BLW hybrid the Montessori Approach..anyone??

[tattlebaby]

As a teacher, I love anything and everything that supports independence in young children, thus the idea of BLW and the Self-Feeding Montessori approach has sparked my interest and i'm curious to see if anyone of you here have tried it? The two seem to go well hand-in-hand and I'm just wondering how to setup and plan for this. I think all I really need is to get a toddler sized table and chair and figure out what finger-foods to begin offering LO, since she's been solely on pureed veggies and fruits.

 

[HKateH]

I baby led weaned. A little explanation though: you can't 'baby led wean' a baby who has been on purées previously as BLW is the introduction of solid food and self feeding from the word go. If you choose to switch to solids now, you are simply introducing finger foods. I would be careful about stopping feeding your baby altogether as it may be frustrating for LO to begin self feeding all meals and thus ending up hungry until the skill is mastered. When a baby is BL weaned from 6 months, they are still reliant upon milk as the primary source of nutrition. They then drop milk intake themselves as their solid food intake increases.

You could certainly begin introducing some of the methods though: finger foods; giving cutlery to practise with; serving meals as they come. Just be careful as your baby will be used to purées and not chewing - whereas a baby who has been BLW learns to chew as soon as food is introduced.

 

[tattlebaby]

Makes perfect sense, and this is exactly what I've been worried about. Either way, the transition to solid foods is going to be something totally new to her, but if I'm certainly suppose to transition her to finger foods at some point. Wondering if I could start trying with "the Nibbler" https://www.nuby-uk.com/view-product?product_id=784 first, and then move on to fork and spoon for self-feeding??? She obviously is becoming more aware of things and a lot more curious. Yesterday she reached out to grab the bowl I was feeding her from, so I really want to take advantage of her new desire to want to explore food on her own, just don't know how to best go about it. Honestly, I would love to do the BLW approach, although it might be too late like you said, but her grandparents, who stay with her all day while I'm away at work, feel very uncomfortable with the idea unfortunately . So because of this I kind of have to go the Traditional Route to keep everyone happy. Yesterday we tried Avocado for the first time (mashed) and she hated it. Someone suggested giving it to her in slices, Idk what to do with this one.

 

[Lady_Bee]

Yes I think you'd be fine giving avocado slices. I would just start with soft finger foods like banana slices, toast soldiers, or maybe pasta noodles. I have my baby foods like these from 6 months and he had no trouble with them. I give him almost everything I eat now. Your LO might gag frequentlt at first but will soon get the hang of it!

I'm not sure I would bother with a table and chair for an 8 month old though... IDK, maybe if it is VERY low?? If you want to forego a high hair I might opt for a mat or a blanket on the floor as a designated eating space, with the food either on a tray on the floor, or on a low surface (I have served food on an ikea storage box for my 9 month old as it was just the right height with him sitting on the floor). Tables and chairs are great for toddlers and my almost 3 year old loves eating on his but an 8 month old might be too small to be comfortable. I could be wrong though! I don't do the Montessori approach with my boys so my advice might not be relevant!

 

[sheldonsmommy]

Double posted

 

[tattlebaby]

Thanks guys! well today we tried the avocado again in slices, a little mashed, tiny pieces, everything to get her to want to eat it happily but she wasn't happy about it. Although she didn't cry, she did make faces and did gag here and there, she only ate literally like 10 tiny pieces that I had to give to her. She honestly did not know what to do with the food I was laying out in front of her. Even the tinniest pieces, I had to eventually place in her mouth for her, because she did not know what to do with them. Does this mean she is not ready for finger foods? I'm kind of freaking out cuz everyone keeps saying how she should already be eating chunkier foods, atleast textured, now at 8 1/2 months old, and she only eats when spoon fed-purees. I so didn't want to be in this predicament. I hate that I didn't follow my gut feeling with going BLW from the beginning. Now what?

