BLW - Baby led weaning support thread

[biliboi2]

At 8 months, my little boy still has a mouthful to taste, then throws it on the floor to feed the dogs. Its more for experiment than eating for nutrition at the moment.

 

[Faythe]

Just let him do what he's happy with. If that means playing with food and smashing it everywhere, then let him

J has decided this week that he doesn't want to eat food. Instead he throws it at me and plays with it. He seems to be enjoying it.

Remember, food under one is just for fun.

 

[seaweed eater]

I know! I guess I wouldn't be surprised if he wanted to smash it and play with it, but he seems to want nothing to do with it at all! Despite lunging across the table to grab our food when we eat!

 

[Faythe]

Haha J does that. Not content with what we give him but he happily pinches food from me.......

 

[Rachel89]

I hioe it i sokay to post here! My baby is almost 7 months and cannot sit unaided yet, though he shows all the other signs. Wen I put him in his high chair he really has difficulty with sitting straight, and will almost put his head on the tray to lick the finger foods. And wobbles from left to right in his high chair.

He can sit pretty well aided if he sits in our lap though (weird?). Is it a problem if we have to end up doing blw when he after 7 months? If this goeson should I start pureeing then?


I would reallly appreciate your help!

 

[babies7777]

What high chair do u have? have u tried putting a towel or blanket etc behind or at his sides to position him more or u can do blw with him on your lap just make sure he is upright then let him reach for food either off your plate provided its safe food or even just straight off the table, cut it into strips, chip like shapes an see what he does.

Hope that helps.

I hioe it i sokay to post here! My baby is almost 7 months and cannot sit unaided yet, though he shows all the other signs. Wen I put him in his high chair he really has difficulty with sitting straight, and will almost put his head on the tray to lick the finger foods. And wobbles from left to right in his high chair.

He can sit pretty well aided if he sits in our lap though (weird?). Is it a problem if we have to end up doing blw when he after 7 months? If this goeson should I start pureeing then?


I would reallly appreciate your help!

 

[Marie000]

Hey ladies,

I started BLW a few weeks ago when lo was just a few days shy of 6 months. She loves it. There is one thing I am wondering though... could she be eating too much for her age?
Last night, for example, we were having burgers (bean burgers for me). Lo ate a slice of avocado, a piece of tomato, a piece of bread (long narrow strip of bread), two chunks of bean burger... and she wanted more! At breakfast she had some potatoes and some vegetable stew for lunch. She eats pretty much everything and she throws a fit if she runs out or if we try to eat without her. She never throws her food around, she wants all of it in her mouth. You'd think she was starving, poor child.

Lately, she has also had trouble falling asleep at night and really bad crying fits. I think it is mostly related to teething, but I'm worried she might be constipated too. We give her water, and she seems to love it, but it is the one thing she spits back. I'm not sure she is drinking much.
She hasn't had a big poop in days now. Only very little ones.
She is breastfed and she used to go 2-3 days between poops, but with solids she started pooping more often, until now.

Should I give her less to eat? Push the water more?

 

[Twister]

Hey ladies, just a quick question about how much to offer LO to start with. We started blw 2 days ago (1 week shy of 6 months). So far she's just been having something from our plates at dinner time in the evenings. Today I tried her on toast for breakfast, was just wondering if it would be ok to give her some of our dinner this evening as well, or if it would be too much at this early stage? Can I just offer something whenever I eat or should I take it slow and stick with one meal for a while?

 

[babies7777]

For us less is def more, i was offering everytime i ate a meal and it resulted in terrible constipation, we are now back to normal thankfully and will be starting again in the next couple of days but going really slow. I have heard other people have no problems with offering more but i guess its trial and error as to what is best for your lo as she maybe like mine or will be fine.

hth

Hey ladies, just a quick question about how much to offer LO to start with. We started blw 2 days ago (1 week shy of 6 months). So far she's just been having something from our plates at dinner time in the evenings. Today I tried her on toast for breakfast, was just wondering if it would be ok to give her some of our dinner this evening as well, or if it would be too much at this early stage? Can I just offer something whenever I eat or should I take it slow and stick with one meal for a while?

 

[Twister]

Thanks! Today I gave her a strip of toast for breakfast, half a rice cake as a snack/lunch and she had some tomato pasta bake for dinner. I think tomorrow I'll just stick to breakfast and dinner and see how she gets on, not that she's eating a lot at this stage, she mostly just squishes, sucks and licks it

 

[SpringerS]

I think I'm going to start feeding Sam tomorrow, a week shy of 6 months. He's been showing signs of being ready for over a month now, he has been riveted whenever people eat for over three months. Has been sitting unaided for indefinite periods 10-20 minutes+ for a month and seems to have lost his tongue thrust. The timing also makes sense as I have a nice quiet long weekend planned, with just one trip to a local festival and one set of visitors planned. Normally I spend a lot of time with my parents and they are too into the idea of feeding him rather than letting him experiment himself, so this weekend is the ideal time. He's been sitting in his high chair at some mealtimes since 3 months, playing with his sippy cup for 2 months and drinking a little expressed milk in it on and off and I introduced a little water last week. I've been letting him play with a spoon and his plate for the last couple of weeks too, so he has pretty good dexterity with them.

