BLW First Food Shopping List

[doggylover]

Hi everybody

I can't quite believe I am getting ready to start weaning - where has my tiny baby gone?! Only 10 days until she is 6 months, and I am devastated that I will no longer be her primary food source (needy mother alert!) I know that the premise of BLW is to just give them what we eat, but obviously the first few weeks it will need to be a bit of give and take (eg I'm not going to serve her up curry on her first day!) so I wondered what I should be including in my shopping basket for that first week or two?

I will tailor what we eat to what I will be providing for her for the first few weeks rather than the other way round, then we will all transition to our "normal" menu after a few weeks once her skills and her experience with flavours have developed.

Any recommendations - your MUST haves - for my first few shopping sessions?

(she will be gluten free for a few months due to a family intolerance )

TIA!

 

[lily28]

Soft fruit is the thing you can try first, like banana, avocado, plums, or softened/steamed veggies.
This blog post has lots of info on the subject
https://www.hellobee.com/2012/09/04/getting-started-with-baby-led-weaning/
https://www.hellobee.com/2012/09/21/blw-the-first-few-months/
You are going 100% BLW?
I'm thinking of a combo of blw and homemade purees. I love the idea of blw but the mess freaks me out. I already give him soft pieces of fruit for fun and he doesn't eat anything, he just plays with his fruit, and discovers the texture etc. He makes a huge mess, but I think it will benefit him in terms of dexterity and will learn to chew eventually.

 

[doggylover]

Lily you should know by now I am 100% lazy! I am such a kitchenphobe, I literally would go mad having to puree anything - I think I could stretch to smushing some things with a fork (banana, avocado - ie. things which are already soft!) but BLW will mean I have to use fewer kitchen implements which is a bonus for me. The mess I can deal with (I have the dogs to help on that front!) so we will be 95% BLW - probably some stuff will be fed to her on a spoon, like yoghurt.

Thanks for those blog links, I haven't seen that before so will have a good read now

 

[lily28]

I love cooking, before the baby I'd cook 2 meals a day, but since he arrived I only cook 1-2 times a week, DH does the rest
My sister in law got me this cooker/blender https://www.beaba.com/en/content/babycookr-solo?tid=82
https://www.beaba.com/sites/default/files/styles/preview_image_preset_fiche_produit/public/Babycook-solo-%28Gipsy%29_1_0.png
and I intend to use it, there is a booklet with recipes that came with it, not too fancy. It is the typical courgette/potato/carrot type of recipes, just throw them in, steam them and blast them. It's not too hard even for novices in the kitchen. I will make a few batches and froze them.
However BLW has it's great merits and this why I will include it

 

[MindUtopia]

We started with just lots of fruit and veg. Cucumber sticks, steamed carrot sticks, steamed broccoli, roasted carrot and parsnip, sauteed courgette, sticks of melon, slices of nectarine, plum, etc. Next thing I really gave her a lot of was anything mashed on baby rice cakes, so banana, avocado, cashew butter, cashew butter with banana, etc. The rice cakes were really easy to pick up and manage by about 6.5 months, so worth a try.

 

[doggylover]

Thanks mindutopia will have to start a list for the fridge door! I love the idea of spreading on rice cakes as I see so many people say toast, but that's something different and gluten free which works for us!

Lily, that machine looks amazing! Never mind for baby, sounds like it could cook half a meal for me!

 

[Rachel_C]

I think the only thing we really buy different is baby stock cubes. The low salt ones for adults aren't actually that low in salt compared to the baby ones, so I get the Heinz or Boots ones, although I'm sure some of the supermarkets do them too, and just use them in place of normal ones so pretty much anything is suitable. You can pick your meals with LO in mind but I'd still stick to proper meals cos that's one of the joys of BLW My youngest's first meal was spag bol and it went really well.

Other things to buy could include some natural yoghurt (preferably not low fat), full fat milk if you might use it in cooking or on cereal, rice cakes, good veg for snacking on raw, some baby-friendly cereals (Weetabix and Ready Brek are firm favourites here)... things adults can normally eat but not everybody would always have in. Both of our LOs have always loved soft tortilla wraps too; they're good for making little rolls at lunch with a bit of cheese spread and not as soggy as bread when gummed!

ETA - I'm not sure about gluten free stuff but I guess you'd probably find gluten free alternatives for a lot of things anyway

 

[joeyjo]

DS2s first food was naan bread from the Indian restaurant that he stole whilst I was distracted. Age 5 months (just). His 2nd food was chips (home made, low fat but still chips) given by his brother.... It did improve but he literally went straight into family meals. Pasta, tuna and tomato sauce was the first thing I actually offered him. He had a roast dinner offered that week too.

DS1 - first meal was cheese on toast followed by pear, in that first week he also had Moroccan lamb stew with couscous - I remember because it was noteably messy! He will have also been offered a roast dinner fairly quickly.

Breakfasts in those early days were mini weetabix or porridge served on preloaded spoons (I just couldn't face the mess of hands in porridge). They both picked up and managed the spoons very quick, I just used to load up a 2 or 3 and leave them in the bowl ready.

 

[doggylover]

Thanks ladies - Rachel, i didn't even know there was such a thing as baby stock cubes so will have to get some in asap! I never add salt when cooking and do find stock cubes salty for my taste anyway, so may be a good change all round!