Baby-Led Weaning Support Thread #2

[VickyB20]

Bryony - have you tried grating the veg?  You could cook some carrot, for example, then grate it directly onto her tray.  Or try it raw.  Meatballs are a good one to sneak veggies into.  Have you tried risotto?  My boys just LOVE risotto and I can sneak all sorts of goodies in it.  Sometimes they get through it so fast that I'm not even sure if they bother 'chewing' it at all, so I've started grating the veg in it rather than chopping, so it has at least some chance of being digested!!

Spices are fine, I'm sure.  In fact, I made a barley & veg stew last night, which had cinnamon, ground ginger, cumin and ground coriander seeds in - so kind of like a mild curry I suppose.  No salt required.  Very yummy and, no surprise, the boys loved it!  Oh and I put garlic in pretty much everything.  It's such a great ingredient, being anti-biotic and anti-viral.

Lovedtodeath - that's so interesting about the 'aura' of food.  I absolutely do 100% trust that actually!  My boys refused raspberries, much to my astonishment, a few weeks back and it wasn't until afterwards that I heard they are a relatively common allergen.  They didn't even touch them on their tray, which is unusual for them.

Off to try out that sneaky veg link... for my toddler (who was mush-fed and won't touch un-hidden veggies except for carrots, occasionally).

Vicky
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[VickyB20]

Just thought of another way I got veggies into them early on... I'd make cheese straws (flour, butter, beaten egg & cheese) and add all sorts of veggies.  They'd just munch their way through and pretty much ignore the veg!
V
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[Bryony]

Loving all the sneaky-veg ideas everyone, thanks so much     I think as I eat my veg fairly unadulterated, I am not very good of thinking of more sneaky ways of preparing them!  Will see how we get on... 

Bryony

[lovedtodeath]

Here is a link to the cauliflower popcorn recipe. I have also tried soy sauce. My mother in law eats this instead of rice. I roast mine until it is really, really done with some black. DH likes his not quite so cooked. I don't really know how nutritious it is as I have been told that the more you cook something the less nutrition. But oh well, it is yummy and low carb. I use a big bowl and just guess at the measurements.

Bryony, did you look at the link for sneaky veggies? Really interesting. I wonder if you could get the book there? I am going to request it at my library. My dad and my dh are bad about avoiding veggies. My dad will pick tiny bits of spinach out of his lasagna.

Jake is seven months old on the fifteenth!!

[Bryony]

Lovedtodeath - I did look, but all I could find was stuff on purees - was I not looking in the right place? 

B

[VickyB20]

Bryony - click on the Recipes tab and it will take you to more info.  The purees is on the first page and there's other info too.
xx

[MJMom]

Alissa - I agree with Lyndsey on the salt - but spices are fine.   Esp if you have been BF, as they are used to the spices that you eat 

I wonder if she would be used to all the salt I consume...  I actually have had more than one doctor tell me I'm sodium deficient.    YAY on spices!  I'd been holding back.

sneaky veggies - My mom tried since I was 4 or 5 months old to give me carrots.  I would never have anything to do with them no matter how she tried to sneak them in - grating, soups, I would some how know.  I loved all the veggies no other kid liked.  Spinach, zuchinin, brussel sprouts, but not carrots.  

I still find them vile.

[grahamsmama]

  Do you think you could "hide" some veg into some of the dishes you cook her?  You could try Vicky's alternative to petit filous and get some fruit in that way. 

Also, if you add a little pureed veg with the pureed fruit, she might take it.  Meghan likes green beans with applesauce but not just plain green beans.  Also, pureed squash or carrots in the yogurt. 

About spices, Meghan has only had garlic and cinnamon so far, but seems fine with it. 

[lovedtodeath]

you have to use the tabs recipes
the recipes use purees, that is how they are sneaky

Of course I know white flour is wheat I should have explained why.... whole wheat is harder to digest, and the most allergenic part is the germ. Jake waking.... GTG

[Lippy Chick]

Bryony, this is a bit sad, but I seem to remember This Morning doing an article on hiding veggies into children's food.  I don't sit all morning and watch it, honest!!  Just while I'm bottle feeding Alice.  I don't know if they'll have a link on their website, or whether they'll have a recipe leaflet or something. 

Don't know about any of you, but are you thinking that it would be great to have all these recipes in one place, in a book, which was for sale, which was linked to how to go about baby-led weaning?  Just a thought, to throw out there.  I did an MA last year in Creative Writing and always thinking of new ideas for a book.  I think the fact that there is so little information out there about how to do this and we are all just helping each other.  Thank goodness for this website, is all I can say.  We would have to get in touch with (ahhhh, brain has gone, can't remember the name of the lady who started this) her and ask her to do the writing of the "how to" bit and then maybe everyone could submit recipes.  I'm a bit anal and OCD and need to feel prepared with each stage and didn't for this one at all, well I did on spoon feeding purees, had a whole chart planned out.  Until my HV told me about this and then I felt a bit all over the place.     What ya all think?

I think Alice is eating more today.  She was chomping away on a piece of kiwi and then she threw the skin down with very little flesh on it and none was coming back out of her mouth.  Think we may have turned a corner with this.

Need to wake her for milk.

Pauline   

[Bryony]

Lovedtodeath - ah-ha, I have them now - thank you so much     Will try some of those. Part of me feels that with BLW we shouldn't need to be sneaking fruit and veg into our LOs' food - but the other part of me worries that she will be vitamin C deficient as I am not giving her vitamin drops or anything....  so I think I will try and sneak in a few but not worry too too much about it.

Pauline - love the idea of the book!!  That would be great.   Gill Rapley (I think) is the name you are looking for 

Bryony

[MJMom]

you have to use the tabs recipes
the recipes use purees, that is how they are sneaky

Of course I know white flour is wheat I should have explained why.... whole wheat is harder to digest, and the most allergenic part is the germ. Jake waking.... GTG

Ah... I didn't know it was the germ.  But it makes sense!

Pauline- funny you should say that... I thought about that a couple of weeks ago as a book idea as well.  I already started braindumping the types of things I would want to include in said book...

[VickyB20]

Well this is destiny, I'd say!  I too was thinking that we need a BLW book.

SO LET'S JUST DO IT!!

Any volunteers to contact Gill?  (She might already be doing one, of course.)  I'm happy to do it if no other takers, but I'm the first to admit that I'm pretty unreliable at the moment given how hectic life is right now and it could take me a while to get round to it!!

Did gnocchi for tea with garlic oil and grated cheese.  Not a huge success but they got a few pieces down them.  (Followed it with a peanut butter sandwich, eaten with great enthusiasm!)  I think they'll eat more gnocchi second time round so I'll try again in a few days.  Good texture though and easy for them to pick up.

Vicky
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[lovedtodeath]

A book is definitely needed. You have my permission to use whatever I say, If I day anything useful.

That is great Alice is eating better. So happy for you!

Now, Jake is just playing with his food and not eating anything unless I spoon feed him some or put it in the mesh feeder. I think he still has his mealtimes messed up from the time change and is too tired to eat. Ever since Em started school we have had no schedule to speak of. When should I start offering a second meal? I gave him lunch yesterday, but then I had to give him 2 baths. What a pain!

[evanskimberley]

Book is a great idea. I have just written an article on do BLW for y NCT magazine. Alison proofed it for me as I'd used some of her stuff from the sticky and some from the Gill Rapley quotes online.
Having it with recipe ideas would be a great idea.