehow but it was just a case of letting her practice with it over and over again.

Yesterday after I got home from work, i went to hug LO and noticed something strange covering her tongue. It turned out to be wafer thin ham (which OH had fed her in a toastie half hour before) it must have been stuck to the roof of her mouth unnoticed until she opened her mouth wide to give me a big slobbery kiss. Bit of a choking concern really, so I've had to give him a bit of a telling off about not checking her mouth before letting her play. She wasn't very pleased about me removing either

 

[Lauki]

I peel and half the banana and give it to Soph. She then tries to squash as much as possible in her mouth, squeezes the rest in her hands, wipes it through her hair and over her chair and then eats some more. .

She used to struggle a bit when younger, so I'd give her small 'sticks'. I cut the banana in half, press with a finger on the top and bottom of the half and the banana splits in 3. This was easier to hold for her. I'd sometimes help her with the last small bits too .

 

[Finsmummy]

Just wondering what age were your babies interested in self-weaning? My LO is 6 months tomorrow so I'm thinking about how and when to begin x

 

[mistyscott]

We started giving LO fruit and veg sticks a week before 6mths, then went for it with meals of whatever we were eating at 6mths - it took a good couple weeks before he showed much interest though, including one week of no solids when he was teething badly.

Have fun!

 

[RaspberryK]

As soon as he was 6 months.
x

 

[Finsmummy]

Thanks. I don't think my LO will be able to sit and grab things for another month yet!

 

[mistyscott]

I've posted about this before but could really do with some advice.

More times than not our meals with LO are ending with him screaming because he's got a mouthful of food and won't swallow or spit it out. The screaming can have the effect of shooting the food down his throat, or leading to it falling out, but it's not very nice for him or us nearly every mealtime. We have resorted to hooking it out ourselves, especially if it seems stuck to the roof of his mouth or is too big to swallow (like meat), but we're keen for him to learn how to manage it himself.

Anyone got any experience of this? Is it just a phase? (isn't everything!) any tips?

 

[Finsmummy]

Hi Ladies, can you tell me if you offer a different food each day or the same one for a few days? I have offered broccoli, banana and avocado the last 3 days and now thining is it too fast?

 

[mistyscott]

We offer whatever we are eating generally - so at the start he had several new foods at a time! I think the stepped intro of food is more for early weaning, before 6mths, when the risk of allergens is higher

 

[Finsmummy]

Thanks yes I think you're right. 6 months is pretty much any food from then isn't it? I have just given what I have been cooking and which is suitable tbh, to include him in mealtime.

 

[soph77]

My lo is only 4 months old so I'm not ready to introduce solids yet, but I am starting to think about what I will feed and how I will feed it. I am interested in BLW and am after a good book on the subject. I have found these, do you recommend them? Or any others?

https://www.rapleyweaning.com/blwbook.php

 

[mistyscott]

My lo is only 4 months old so I'm not ready to introduce solids yet, but I am starting to think about what I will feed and how I will feed it. I am interested in BLW and am after a good book on the subject. I have found these, do you recommend them? Or any others?

https://www.rapleyweaning.com/blwbook.php

I'd def recommend the BLW cookbook by gill rapley great recipes and just enough blurb bout BLW

 

[Rachel Stella]

We did baby led weaning with my last child and loved it. It took some getting used to (for the both of us!) but I got over my fear of him choking to death pretty quickly and he was eating really well on his own by 8 months of age (started at 6 months). There was no adjustment to adult food like there was my my oldest. I loved not having to spend my entire meal spoon feeding him!

 

[Rachel Stella]

We also offered whatever we were eating to my son with the exception of a few foods like tough meat and raw carrots.

 

[MissSazra]

Hi everyone!

I'm just looking for a bit of support really as I'm terrified of blw. We've just started out and lo has tried banana, which she seemed to like, carrot, broccoli and cauliflower.

I give them as sticks so she can hold it easily, but with things like the banana, she'll bite off a bit and then I get scared in case she's going to choke.

The other day she had some carrot and I think she must have put it too far in her mouth, cos she then brought up a whole load of milk from her previous feed. I mean there was so much she brought up, it's really made me very panicky (maybe she'd had her milk to close to the food? I just don't know what went wrong!)

I don't want to give up on the blw, but I just need a bit of a confidence boost I think.

Any advice would be really appreciated!

Thanks, Xx

 

[mistyscott]

Hi everyone!

I'm just looking for a bit of support really as I'm terrified of blw. We've just started out and lo has tried banana, which she seemed to like, carrot, broccoli and cauliflower.

I give them as sticks so she can hold it easily, but with things like the banana, she'll bite off a bit and then I get scared in case she's going to choke.

The other day she had some carrot and I think she must have put it too far in her mouth, cos she then brought up a whole load of milk from her previous feed. I mean there was so much she brought up, it's really made me very panicky (maybe she'd had her milk to close to the food? I just don't know what went wrong!)

I don't want to give up on the blw, but I just need a bit of a confidence boost I think.

Any advice would be really appreciated!

Thanks, Xx

Hi there

Welcome to the fun that is BLW right, choking is silent and LO will go funny colour - this needs intervention. But what you've described is gagging - completely normal and serves protective function to stop anything getting too far back towards airway. It is scary at first, and bringing up milk can also happen - but gagging generally decreases as they learn how much they can handle in their mouth and get better at moving food around with their tongue

I'd def advise getting theblw cookbook by gill rapley - it covers all the basics and has loads great recipes. It's all we cook from these days!

HTH