I'm very excited about it. I have my shopping list all written out for today and I'm going to stock up on avocado, sweet potato, natural yoghurt, etc. Can't wait to get going with it all.

 

[Twister]

Good luck! We started a week before 6 months too as she was showing all the signs. Two weeks in now and she's doing so much better than I thought she would at this stage and seems to know now what food is and that you can eat it. She eats a fair amount tbh. It's so much fun too (apart from her poopy nappies).

 

[charlie15]

We have just started too, a few days short of 6 months as she seemed ready and clearly was! She's loving her morning breakfasts of fruit and toast and cream cheese so far and as discreet as I try to be, I just love watching her!

 

[SpringerS]

Oh yeah, definitely not looking forward to the nappies. He's EBF and cloth bummed so his dirty nappies are almost smell free. It's going to be a big change.

 

[seaweed eater]

As long as we are talking about diapers...LO has just started actually ingesting small amounts of solids. I haven't noticed a difference in his dirty diapers yet so we are still on EBF protocol for our cloth diapers. Will it be obvious when we need to change things? Or should we do it already even for these small amounts of food (I mean like 1/4 teaspoon of yogurt and 5 Cheerios, per day)?

 

[DaisyAnne]

Matthew isn't quite six months, but we've just started BLW this week. He's sitting by himself, watching us eat- following the food to our mouths and just started opening his mouth like a baby bird while I'm eating, so I figured we'd just start giving him food to play with during mealtimes.

So far he's tried sweet potato sticks (hated), zucchini spears (yuck), cucumber (gross!), avocado (not bad) and banana (not bad). I don't mind that he's not actually eating anything yet, mostly just playing and tasting it here and there, but I am a little discouraged bc I still feel nervous sometimes. I almost gave up yesterday because I had a choking scare with the avocado (it really was nothing- not even gagging- he just opened his mouth wide bc he didnt know what to think, did the same when I pureed it). But I really love the idea behind blw and can't imagine switching to traditional weaning at this point. I don't know any other moms doing it this way, and I think everyone looks at me like I'm crazy for doing it (so I don't say much).

Anyone have scares? What are your favorite first foods to give baby that might help me feel a little less nervous in this beginning stage as I learn, too? Honestly, I think the avocado was just a little underripe and firm that's why it kinda made me nervous- didn't have trouble before that...

 

[Marie000]

As long as we are talking about diapers...LO has just started actually ingesting small amounts of solids. I haven't noticed a difference in his dirty diapers yet so we are still on EBF protocol for our cloth diapers. Will it be obvious when we need to change things? Or should we do it already even for these small amounts of food (I mean like 1/4 teaspoon of yogurt and 5 Cheerios, per day)?

My girl has been eating quite a bit, and at first the dirty diapers were pretty much the same. The pooh was still fairly liquid, only it had chunks of broccoli and carrots in it.
Now it's gotten thicker. Still not solid like grown up pooh, but kind of like peanut butter, or maybe a little thicker sometimes. (sorry if I just ruined peanut butter for you )

 

[charlie15]

Matthew isn't quite six months, but we've just started BLW this week. He's sitting by himself, watching us eat- following the food to our mouths and just started opening his mouth like a baby bird while I'm eating, so I figured we'd just start giving him food to play with during mealtimes.

So far he's tried sweet potato sticks (hated), zucchini spears (yuck), cucumber (gross!), avocado (not bad) and banana (not bad). I don't mind that he's not actually eating anything yet, mostly just playing and tasting it here and there, but I am a little discouraged bc I still feel nervous sometimes. I almost gave up yesterday because I had a choking scare with the avocado (it really was nothing- not even gagging- he just opened his mouth wide bc he didnt know what to think, did the same when I pureed it). But I really love the idea behind blw and can't imagine switching to traditional weaning at this point. I don't know any other moms doing it this way, and I think everyone looks at me like I'm crazy for doing it (so I don't say much).

Anyone have scares? What are your favorite first foods to give baby that might help me feel a little less nervous in this beginning stage as I learn, too? Honestly, I think the avocado was just a little underripe and firm that's why it kinda made me nervous- didn't have trouble before that...

My LO loves hummus on toast, need to find some low salt bread though, which is tough! Also cream cheese on toast. Melon, peaches, wasn't so keen on strawberries or orange. Tomorrow I am going to make scrambled eggs for breakie and see how she likes that. I may also make my own low salt bread if I feel up to it, but have been ill, so will see. You could make guacamole, Jill rapley does a great BLW cookbook.

 

[sailorsgirl]

Can I start slowly? As in, can I give my bubs a piece of cucumber every couple of days if he is wanting it? He isnt quite 6 months and although he is interested, he isnt fully ready for us to go for it completely yet, so I was thinking maybe he could have a bit just to play with and get him involved in meal times. Is this ok? Xx

 

[Twister]

I don't see why that would be a problem