Hi everyone. DS and I would like to join you please.
A little about our BLW story so far as way of introduction...
I haven't read the BLW books and when I was pregnant had thoughts of cooking all my own mush. Then I discovered that the UK NHS guidelines for weaning were to wait until 6 months and that finger foods could be given, I thought what's the point in mushing and pureeing? Then at some point I heard of BLW and decided that was the thing for us. Experiencing textures and flavours is surely more interesting and more 'real' than bland baby rice slop right? Although I haven't read the books I've done some research and I think I have a pretty good idea of what we're doing but I might be looking for a bit of help and support along the way if you all don't mind.
I was in no hurry at all to start, but DS had different ideas. He's shown an interest in food and tried to swipe off my plate for a few months now. The last few weeks he's been more and more interested and eventually got to the point where I had to skip lunch and wait until dinner after BT or eat in secret :/ I kept giving him a countdown that it's 3 wks and 2 days to wait, 2 wks and 1 day to wait, etc and also explained that he had to be able to sit up.
Well, he went from pure wobble to 'I can sit up all on my own' over night about 2 wks ago and then cried whenever he saw food even if he'd just had a bottle (ff since 1 month). Since then I have given in and offered him a taste of banana one day and a taste of melon another day. Both times he opened his mouth like a bird and became frustrated I wouldn't feed him, we agreed on a compromise and he brought his head forward to my hand of food rather than me taking my hand to his mouth.
Then last week (at 24 wks) I suddenly found myself having an un-planned pub lunch with mum and DS and there was no way to hide the fact we were eating! What to do!? I offered him a stick of raw cabbage from the salad thinking at least he will feel included even though he won't be able to eat it. He was happy with that for a while just putting it in and out of his mouth. Then he got a bit cranky and seemed to 'know' we were eating and he was being fobbed off with raw cabbage. I had to decide to either offer food or face public melt down, plus he's always refused a dummy so I couldn't even plug him up to keep him quiet
Anyway, out of what we had (which really wasn't the healthiest of meals!) I decided to let him have a bit of garlic bread. His nana had him sitting on her lap and she helped a bit more than I would have liked although did reduce the amount when I asked her to. He clearly loved the experience. Afterwards I was a little worried that I'd let him have bread with gluten in, but this was 14 days before his full 6 months, and he was born 13 days late so I hope it's balanced the time out and his digestive system could cope with that minuscule about of wheat that he might have swallowed!
I continued trying to hold off since then but again gave in and let him have some melon as long as he picked it up himself this time. He did but not all that successfully, he got a taste and a little mush around in his mouth though.
Last night my mum rang and said we should go out for lunch with her twin sister the next day, so, today (24 wks and 4 days) I thought I better prepare something to take with us. I really didn't want a public melt down with three of us feeding our faces and a crying baby and everyone thinking I'm starving him! Neither did I want to end up offering something unsuitable or unhealthy just because that's all we had at the cafe. This morning I grabbed an apple and a potato from the fridge, chopped them into wedges and shoved them in the oven. Let them cool and packed them up.
Well...I really cannot describe the experience, it was an absolute JOY!
First I offered him a crust of my toast which he had a little munch and suck on but then it broke in half and wasn't so easy to hold any more. Then mum said she'd hold him while I finished eating so I handed him over and gave him a piece of baked apple. I only really expected DS to lick, suck, maybe mush a bit in his mouth and spit it back out (just as long as he felt included so he didn't get upset). Now he did do those things, but also ate a good amount too. Mum had him on her knee again but this time she kept telling him he had to do it himself. She caught it each time it fell and he picked it up again from her hand. His face screwed up a bit when he broke through the 'baked skin' and got to the softer inner part and I thought maybe he didn't like it, perhaps too bitter? But he tried again and ended up eating most of it! When the bits became too small I offered another wedge, this time potato. And he tucked straight in. At one point he shoved the entire wedge in his mouth and let go. Mum panicked a bit and pulled it out. I told her if she panics then he will panic too so if she didn't feel comfortable then she should hand him back to me. She kept him and stayed calm for the rest of the meal (it worked pretty well like this as it meant I could see him well face on and watch carefully where as it didn't seem quite so easy to observe when it was me feeding him on my lap). It helped that her sister was agreeing with me that puree fed babies can gag on lumps when they are introduced because they haven't yet learned to chew. I was just slightly nervous, hoping he wouldn't gag too severely with everyone watching, but it went super well. The was a time a largish amount of baked potato ended up in his mouth and I briefly saw it stuck to the roof of his mouth, I thought we might have a problem here if he can't move it. But he somehow ended up swallowing it all. I gave him a few sips of water after that big mouth full. He was offered about 2 apple and 2 potato wedges in the end and I think the amount he actually swallowed was approx one of each which amazed me. To be honest he would have kept going all day.
Mum and aunt got ice creams for dessert, DS's eyes watching every move they made and his little mouth opening every time aunt moved her spoon! I thought I better give him another piece of apple - like that was going to satisfy him when he knew full well they had something different!
Mum, aunt and an entire table of elderly ladies next to us were all telling me DS should be allowed ice cream as he obviously wanted some.
Aaaarrgghh!
Well, despite vowing to only give him healthy foods, I crumbled under the pressure! Thought I was being cunning when I said he could only have it off a spoon and if he fed himself. He's only ever held a spoon briefly before dropping it, I thought he wouldn't know what to do and would perhaps just wave it about a bit and flick the ice cream across the table, so I put about quarter of a teaspoon of ice cream on the spoon and held it towards him.
He swiped it out my hand and had that spoon in his mouth so quickly I didn't even get a chance to blink!
Rapturous applause from the old ladies on the next table,
big grins from mum and aunt,
and me utterly speechless
The pressure increased, all saying he should be allowed more more more. But I totally put my foot down. He'd had his little taste of the 'sometimes food' and that was enough.
So that's where we are up to. I don't think there's any going back from this so we've started a little bit earlier than planned. I'm very happy with how it all went today, and would you believe it, when we got home he decided to roll over for the first time too (I missed it as I was running his bath!) so it was a memorable day of many firsts.
If you got this far then thank you for taking the time to read about our experience. I've been so happy that I just had to share and couldn't manage to keep this short. x
I do have 2 questions though.
Am I right in thinking we should avoid seeds for the time being (ie seeded bread)?
and
I do know that this food is for fun and I will continue with his milk as per usual, but should I be looking at offering one solid meal per day or going straight to three meals and snacks?
