[Mung bean]

Hi ladies,

My DS is 8 months and has been slow to take to solid but that's ok we are pretty chilled about it all. We have just bought the baby-led weaning cookbook and are waiting for it to come from the book depositary.

Unfortunately the high chair we have was given to us and is useless as DS sits too far back and isn't quite sitting unassisted so he can't reach the tray so we really need to head over to Ikea and get one of the plastic ones as we are using our baby bouncer which is upright to feed him in and boy is it messy!!

Seems a common thread that everyone MIL are up their bum's about BLW, my MIL was making many not so subtle hints about it and I let her fed DS some mashed Banana just to humour her, I haven't really explained the whole concept yet and feel a bit judge about the whole thing as we use cloth nappies, don't do controlled crying and DS has an amber teething necklace and so it just feels like it's another one of those 'things' we do IKWIM and DP is a bit clueless lol and mostly wants his Mum to be quiet.

Question: I have been steaming some carrots and offering them but the only thin I'm paranoid about is leaving the skin on and DS choking as the skin seems to go a bit stringy. I have left it on in the past and same for steamed apple is this ok or is it safer to remove it?

As for the Avocado (as read above about it being slippery) I read that you could roll it in some sugar free cereal so they can grasp it

[SqueakInCanada]

Hi everyone!

We are continuing on our BLW journey, having fun making lots of mess and perhaps ingesting some food Recent food tries have been risotto and a piece of slow cooked steak to suck on. It seems like every week she is getting more skilled at handling her food and it is great to watch.

DD has been a bit unwell recently and I've had experience trying to get her to take something she didn't want (medicine), and watching her close her little mouth and turn her head away is something I'm glad I don't have to do for a lovingly cooked meal! There has been times she hasn't been interested in the food, but as I've cooked the same food for us, it's no big deal if she doesn't eat hers. It would be frustrating if you'd done special preparing/cooking for the baby and then she isn't interested, I can see that it would be very tempting to try and coax it in; so I'm still happy with our BLW approach.

DD has been becoming very easy to read when she's finished with her meal - she holds her arms out on both sides until you get her out of her little high chair; cutey pie

Tesseract - love the idea of japanese pancakes as a food court meal. I quite like these myself, but hadn't really thought of that, so looking forward to having DD try one I enjoyed reading your post, am looking forward to watching these new skills develop in DD.

lanibear - it may be worth offering the BLW cookbook to your MIL to have a read of the introductory chapters once you have it. I did this with DP's parents as they seemed a bit bewildered by the idea, as a 'you might be interested in having a read, as this is the approach we are taking...'. They took it away to read and now seem to be on board - or at least know to expect mess when we come over for a meal!

I'm not sure about the skin on the steamed carrots question - I've peeled carrots automatically as that's how I eat them However, I do leave skin on pears, stone fruit, mangoes, etc to hold them together a bit better, and I believe it is OK and that it is good for them to learn to deal with it. However, it will be interesting to see what other's say as well.

[Riotproof]

Lani, the skin on the carrots will help grip and won't add any choking risk. Not sure about avocado, you could always spread it on toast or a ricecracker? I only peeled things bananas, kiwi fruit, mango where you don't eat the skin. I always left it on for things like pears, apples, nectarine..

Sounds like you're all doing very well..

[LenaK]

Hi All
I didnt realise there was a BLW thread until I came looking for some experiences :-)
Its great to see so many positive experiences.

We have been doing BLW with great success. DS has always had a good appetite and took to solids like a duck to water. So far he seems to have enjoyed everything we have given him except apples! His favourites are carrots and zuchini, pickled gerkins, chicken curry , meatballs, salmon cakes and of course mango. Its great to see him enjoy food so much.

This last week however has been a little frustrating and I was hoping for tips/hints/experiences? He has suddenly decided that he doesnt want to feed himself at all. He plays with the food, bangs, throws, squishes, observes and generally does his thing but he is not putting anything in his mouth. At first I thought it might be becuase he is teething (he went off his food when his bottom teeth came through) and so I just let him go thinking he will eat when he is ready, but his teeth are through and it has been over week now.

