starches for 6 month BLW

[lovedtodeath]

Hi Allison! I am back and Jake ate cereal for the first time last night. He only had about a teaspoon of homemade millet, and makes a mess because he wants the spoon/cup.

I want to do BLW. Jake loves to grab paper and try to eat it. I was wondering if I make or buy bread with only baby safe grains (millet, rice, amaranth) and baking soda and water, is it ok to give it to him? Or is bread something harder to eat, easier to choke on?  I was thinking waffles would be easier. DD was eating them at about 9 months.

Also... I noticed with baby cereal directions the grains are cooked to death. Is this really necessary? I can make porridge from millet flour in only 2 minutes, but the baby cereal recipe says to simmer all grains for 10 minutes.  Which brings me to my next question.

If tortillas are choke proof (i guess they wouldn't be?) Is it digestable since the grain is not cooked much at all?

Okay, go for it!    I am waiting for answers.

[Freya'sMum]

Hello again!

Well, if you want to do a pure BLW approach, you can offer Jake whatever you want and if he has the capability of eating it he will! If you want to do a modified approach, you can select what you offer him based on your ideas about what is safe for him to have (eg. if you have a history of family allergies, or if you want to delay certain food groups) - the pure approach would suggest that babies can work all this out for themselves, but most parents err on the side of caution and don't test the theory by giving their kids a raw chicken breast!

The most obvious thing to say to you tho is forget the cereal preparations until Jake is proficient in feeding himself with a spoon. All porridge-type cereals make poor finger foods, you'd be better off with a non-conventional breakfast, perhaps a selection of fruits, or toast and spread - don't forget that he doesn't yet have a concept about what breakfast 'should' be!

I can't answer your bread related questions very well, waffles over in the uk tend to made of potato and are a processed food (not what you're talking about I think?), tortillas are corn based and can be quite chewy in my experience so might be a tricky first food, but we started dd2 on gluten-free pitta bread warmed and cut into strips/fingers which worked quite well, but she's not a huge bread fan! You could make pancakes instead?

Also, don't expect him to swallow much to start with. The BLW support thread shows that some los take to it straight away and eat loads from the start, others can take a good few months to really swallow anything, and spend a long time just sucking on sticks of various foods - this is fine! Don't forget that you can always join the thread for hints, tips and to share stories

Hope this helps in some way?

Ax

[lovedtodeath]

Your experience with pita bread helps. Yeah, I am a little leary of BLW due to history of allergies. Still haven't gotten around to reading a whole lot about it. We basically did BLW with my DD but we didn't start until 8 months. He has been interested in solids for a long time now. I will read the thread, it is just so long!

Thanks!

[grahamsmama]

You could do rice cakes or rice Chex, Cheerios, things like that he could self feed.  Meghan eats bread, I make toast with whole wheat bread for her and she doesn't choke.  She makes a big mushy mess, but then she just spits out whatever she doesn't eat.  I think waffles and pancakes sound like a great idea, too!

[Freya'sMum]

The second BLW Support thread is only 5 pages, and we wouldn't expect you to search thru the previous posts to find answers to your questions, just post them and the regular visiting mums will give you a reply from their past and current experiences!

Ax