BLW - Baby led weaning support thread

[mandimoo]

Im really keen to do BLW and have dipped a toe very cautiously into the water. I don't feel I've had much success yet.

LO is 6 months + 1 wk.

I've sat her in the high chair, but wonder if the tray is too high. I put steamed carrot sticks, and green beans in front of her. She just sat with her arms under the tray staring at us eating instead! This has happened a few times now. When I put her arms over the tray, it seems like the tray is at armpit level. I imagine that is not helpful?

I've sat her on my knee, with banana sticks and apple wedges on plate in front of her. She smacked the some of the banana and it shot off the plate , so I put a piece in her hand (is this against the ethos?), but it just popped out of her hand. An apple wedge actually made it to her mouth and she seemed fairly interested, but then she dropped that and because we had had little success so far, I had already eaten the rest of the apple!

We also had success with a chip (a one off), and the crust off a slice of toast (twice). Obviously gonna be a carb junkie like me!

So, despite trying for a week or so she has only sucked on apple twice, managed to get maybe 5mm of chip and 5mm of toast (twice).

Do some people have a slow start, even though they have reached the right age?

Is there any point giving banana and avacado, as its just so slippery...?!

Sorry for rambling!

 

[seaweed eater]

Mandi, yes, we have had a slow start despite LO being very interested in our food. Sounds a lot like what you are describing. I would just be patient and keep offering. She'll get it in her own time.

And yeah, I think armpit level sounds too high.

If you want to give banana, you can try leaving the peel mostly on and cutting it off a 1-2" section using scissors. That way there's something less slippery for them to hold on to.

 

[Twister]

Sounds like your lo is still a bit small for the high chair, my lo is the same. The tray is just too far away at the moment. We have one of these: https://www.cushitush.co.uk/ and it works great!

 

[DaisyAnne]

We started a couple weeks early...he started out very slowly, but he is now eating more and I'm amazed at how far he has come in being able to get things to his mouth. We've tried a lot of things. In the beginning, he hardly did much of anything...sometimes he was just more interested in us than his tray of foods. Even now, he has some meals he will do a lot more eating and tasting things and some meals he won't do much. It was weird when my friends with babies his age were saying baby ate "x" amount of food, etc. But I just kept offering and would take him down when we were done with our meals...eventually he learned and got more interested! He is doing so well now

 

[Janers]

So we started BLW a couple weeks ago, and today all of a sudden it clicked for my LO and she's loving the food... however she is biting off chunks of food and then gagging on them. It really scares me! I know its normal, but I can't help but be paranoid. Today at supper she had a cucumber spear and she nawed off a chunk and started to gag. She didn't cry, but it freaked me out.

How long does this stage last? Will she start to understand chewing and swallowing soon?

 

[kittylady]

Yes they will grow out of it as their ability to control the movement of food in their mouth develops

 

[purplelou]

Hi ladies.....havent read the whole thread so apologies if this has been asked already...
we started giving steamed carrot bits about 1 week before LO was 6 months, she is 7 months tomorrow. she sucks some bits of food, like toast, fruit veg, pasta etc then mostly drops them on the floor (the dog is ecstatic) sometimes she seems to bite tiny bits off and will swallow (but literally specks of food) more often she seems to roll the bits around in her mouth, and sort of chew them (she has 2 teeth) then they fall out of her mouth.
I am not too worried because she is BF and has not dropped any feeds and seems very happy and well. we occasionally give her a taste of something like yoghurt on a spoon - she sort of sucks it off the spoon

does this sound about right??? should she be eating more??

 

[seaweed eater]

Purplelou, sounds just like mine at that age don't worry, she will start ingesting more in her own time!

 

[purplelou]

Thanks seaweed!

 

[kittylady]

There seemed to be a shift in my daughter when she got to 9/10 months to eating more

 

[SpringerS]

Purplelou, have you noticed any change in her nappies? I often think my son has eaten very little of something but when he does a poo I can see evidence that he actually ate a lot more than I thought.

 

[purplelou]

Sometimes springers, I can see pooh changes and there maybe little bits of carrot or whatever in there, but often it's haly anything.
Thank you thou.
Actually she is still having around 6-7 bfs a day, plus approx 6-8 oz ebm (because I'm back at work ) each day, and she's gaining weight nicely even if she's not eating much

 

[Krippy]

We have just started BLW and today he was eating toast. He is really good at picking the toast up and getting it too his mouth, he is eating great and loves it but I find that about halfway through meal times he gets really frustrated and cries then goes back to eating, repeat til the end of the meal and I take it away. Any ideas? It hurts my heart to see him get so upset.

