Baby Led Weaning

[mum2A&L]

i started off the same, i feed alice brekky and she fed herself everything else. i brought a brown loaf, and kept it in the freezer and defrosted a slice as we needed it. i can slip the off spoonful in now, but mostly she refuses to eat unless she has a hand in it.

If i put something on a fork now alice can feed herself, but she tends to turn the spoon upside down, lossing all the food!

the bit i love the most was the fact when all my friends where dulling down flavours with baby rice, alice loves foods with stronger flavours!!

have a look throguh this thread, there are loads of ideas on snaks etc, but feel free to pm

enjoy!

 

[andreag]

Charlottes weaning is going really well - I am so impressed with her ability to feed herself and she really enjoys it. We are having breakfast and lunch at the moment, but I might try introducing dinner next week.

She loves carrott and brocolli, and has eaten some of everything we have given her so far - mango was a big hit yesterday. She is getting much better at chewing and swallowing, rather than spitting it out.

She has fromage frias in the morning and I put it on thespoon, and give her the spoon. She is good at geting the spoon into her month. She eats the fruit herself and even uses 2 hands if its a bit slippery to pick up. We also had chicken and pasta for lunch the other day, and I put some of the pasta on a fork and she ate from the fork no problems
I got Amanda Grants weaning book out of the library simply to see if there were any ideas on finger foods, and am so glad I didn't go down this route. The stuff C is having is listed in the 10-12 month section of her book - C is 6.5 months.

Anyway - just wanted to share my pride with someone who understands!

 

[valentine]

That's brilliant news Andrea! Well done to you and Charlotte!

We're just getting prepared to start BLW, so this is so encouraging to hear. DD just waking so can't write more, but will soon - fab news!

Valentine Xxx

 

[Xena]

ok ladies, advice needed.

Alex doesn't like pureed food. He screams and screams when I try and spoonfeed him, so he's still almost entirely on breastmilk.

BUT yesterday I gave him a piece of cheese and it seemed to be a hit. He seemed interested and ate it.

So I'm thinking maybe BLW is the way to go. I mean, he's 7 and a half months old now, he's meant to be eating food now right?

I know nothing about BLW - Lydia was a puree gal - what are good first things to give? How do you cook them? help!

edit: he has no teeth, does that matter?

 

[maybebaby]

Nat, I've pmed you.

 

[Xena]

thanks hun I've replied to you

 

[andreag]

We have done BLW and its fab. We started off with steamed veg, but Charlotte was only 5.5 months, but once she got to 6 months its anything goes really. She is still really keen on fruit and veg (even citrus fruit which I thought she wouldn't like she loved) and I just try to adopt what we eat to a conveinient style for her to eat. Yesterday for breakfast was weetabix and pear, lunch she had pitta bread cut into soldiers and spread with hummous (same as me) with cherry tomatoes, and yoghurt. For dinner she had some rice cakes I had made with tuna, and banana. There are some recipe ideas on the BLW weaning website - I liked the potaoto cakes (as did C!) and pitta bread is something we are never without. I don't generally cook with salt anyway but if you do you need to be careful, but she loves other sorts of spices.
The lack of teeth doen't matter at all - I made breadsticks which are quite hard and great for teething.
One thing that surprised me was that some of the food seems to come out pretty much as it went in, but this is apparently perfectly normal!

 

[Sherlock]

OK I'm really interested in this. I did lots of digging on the old internet and found a veritable goldmine of info on it all.

Now to make it to 6 months feeding LO on my boobs

FWIW I found these links, not sure if they have been mentioned here before (I've yet to read all 13 pages of this thread )

Good old Dutch, leading the way Guidelines for implementing a baby-led approach to the introduction of solid food

And a blog from two Mums and their babies

 

[BabyMagic]

Thank you Sherlock for the links!

I am also interested in BLW. I have previously been dreading to start weaning (mainly because I have absolutely loved bf:ing exclusively), but this looks like a far more natural and fun approach. Still a bit to go before we start but looking forward to it now...

 

[valentine]

I've got some docs on BLW if anyone would like them? Just PM me your email address.

Valentine Xxx

 

[Gem & Leland]

how can i get leland to move closer to blw when he chucks up so bad if he gags on a chunk / lump ? he loves feeding himself he really looks excited at a rusk or bannna but chews away happyly then he'll get a bit stuck at the bag , so he'll gag , dislodge the stuck bit and then chuck up big style ! like everything his had int he passed few hours lol

 

[Clydesdaleclopper]

Try to view the gagging as a positive thing. It means that he is learning to manipulate food in his mouth and is getting rid of it before it becomes a choking risk. Some babies are just more prone to gagging with BLW but stick at it and it will get better.

 

[Charlie:-)]

FWIW I found these links, not sure if they have been mentioned here before (I've yet to read all 13 pages of this thread )

Good old Dutch, leading the way Guidelines for implementing a baby-led approach to the introduction of solid food

And a blog from two Mums and their babies

Great links Sherlock, have read the first one and a similar one posted by Beanie on her BLW Blog. Just browsed the second link but it looks brilliant. The recipe andthe first foods sections split into month 1 and month 2 are brilliant it gives me some great ideas.

 

[IsaB]

Hi there BLW's we'll be joining you in a week or so, and it's just occurred to me that I don't know what temperature to serve food at - I'm thinking for steamed veges etc - do you serve them warm or cool them right down? And how do you test the food to know what's too hot?? I'm clueless! Thanks!

 

[charlie84]

I serve foods that are cooked warm, and i test it by having a nibble
TBH after its been sitting on LOs tray it goes cold but she still munches away

 

[mum2A&L]

Alice refused to have warm food for a while - she also refused warm milk, it had to be cold. In fact she still has her milk straight from the fridge now.

 

[jellyfish]

Hi ladies,

I'm just learning about BLW and would like to give it a try.

What age does baby have to be (minimum) to start? And do you start giving chunks of food straight away (nothing from a spoon at all)? What foods do you start with?

Does anyone have any links to good sites? Or recommend any books, etc? I'm going to read back through this thread now!

Thanks
Lizzy

 

[daftscotslass]

Hiya! I keep forgetting this is here There's an active thread on BLW here

viewtopic.php?f=55&t=89993

Should answer all your questions

 

[jellyfish]

Oh thanks - didn't realise this wasn't really active, just saw the date of the last post now

 

[Geordie&Bairn]

Oh thanks - didn't realise this wasn't really active, just saw the date of the last post now

Dont feel bad im going to start using it


Age to start is 6 months though BLW mean if the child is not ready then you wait till they are take thier lead so if at 6 months thier not then its nothing to worry about. I wouldnt start much earlier as babies will not be ready to swollow pieces of food.

I started with sticks of food but Collier had breakfast ie porridge in a bowl but he feeds himself (very very messy) BLW means they feed themselve at thier pace eating as much as they want and stopping when they want.


We started with banana easy to hold chew and swallow, peach halves, pear, carrot, red pepper
then brochilli, courgette, aubergine, cherry tomatos, pasta tubes
going to try sweet potato and plums next there are so many things you can try and its so much fun watching them explore thier food