Baby Led Weaning Support Thread - Part 8

[bug_blues70]

Anybody out there successfully transitioned? I'm trying to offer a spoon or (very blunt!) fork with mealtimes, and we're not particularly getting anywhere...

Ellen is 14 mo, so a bit older than yours, but I give her a real fork and have for a few months. We get absolutely no where with the blunt ones b/c she can't get any food on it. She is pretty gentle with everything tho, so I don't really have to worry too much about it... this might not be a good idea for every LO. She's just now starting to get the hang of a spoon too, tho she's very, very messy with it.

[hjrmom01]

been ages since I've posted but oh my gosh are we enjoying the BLW again!  It's so much fun and C really enjoys being able to feed herself. I still give fork and spoons but just load them for her and she does a great job with them.  It's really cute.  She's going to be my piggy, she eats EVERYTHING...and lots of it!  Just trying to come up with things for her to eat because of her allergies.  Milk, soy and egg are in everything...and she's a carb lover    Just want to share a cute picture of her from last night at dinner...she loves corn on the cob and steak!

[Kimberlina]

Oh Erin - she's too sweet!! Love that happy face!

[MommaBrooke]

Hi everyone,
Just joining in!  I started my little monkey on the cereal/puree route but she has started refusing to eat if I'm holding the spoon at all.  It started about 3 weeks ago, but I could always manage to get her to eat some food with me holding the spoon.  I started putting some finger foods on her tray and that worked for awhile too, but now she wants her food in whatever form I have it in...which today meant a big hunk of banana.  I'm actually surprised at how well she ate it   I am a little terrified about the whole baby led weaning thing...but I know it will be the best for her in the end, since she is such an independent little girl, and meal times would just end up being a fight if I insisted on carrying on with the purees.  I'm thinking I'll still offer rice/oatmeal/barley cereal but just put it on the spoon for her and leave the spoon on her tray.  She will pick the spoon up and eat off of it if I do it that way, and then I can hopefully clear the cupboard of all the cereal and purees that I have without them going completely to waste   I'm sure I will need some advice and ideas as we go, I'm feeling completely lost atm...and I really would have liked to transition a little more slowly to self-feeding, but I think right now she's expressing a need for change, and I've chosen to listen and let her lead the way

Have to go, my little monkey will be up from her nap soon!

[bexandlucy]

Hi Brooke, my LO was exactly the same - she's little miss independent all the way! These LO's know what they want don't they?!

Lucy loved banana to start with and it always surprised me how well she ate toast very young. Adnd broccoli was one of her earlier foods and now its one of her favourites!

Someone suggested spreading the purees onto toast, that way they don't get wasted, that might be an idea? Hope it goes well for you, try and relax - I'm having so much fun with weaning and I never worry about how much she's taking or introducing new foods etc etc so I'm a fan!

Lucy's really started eating more recently. She is loving things like bolognaise, and stews and risotto and cheesy pasta bake. She tends to be completely uninterested at lunch time though. Are anyone else LO's like this? xxx

[aimz22]

Here is a few pictures of Tristan at 11 months old (well nearly) 
we started finger foods today he did pretty well considering  i was well nervous at the beginning  .
The only one i have pictured him with is bit of fish pie when he had abit of mine  he didnt really have much mess but this is just the start but the nappy was rancid 
These pics we have carrot,cucumber,cheese, an 1 chip but i was worried incase he hadnt had much to eat so i gave him 2 yogurts to fill him up after x

[Mrs Coops]

Hi

Just popping in as I've been so busy lately. J is feeding himeself with a fork now he's so cute, he concentrates intently to spear the food and then looks up very pleased with himself before eating it! He must have a fork with every meal or he gets quite upset, he's also very much 'must have what you're having' so we can't eat anything different in front of him!
 He's also discovered his sister's trait of scrounging, when I eat my breakfast he crawls over, clambers up my leg and grabs at the bowl until I feed him some. Needless to say I have a huge breakfast to share out between both of my piggy children

[Kimberlina]

Bless, Marsha!