If we offer it to him he lunges forward with his mouth open (he wants it!) but he wont actualy take it to feed himself. If I let him he will eat his entire meal like this. If I put it on his tray he mashes it up then starts whining beucase he is hungry. He is pretty good at handling a pre loaded spoon, but its the same - will lunge forward and open his mouth but wont take the spoon off you or feed himself with it.

I'm not sure how to proceed. If I feed him I feel like I'm going to ruin our whole BLW thing and we are (were) going so well! He's still demand breastfed but he's not asking for more than his usual so I'm very mildly concerned.

Anyway, if anyone has any ideas I love to hear them.

[greenthumbs]

Hi All

Another new to BLWer here. My little man is only 5.5months and we started him last week. I feel so quilty as it was earlier than the suggested 6mths, but he was oh so ready. Sitting well, grabbing for food, completely enthralled with us eating, making chewing movements when watching us eat etc. I think we could have left it and he wouldn't have complained, but he seemed so ready and we had some lovely zucchini's in the garden....

We started with steamed veges and have since tried, pre loaded spoon with apple puree, pieces of steak, pumpkin, broccoli, carrot, zucchini, sweet potato, potato and chicken. He plays with it mostly, but really loved sucking on the steak and the zucchini (which was definitely ingested we discovered a little later )

I must admit I'm still finding it quite nerve wracking, even though he gagged a bit the first couple of times but hasn't much since. I've always been a panicker about babies choking. With my nephew I couldn't sit near him at the dinner table, because I was so worried about it. Why oh why I decided this was the best way to feed my little man I don't know . Well actually, it's because I agree with the sentiment that they'll turn out better eaters with less fussiness, more prepared to try different things. And I figure you've got to introduce solids eventually anyway, plus it's way easier to prepare.

My queries for any experienced BLW's are, did your bub start off sucking things? DS sucks on the meat. He tends to just shove the vege's in his mouth and it seems there's a bit of both munching and sucking going on, but the meat he puts in his mouth like a dummy (although he doesn't have a dummy, so is just sucking for the flavour I suspect).

I'm concerned about giving him some of the food we eat. Such as; rissoles, grainy bread, rice, pasta, small bits such as chopped veges in a stew, chunks of cheese, cabbage, brussel sprouts, pastry, salad stuff. I feel more comfortable with the big batten sized food I guess, stuff he can suck and have a feel and taste of but is unlikely to break any off.

Would it make sense to just hold off a little until he seems to have the chewing thing happening a bit more? I'm assuming this will only be a couple of weeks anyway. Perhaps I did start him too early? He does seem to enjoy it, even though he's really only playing with the food. It's my paranoia I have to deal with I suppose.

Any suggestions or advice would be much appreciated. FYI he is BF on demand and the cheeky little monkey has gotten into bad habits of having most of his milk overnight


EFS

This post has been edited by greenthumbs: 04/02/2012, 09:09 PM

[LenaK]

HI Greenthumbs. It is quiet in here

My DS sucked a bit for the first week or so. Then you could see him start to move the food around in his mouth, he started licking and biting more. He can chew just about anything now. he did gag a couple of times early on but he knows the sensation now and is very good at spitting it out if he has biten off more than he can chew.

I think he had his first rissole about 3 weeks into BLW and it was a big success. I was a little nervous the first time so I put the mince through the food processor before rolling them so they were a smoother consistancy. He demolished them. I also make him salmon cakes with mashed potato and grated veges. I found both of these really great starters becuase he can pick them up easily and 'chew' without really needing to chew.

I put rice on his board but he didnt really eat it until he could pick it up. It took him a few weeks practice, but once he could we had no problem. He has only ever had grainy bread. Chunks of veges from a stew are perfect because they are usually very soft. DS is a big fan of my chunky stewed carrot. I think cooked cabage would be fine, but it might be a little early for a brussel sprout? Steamed brocoli is always a good starter becuase its easy to hold and they can suck and chew without getting too much.

This is DS with his first brocoli...



