Er, don't actually know what I'm doing??!!

[littlemonkey]

Sorry if this turns into a long post! So my son is nearly five months old and I had started doing what can probably be described as traditional weaning at 17 weeks on the advice of the GP and HV cos he's got reflux. I've been offering him rice, then porridge, then pureed fruit and veggies. This has been a bit ad hoc just offering him things to taste after a feed and to play about with the spoon etc.

In the last couple of weeks his head control has come on leaps and bounds. He has been staring at people eating and drinking. In this last week he has been putting his mouth to mine for 'kisses' which I've heard is meant to be them trying to get chewed up food out mums mouth and well last night the wee bugger kept pinching my toast off me. So I gave him a tiny bit which he chomped on happily!

Now I don't know what I should be doing weaning wise. Does this mean my son is ready for something else other than purees and mushy stuff and what can I offer him? Isn't not even 5 months a bit young for BLW?! Can anyone recommend any good books or websites for BLW?

I feel like I have no idea what I'm doing! I hadn't expected to be even thinking about all this for at least another month, but LO has well and truely surprised me!

 

[Sarah3]

Dont have any advice for you but will be watching this thread, think my LO might be ready soon. His head control is fantastic, he's sitting up fine and only needs gentle support and stares at people eating then does the reaching out and shoving his hands in his mouth thing....? But he's so young too...

I think with reflux there might be some foods to avoid/try carefully - our LO has reflux too so i'm interested in a lot of the same questions

 

[diane]

At 5mo I'd probably just stick with purees tbh. Or if he can sit unaided maybe give him finger sticks of fruit and veggies (cucumber or melon maybe? Something soft). I would mainly just stick with them as there are still foods to be avoided before 26 weeks and I'm too lazy to think about that lol so just waited till 6 months.

I use the blw book by gill rapley which has been amazing!

 

[CARNAT22]

Just Google Baby Led Weaning and you'll get the website I use (they don't let you link it on here)

Also I bought the Gill Rapley book second hand from ebay.

We started porridge at about 5 months (literally just a spoonful) and introduced some finger foods at 5.5 months (carrot batons, cucumber sticks, steamed broccoli) and then from 6 months he had everything

xxxxx

 

[knopk@]

I started putting stuff on my sons tray at 5 months( he could sit in his high chair from 4 months though)
If he can take stuff with his hands and put it in his mouth, he is ready

Tapatalking so cant see signatures

 

[l_maclean]

If he has the skills to be able to put food accurately into his mouth then he's not too young. BLW is supposed to follow what baby wants!! 6months is a guide for when most LOs are able to do it.

She started my DD on BLW at 4.5 months after she pinched some garlic bread and ate it.

The only thing that I think they try to really encourage you waiting till months for is gluten.

Broccoli is a great one to start with - soft ish top to eat and a hard stalk to hold.

 

[diane]

The NHS says that a baby is ready for food when they can:


-"Stay in a sitting position and are able to hold their head steady
-Co-ordinate their eyes, hands and mouth, can look at food, grab it, and put it in their mouths all by themselves
-Swallow their food. Babies who are not ready will often push their food back out, so get more around their faces than they do in their mouths.

The important thing to remember is that if your baby is ready for solid food all three signs will be there."

 

[littlemonkey]

Thanks everyone! Well I've just continued with my adhoc experimenting since the toast incident! I've kept giving him his usual porridge, fruit and veggies. But when we've been having tea I've given him bits of things like mashed potato and veg on his chair tray to play with.

I'm not 100% convinced he's ready for finger foods just yet as he has also been trying to snatch my iphone off me and eat it!

 

[littlemonkey]

Dont have any advice for you but will be watching this thread, think my LO might be ready soon. His head control is fantastic, he's sitting up fine and only needs gentle support and stares at people eating then does the reaching out and shoving his hands in his mouth thing....? But he's so young too...

I think with reflux there might be some foods to avoid/try carefully - our LO has reflux too so i'm interested in a lot of the same questions

Sarah, I'd not been told this. All the HV and GP said was try solids as he might keep them down better?!

 

[Sarah3]

Sarah, I'd not been told this. All the HV and GP said was try solids as he might keep them down better?!

I think its mostly just avoiding acidic foods, or trying them one at a time, so if it makes the reflux flare up then you know to stay away from it for now.

Its been a while since i looked though, and it was just in passing when i was looking for reflux info, so i need to look into it myself.

 

[Mummyxbear]

Baby led weaning is reported to be the best way of weaning your LO, if your son has head control and is taking your toast and eating it with no problems then it sounds very much like he is ready. I found this leaflet to be helpful http://www.rapleyweaning.com/assets/blwleaflet.pdf
Also baby-led weaning by Gill Rapley and. Tracey Murkett is brilliant. I bought it on amazon after reading lots of very positive reviews, it cost less than £8 which I think is very reasonable. We started weaning just using finger foods then We started to spoon feed for a while then offered finger foods afterwards but as soon as he started to get to about 8 months he wanted to do it all himself and refused to eat from a spoon at all. this book was very helpful during this time and I would definitely recommend it. I hope that helps x