Wish I could get my Jack to use cutlery... though a fork IS easier for him. What type/brand are you using?

[*Amy*]

Been a while since I posted in here. Cassie is doing well with the blw! No gagging any more! I gave her a hard boiled egg and she loved it - no allergies in either family so read it was ok and she was fine with it.
She generally has what we have. For lunch today she had
Cheese
Tomato
Cucumber
Strawberries
Bread
Yogurt
Her favorite is cauliflower with white sauce ( it is also the dogs favorite too! Who knew of a dog that liked cauliflower!)

[Mrs Coops]

Kim he has any fork going! He generally has one of Sophie's old Tommee Tippee forks (it's pink, very fetching) or a melamine fork for one of the sets we have, if we're out he'll make do with an adult fork, I just have to make sure he doesn't try and take his eye out with it!

[Hedgehog17]

Hi all,

We've been BLW since DS was a week off 6 mo, and he's happily tried most fruit & veg 

For the last 3 weeks or so, he's been struggling to swallow the little bits of his fruit and veg that he manages to grate off with his teeth (he's got 5 incisors, 6th on the way) 

He starts gagging and tears come to his eyes, then the food either goes down or comes back up! I thought that after nearly 3 months of practise with finger foods he'd have worked out how to chew (gum) the bits and wouldn't be struggling to swallow 

I'm constantly showing him how to chew food (we eat lunch together) and he tries to copy, but gives up pretty quickly.

He's MPI so I don't give him any dairy, he hasn't been keen on meat or fish so far, and only gets small amounts of grains due to reflux. He'll happily suck down the contents of a stage 1 puree pouch (as long as it has fruit in, veg only ones are a no-no!) using the spout, but won't take the stage 2 pouches - I don't know if it's the increased texture or flavour that he objects to..

There were problems with BF and I suspect he may have a slight posterior tongue tie, which I know can cause problems with swallowing textures.

Does anyone have any experience or advice? Thanks in advance 

[Mrs Coops]

Hi Hedgehog 17 (sorry don't know your name) I would say all babies 'get' the swallowing/ chewing thing at different times. My DD didn't waste time and could swallow a huge banana in about 5 big chunks, that was obvious by the chunks she produced completely undigested out the other end Whereas DS practically spat everything out until it clicked at 9 months! They all figure it out eventually.

I never gave the different stage foods, if you think he has a slight tongue tie perhaps you could get a doctor to see if it really is a problem? Definitely keep giving him veg though, maybe steer away from fruit until the end of the meal to encourage him to eat all flavours.

I hope that helps.

[bexandlucy]

Hey, we're in a famine mode at the moment :-( Can someone please kick me up the bum and tell me to not worry about this, or maybe I should be? Nearly 12 months and she is quite picky still on what foods she wants, its been worse last couple of weeks cause she's teething and now gota cold. But we've been baby led totally from the start except for breakfast which is usually spooned cereal and fruit. It feels like she's gone back to basics, with the foods that she started off with - banana, broccoli and tomato (these were the foods she would eat at the start of her weaning - maybe she views these as 'safe' foods??) And she seems to like mushy foods like cottage pie, fish pie, even spag bol, but isn't keen on anything dryer like toast or things that I would imagine to be easy to pick up . xx

[~inbalance~]

Hi Bex, DS2 is exactly the same.  He is so picky now, hardly eats anything.    It's frustrating, isn't it?  I still try not to worry as he is obviously doing fine.  I'm just so over the food throwing. 

[Mrs Coops]

Hi Bex. It is normal for them to feast and famine, it's also normal to have weekly/ daily favourites. I would keep offering different foods, maybe save the 'safe' food until later in the meal, give her chance to try other foods before giving in. S went through a choosy phase, we had to hide the favourites until she was half way through the meal or she wouldn't eat anything else! We even had to hide it on our plates! It was a short live phase though.