DS cant have dairy but I'd have no problem giving him pastry. I'd probably hold off on hard cheeses but you could try some soft ones? As for salad, I give him chunks of tomato which he just sucked on to begin with but now bites and chews. Sweet peas he kind of chews and sucks on but cant actually eat yet. I havnt given him lettuce yet, I dont think he's ready.

Trust your instincts and his instincts. You will see when he's ready to move on

This post has been edited by LenaK: 07/02/2012, 05:16 AM

[greenthumbs]

LenaK Oh My God!!! Your son is adorable! I love that pic, one for the wall I believe!

Thanks for all your information and encouragement

It's getting better and better and more fun each day. He really enjoyed some hommus with tortillas the other day - what a mess!

Watching him try to get a banana to his mouth was hilarious He got there eventually, then just spat it out!

One really good thing, it's making us eat way more veges that normal.

[Tesseract]

Hey BLWers!

Hope you're all having fun!

DD 11 months has been off her veggies for a while now, on the shame! But I've not been pushing it (of course) and she's slowly starting to eat them again.

I came across this article http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2012/feb...-feeding-weight

So cool that someone has done a study into it! This article might be good for anyone trying to convince grandmothers etc that this approach isn't actually insane lol. Just thought I'd share

[SqueakInCanada]

Thanks for that article Tesseract, that's an interesting read.

LenaK, how's it going with your LO? Is he interested again in feeding himself? That's such a cute photo of him eating his broccoli!

I made a broccoli sauce pasta for DD and myself a few days ago, and she loved it - spent about 1/2 an hour sitting there eating and sucking the pasta curls. I thought it was rather tasty myself as well

Other hits lately have been spaghetti bolognaise, taco mince, and chicken stir fry - although I think the vegies were a little undercooked in the stir fry - I think I might need to partially steam the vegies next time so that they are softer and easier for DD to 'bite' off. We just got back from lunch at a Japanese restaurant actually, and DD helped herself to some of my Bento Box rice and grated carrot; she had a great old time!

Welcome greenthumbs! Sounds like you and your DS are having fun with food, which I think is the great thing about BLW. My DD also started mostly sucking things (we also started at 5 1/2 months), so I don't think that much got ingested in the first month or so. She then progressed to biting things off, but they mostly came straight back out I think, and recently I've noticed her being able to move the food around in her mouth and swallow it. She has gagged maybe 3-4 times in the early days, but I haven't seen any gagging recently.
My understanding is that the more practice they get, the better they get at being able to handle the food; and gagging (and being able to clear the food themselves) is sort of a good thing as it means that they have avoided choking, and they'll learn from that.
Our first real meat meal was also rissole's, and because it was sort of a crumbly texture, DD was able to swallow some. Although, I have heard that even sucking the meat gets some goodness out.
DD is now eating rice by squishing it together in her hand (I think if you cook it a bit stickier than normal it's easier for the early BLW'ers to pick up, or cook it in a risotto, etc), and big pasta curls are also easy to pick up.
In regards to salad items, one of DD's first foods was cucumber sticks - she was able to use her gums to get the soft bits off, and I'm sure the coolness is lovely on her gums. She also enjoys sucking on capsicum. Haven't tried cheese yet as I think there might be some sort of dairy issue going on with DD.

[LenaK]

Hi Squeak's Mum :-) Broccoli pasta sounds yummy!

We are still having some difficulties. He is self feeding pear and banana. Yesterday he ate a pancake and I gave him a slice of lemon which he happily sucked on for 15 minutes

I pre loaded a spoon today and he didnt take it so I just put it on his tray. Rather than pick it up he put his mouth to the tray and ate it!

He gets very excited when he sees food and is happily opening his mouth when I offer it - he just wants me to feed him! I'm starting to think its becuase of some major development leaps - in the last few weeks he has started babbling, crawling and pulling himself up on things. He also seems to have had some sort of awakening - he started following intructions and interacting, playing peek-a-boo himself etc. I think eating just hasnt been on his priority list.

He has increased his breastfeeds this week so I'm more comfortable just letting him go at his own pace.

Hi Tesseract. Thanks for the link. It is great to see some research into BLW.

greenthumbs Thanks I think he's pretty cute! Watching them taste and feel textures is soo awsome.