Baby Led Weaning Support Thread - Part 9

[amayzie]

Yeah you said before it was the recommendation... vry interesting!!

Oh and i usually just do the same also- i'm all talk separately- or when giving advice on what OTHER people should say... but in the moment I rarely say anything!!!

A vast majority of the people- especially those who have had children, or finished having children, think it makes sense. Although in favour, my mother sitting behind be making 'ooh!' noises when a large piece goes in is off putting though!!

Oh and the other thing i think is funny- we too are not going to give hamish any added sugar or salt till at least 12 months- so no normal people foods like biscuits, chips, crisps etc... And when i say THAT i can see people sort of thinking 'oh... she's one of THOSE people then'.. but if I said that I had decided to drastically reduce the sugar or salt in my diet people would say- great job!! That will be SOO good for your health!! But with a baby it's crazy!!

[Khalam's Mama]

OMG no sugar or salt of course! K never had those things until well after a year!

I said on the bc at the time but for those of you who aren't on it a funny (worrying) story.

I was sat in a waiting room with 6mo B and was chatting to a Mum of a 2.5yo boy. He was playing happily with the toys and she called him over "X do you want another lolly?" and proceeded to get out a huge chocolate on a stick out of a bag of 6 and hand it to her son. He of course took it. She then tried to hand one to B and said "does he want one?" I polite said "Oh err no thanks"
B ,meanwhile reached for the shiny foil and she was like "Ah look he does, let him have one"
I just said "No he's ok thanks. We only started solids a week ago, we haven't worked up to chocolate yet!"
I was really thinking "Are you crazy? Another lolly? How many has your poor (overweight) son had? He wasn't even asking for something to eat. There is no way I would feed my 6mo (or 2yo!!!) a huge slab of chocolate"
That is a whole other level to BLW!

[beckygatt]

That is terrible! I only allow my dd1 very small amounts of chocolate. Some family members don't seem to understand this; they keep trying to bring her chocolate and don't seem to understand why I don't seem keen . We usually just end up hiding it and eventually eating it ourselves!

[creations]

They are running DVDs at the baby clinic, and basically just saying "give the baby what you eat"

Interesting as my HV wasn't at all keen and told me to go on a weaning course at the local sure start centre.  It was THERE that the 'professional' weaning woman started the course warning us of the dangers of BLW and told us that BLWers leave their babies to choke to death.
She went through the traditional route, based on the current guidelines, wait until 6 months, start puree and within 1-2 weeks go to mush, another couple weeks go to lumps...and the WHOLE time from 6 months also offer finger foods.  She went to great lengths to describe what finger food is (size of a finger, fits in fist etc) and how to prepare it.  I sat there flabbergasted and at the end politely asked her to explain the difference between traditiona weaning finger food carrot batons and BLW finger food carrot batons.  She said that with BLW you just plonk it in front of the baby and wlak off to another room to leave them to choke.

I am not joking!

I didn't dare mention BLW at clinic until one day another HV weighed DS and asked me what he ate...erm erm erm...everything!  Another couple of questions and I eventually admitted that he was a self-feeder (wouldn't use the term BLW) she looked really confused, asked me if I meant BLW and seemed to be fine with it.
So - different stroke for different folks, but the scare mongers should be shot with sharpened carrot batons.

[creations]

Since reading your chocolate sotry KM, I have to add to my weaning rant.
At the same weaning course, a woman and her twins were there.  She already had about another 4 kids who had all weaned traditionally without problem.  These twins wouldn't eat anything other than skips (not organix baddy free corn snacks, SKIPS the sugar laden muck that I would happily shove down my throat but wouldn't dream of giving to my baby) and this mother had come on the course in desperation to find a way to get her boys onto some real food.  They were about 12 months I think and had never accepted anything other than skips.
By the end of the course the only advice the weaning professional had given to her was to just keep giving them skips as at least they liked them.
Aaargghh!
It was ME that politely suggested she might look at the organix range and at least move them onto a healthier snack.
I felt so sorry for this mother, she clearly had no idea what to do with her twin boys as all her girls had weaned fine.

[amayzie]

AHH! Facepalm over the evil carrot sticks of the BLW!!! That i must say is a reason that i thought i'd go with BLW- i would STILL be giving inger foods and encouraging him to self feed anyway!! I also get frustrated when people come to health workers with issues but still don't get directed to the right place! THe twins sound like some intervention from a speech pathologist or OT would help- rather than a generic talk!! THose talks are more for people after information rather than people with specific needs...