 

[DaisyAnne]

We have just started BLW and today he was eating toast. He is really good at picking the toast up and getting it too his mouth, he is eating great and loves it but I find that about halfway through meal times he gets really frustrated and cries then goes back to eating, repeat til the end of the meal and I take it away. Any ideas? It hurts my heart to see him get so upset.

My baby does this when he is ready to get down, but he'll still get distracted by the food some and chill out for a little bit. Or, he'll do it if he has some other need (diaper, sleep, etc.). Sometimes he just wants something different, or can't eat it fast enough.

 

[Krippy]

Thanks Daisy! I was thinking that that might be it as he went right down for his nap after!

 

[XJessicaX]

We started DD2 at 5.5 months with BLW. All very new to me as I did TW with DD1 and vowed never to go down that route again as she was and is very fussy with textures and I was partially mashing her food until about 13 months! I hadnt initially planned on weaning until bang on 6 months but DD2 was born at 41 weeks and a week or so ago was literally lunging for food on my plate! I also thought I would start slowly with BLW but she seems to be a pro at chewing?! My MIL is a HV and she says its easier to wean onto solids if a baby is breast fed (DD2 is) so maybe that is helping!

I am not really doing a meal a day yet, she just picks at things I think would make good finger foods. Unsure when to make an official lunch for her every day as she's stillpretty happy on just my milk. Today I made DD1 a jacket potato with cheese and thought I would try DD2 with the same and DD2 ate more than DD1!!

 

[charlie15]

We started DD2 at 5.5 months with BLW. All very new to me as I did TW with DD1 and vowed never to go down that route again as she was and is very fussy with textures and I was partially mashing her food until about 13 months! I hadnt initially planned on weaning until bang on 6 months but DD2 was born at 41 weeks and a week or so ago was literally lunging for food on my plate! I also thought I would start slowly with BLW but she seems to be a pro at chewing?! My MIL is a HV and she says its easier to wean onto solids if a baby is breast fed (DD2 is) so maybe that is helping!

I am not really doing a meal a day yet, she just picks at things I think would make good finger foods. Unsure when to make an official lunch for her every day as she's stillpretty happy on just my milk. Today I made DD1 a jacket potato with cheese and thought I would try DD2 with the same and DD2 ate more than DD1!!

I had the same question about meals, but I people do different thing. I, like you just started of with nibbles of finger foods, then as she was loving it and judging by her poo was eating, we started on breakfast as for us that was the easiest meal to manage. I have just now at 7.5 months started with a regular lunch. I decided to give her 2 meals a day based in how much she was eating and also how much she was pooing well to start with we went from hardly any poos with EBF, to about 4 a day and a sore bottom . That gradually reduced down and now she happily woolfs down 2 meals. I'll do the same with 3 meals but I doubt it will be much before she is 1 as she only has 4 breast feeds a day now and I don't want that to reduce until after she's 1.

That's how we did it, but I would say you'll know when she's ready for more meals so I would play it by ear.

 

[nikalicious]

So we've been doing BLW since Abby was 6 months old. We have tried many different things (sweet potatoes, meat, chicken, eggs, watermelon,etc.) and she is very interested in food. My concern is that she doesn't have the best control in getting any food actually in her mouth. She gets some, as I can see bits and pieces in her diapers, but nothing substantial. We bought a jar of pureed food last night and she was very pleased with us feeding her that. We are still BF on demand, so I'm not worried about her food intake, just figured she would have more control by now. I try to give her 1-2 meals a day. Should I not worry and continue doing things as normal? Since she was happy with being spoon fed, is she just not quite ready for BLW? Thanks ladies!

 

[seaweed eater]

Hey Nik :wave: depends on what you mean by "ready" for BLW, I think...it seems to be really common for BLW to click for babies closer to 8-10 months. But IMO it's still valuable to let her play at a younger age. I think it's up to you whether to spoon feed in the meantime -- don't think you could go wrong either way, personally.

 

[nikalicious]

Hey there! :wave: Thanks! I guess I was surprised that she was so willing to be spoon fed. She loves playing with the spoon and chewing on it, but this is the first time we've fed anything to her on it. I guess i thought she would have protested more. Anytime DH or I eat something, she immediately stops what she is doing and crawls over to us. Today she ate some left over of my breakfast and did much better consuming it then ever before. Maybe i'm just worried too much about it! We'll just keep doing what we're doing and I'm sure she'll figure it out sooner or later.