 

[sheldonsmommy]

Start with any food that can be squashed easily between your fingers. Bananas, yam, sweet potato, green beans, pears, steamed apple or carrot, toast slices, well cooked beans. I would probably just put some food in front her and go from there .

 

[sheldonsmommy]

I was going to add (before my kid started screaming lol) that we didn't really introduce any specific approach with ds2, just skipped the pureed foods like I did with ds1. He got a plainer version of what we were eating. Just the soft foods to start then threw in small chunks of meat when his teeth were big enough, around 7 months. It's really fun watching them eat their own food

 

[tublet]

I think your getting too worried sweetheart, just don't stress just put food in front of her at let her play and explore with her fingers. Whether it's BLW or finger foods not many babies will know immediately what to do and will explore and watch you eat and try to copy. She will get the hang of it when she's ready, and there is no harm with continuing with the purées as well. You could also put some food in a bowl while playing and see how she does on the floor as well?

I wouldn't put chunks of food in her mouth you could stress her out just let her do it in her own time.

We did do BLW and my baby attended montessori nursery from 8 months and they just follow her lead and her do all finger food as she refused all spoon feeding. At 10 months she started feeding herself yoghurt which they let her do as well.

 

[Wannabe Mommy]

We do a mix of Spoon feeding and finger foods, my LG likes slices of avacado but hates it mashed, I noticed that when mashed it was weirdly lumpy and when sliced if she sucked and chewed on it it seemed more buttery and smooth.

We started finger foods with buttered toast soldiers, banana, apple slices, avacado, omelette, satsuma wedges and rice cakes spread with nut butters or mashable foods like banana, cheese spread and so on.

It's messy and the first few weeks it's less about eating and more sucking out all the flavour then spitting out.

 

[MindUtopia]

We did BLW. Like someone else said, it's really the idea of only offering them finger foods from the start and letting them self-feed, skipping the purees. But there's no reason you can't start making the switch to finger foods now even if you've been doing TW up to this point. It's really easy and doesn't need overthinking. Just offer whatever you would eat yourself (minus added salt, sugar, honey and whole nuts) in whatever set up you usually feed her. Pasta, sandwiches, pieces of banana or other sliced fruits, grapes, blueberries, yogurt, steamed broccoli florets, rice cakes with hummus/nut butter/mashed banana, toast with anything on it, mini pizzas, curry and rice, cottage pie, soups with bread and butter. Really anything you eat as long as you avoid added salt, sugar, honey and whole nuts (and probably too much chilli for now). Most of it will just get mushed around and chucked on the floor to start, especially if she's used to being spoonfed. But that's fine. She'll eventually work out what to do. You just can't expect too much too soon. We started BLW at 6 months and though my daughter ate solids and they were obviously coming through in her nappies after about 2 weeks of doing finger foods, she didn't really eat in any quantity until about 9 months. So that's about 3 months and that's with a baby who hasn't already learned to be spoonfed. It will just take time. Offer lots of interesting finger food options and sit back on your hands for a month or two and just let her play. She'll get it. My daughter is almost 2 now and is the most amazing eater. She eats so many weird 'non-kid' foods, like pickled onions, toasted seaweed, olives, curry, smelly cheese, etc. But it really did just take being patient and letting her go at her own pace.

(It's worth adding, I always found avocado to be really hard for my daughter to eat. So you might just need to try something easier. It's very slippery and it's a weird taste and texture anyway. I found it was more acceptable to her if I mashed it with banana and spread on toast fingers).

 

[noon_child]

If she doesn't seem to know what to do with the food, it's probably worth giving her something off your plate at meal times. Then she is watching you eat the very same thing that she has in front of her so it should click that it is "food" but she may just want to play with it at first.

Make sure she isn't starving hungry at meal times though, as a hungry baby is not interested in "learning" and "exploring", they just want a full belly. I found meal times about 1hr after milk (or in your case maybe a puree) allowed for enough hunger to want to taste it but not so much that it was too frustrating.