Baby Led Weaning Support Thread - Part 6!

[Mrs Coops]

Manuela is there allergies in your family? If he's had whole egg with no problems I wouldn't remove either part. My LO ate egg early on but now won't touch it in any form! They say with BLW that babies avoid foods that they later show an intolerance for, nit sure how true that is but eggs are the only food she absolutely will not try, curious!

Does he 'throw' or drop the spoon? Dropping things on purpose is a (rather annoying) developmental milestone in which he is starting to learn the delights of cause and effect! It's a difficult question about giving it back as to do so will encourage him to eat more. However, it will also encourage the 'make mummy & daddy pick it up repeatedly' game!
 You can buy cutlery on elastic attachments that stick to the table with suckers, I never needed them but it's something to consider!

[Manueli]

Thanks Marsha, no we don't have any allergies and I wasn't worried about any until my doctor said that especially eggs and fish should be put off for later cause of the allergy dangers. He doesn't eat egg if it's boiled but has eaten it scrambled (haven't tried it for a while). Its more of a question if I can put some egg into other dishes (such as baked goods, burgers, egg pancakes, etc.).

It's defenitelly a game of 'make mummy pick it up repeatedly' and he drops it on purpose (sometimes a bit forceful so which is pretty close to throwing, not sure where the difference is). I will look out for those attachments or try making them myselfs, seems like a good idea. If not I think I will consider not picking up anymore, it's just too annoying. He does eat most of his food before he starts loosing interest and dropping the spoon.

What do you guys think of giving forks to eat? He always wants the cutlery that I am using (I don't use any knives so he wount be tempted) but I have been giving him a fork and he tries to pick things up. Otherwise I will have to eat with fingers as well. I just always feel a bit nervous cause forks are kinda dangerous...

[inoella]

Kami - thanks for the smoothie idea - sounds delic!!!!

Manueli - I haven't braved giving my cutlery yet - mostly because all DD wants to do with it is use it as a teether... sigh... so we're sticking with her "special" plastic stuff. Also, I've heard eggs in baked goods etc. is not a problem unless you have allergy history.

[Mrs Coops]

Manuela this is what I mean:
http://www.amazon.com/Dream-Baby-Stay-Put-Cutlery-Blue/dp/B00115W9ES/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=baby-products&qid=1279635610&sr=8-3
Just an idea.

He's definitely playing, so I wouldn't pick it up once he's dropped it! We're having throwing issues, it's a whole lot of fun, NOT!

As for forks DD has been using one for ages, in fact its easier than spoons as they can 'stab' things! When she was smaller DD never hurt herself with it, it's as she got older that she started chewing on it! We couldn't give plastic forks in case she snapped the prongs off!

[inoella]

hmmm... hadn't thot of the fork for "stabbing". might have to try that.

[Lola's Mum]

Hi all, DD continues to enjoy feeding (apart from during a recent bout of illness) and happily tries everything. I know that the idea of BLW is that it's all at their pace but I'm starting to wonder whether she's not yet getting the idea that this stuff on her tray that she likes to stuff in her mouth can fill her up. She's still having 4 daytime milk feeds and sometimes a DF or NF. I know that they're supposed to dictate when to drop milk but I just wondered if I could help the process along, if appropriate, by doing solids first sometimes.

Also, I can see some signs of chewing but she still sucks on things a lot and the more successful eating is of things like strawberries, blueberries, kiwi, sweet potato etc. She sucks on toast, bread sticks, rice cakes etc. Not the juiciest of foods! Is this still normal at 8 months. I have just read about other babies polishing off loads of food at this stage and I'm still left with lots of half munched food on the tray, floor and in the bib. I did give her risotto the other night and fish pie last night. She seemed to eat a lot more of these but was being given loaded spoons or being fed the food. I wonder if she's saying 'Mum, I want proper meals now, not bits of food on a tray!!'. I don't always have proper meals to give her.

I'm getting horrible NWs and wonder if she's hungry, not that she takes a lot of milk. Any thoughts???

[Manueli]

I think it is completely normal if she is still mainly sucking on the food. Does she has any teeth yet? It's much easier to chew once they are in, but since the front ones are coming in first most of the food can still not be chewed that easily. I also think that it is totally normal to drink lots of milk until 12 months of age (and even longer), she just started eating solids. I am not sure how much food those other babies are polishing away, and how old they are, but I am pretty sure it's not as much as it seems. It's still mainly play time and experiencing everything. My LO is almost 13 months and still has 4 milk feeds most of the time (and tons of NWs with feeds but that's more a prop issue). My LO also eats more if I feed him than if he eats himself (sometimes the other way around), but I think it's easier to overfeed if you feed yourself because it's less work on the LOs and goes faster. Eating slow is much more healthier anyways. I remember at 8 months most of the food for our LO was eaten by our dog at the end. Now he is better in eating most of his food and making less of a mess (again, most of the time).

You can try to give her more proper meals, but fingerfoods are ok for now. Actually Hayden prefers easy fingerfoods to complicated meals. If she isn't drink lots of milk during the NWs I don't think it's because of hunger. There might be other things going on, a routine issue, teething, developmental spurt, growth spurt, etc. I would try to stick away from feeding to avoid a development of a prop.

[First Time Mom]

I agree with pp, my ds ate very little at 8 months, we did pureed food and finger foods. Most of the ff ended up beside his bum in the high chair or on the floor. Now, at 11 months he's doing much better with the ff but still drops loads of it, he's also bf 4x a day  though he's been refusing the afternoon feed past 2 days.

[Mrs Coops]

I can't remember when DD started 'chewing' I know there were whole chunks of food appearing out the other end for ages!!

Just curious, should this thread be on part 7 now?

[~Karen~]

I was wondering the same Marsha!

Is there a list anywhere of fingers food to try when you start at 6 months?

[Lola's Mum]

Thanks Manueli

I think the NWs are definitely not hunger but habit or a routine issue. Trying to work on it.

DD seems to prefer having a proper meal plus finger food. She won't let me feed her, so it's always her taking a loaded spoon when she's ready for it. Quite often she grabs it and shovels it in her mouth. It's hilarious. She flits between the finger food and the spoon food. I'm hoping she won't overfeed this way as she's deciding when to take the spoon. When she takes it and then flings it on the floor and then rubs the finger food into the tray, I know the meal is over!! Having said that, she often has a second wind of eating, just as I'm starting to tidy up.

Since writing that I didn't think she was chewing, she seems to have started chewing more. A tomato was reduced to just the skin after being chomped and moved around in her mouth yesterday.

AmyEthan, there's a finger food thread. I should have copied the link before writing. It's at the top, I think, when you go into the Feeding Solid Food section.

[huby]

neyguys baby is 11 months now - think she was off food for AGES because of teething...teeth through now and she eats absolutely everything except for mash potatos...not sure why. canb live with that though...thanks for all ur help in the past

[Canwi]

Well, we've gone over onto page 31, so time for a new thread.
Follow on here: http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=175926.0