Luckily i won't have trouble with my mum and giving sweets and such as she didn;t let us have lollies, or chips- even at parties for YEARS- i'd say not till we were at least 4... I clearly remember asking to have a chip and being told no!! Finding a middle ground is important though... for all mum's hard line approach it hasn't stopped me from being too overweight and my sister being too underweight!!!

[squeakersmum]

Well reading these I have to applaud my HV (and, trust me, I have NEVER done tgT before) as when I spoke to her briefly about the problems we were having with Abi being sick a lot with BLW she actually said that she was all for BLW!

It's funny isn't it; I quite happily stuffed my face with pringles and chocolate chip cookies yesterday...and made DS and DD some sugar free fruit and oat bars! I really should eat more like my children!!

[londonlady]

Creations - that's mad isn't it? That from one area of the UK to another you get such different advice!?  I though BLW was standard advice now, I'm pretty sure my birth to five book says to give them what you're eating although it doesn't explicitly use the phrase BLW. 

Anyway, we are progressing with a mixture of softer mushed food and still giving finger food. Her coordination is improving a bit so hopefully the finger food will take over...  She actually grabbed my sandwich earlier today, and I felt really bad taking the bread back off of her because that soft doughy bread is what caused all that vomiting before... Soon baby, soon!!

KM - I remember the chocolate story! Still kind of horrifying really... My son didn't have his first taste of chocolate or anything sweet til his 1st birthday when he had a taste of his birthday cake. He likes sweets these days, but I am careful to limit them, and he's really not fussed about chocolate.

Squeakers mum - I agree, I would do well to follow the habits I've set up for my son! I am prone to weight gain so I'm really careful with monitoring what he has, thankfully he takes after DH's side so far and is tall and lean. Hopefully he will stay that way!   

R. x

[beckygatt]

Squeakersmum - me too!! I love my chocolate but of course limit dd's. So I eat it while she's asleep

[amayzie]

yes- the trouble with BW babies who get to sleep at night at a reasonable time!! We have sooo much time for eating junk after he's in bed!!

Rach: Bread is REALLY tricky- it's one of those things that seems soft and easy to eat, but it very quickly goes gluggy in the mouth. Day old bread is better- or at this early stage i'd say toast is a better option.

[amayzie]

wow- i was intrested rach in how you said it was standard- and gig some googling... here is the NHS (national health service?) recommendation for how to start introducing solids:

Getting started
Let your baby enjoy touching and holding the food.
Always stay with your baby when they’re eating in case they start to choke.
Allow your baby to feed themselves, using their fingers, as soon as they show an interest.
Don’t force your baby – wait until next time if they're not interested this time.
If you’re using a spoon, wait for your baby to open their mouth before you offer the food. Your baby may like to hold a spoon too.
Start by offering just a few pieces or teaspoons of food, once a day.
If the food is hot, allow it to cool and test it before giving it to your baby.
Don’t add salt, sugar or stock cubes to your baby’s food or cooking water.

Um.. did they take this from chapter 1 of the BLW book!?!?!

[creations]

yes, when you actually read the various leaflets they produce it's amazing how little puréeing there really is and there is much emphasis on finger food and joining in with family meals asap (based on starting to wean at 6 months which is the current guidance).  But I think many people are still stuck in an outdated train of thought that puree goes on for months and months, this is because LOs used to be started on puree at 6 or 12 weeks so of course it went on for a long time.
The outrageous professional who ran the weaning course I attended basically spent the whole of the first session reading an enlarged version of the same leaflets I'd already read as though we were illiterate.  Very unprofessional.
The only thing she did do well was push for home cooked food rather than jars or packs of baby mush.

Seems to me there's a large number of people (parents, health visitors etc) who don't know what the guides are for traditional weaning and don't know what BLW is, so don't realise that the two are not really all that different now.  In reality the two remain VERY different though when purées are continued month after month.  I know babies in our toddler group who are around 14 months old still on purée (packet stuff too) rather than family food.

[amayzie]

Hey what sort of bread are you guys introducing to your little ones? I was going to toast it for hamish.. but was wanting to avoid 'white death' bread.. i would want to give him multigrain but thought the grains might stick in his throat... i have bought some wholemeal and it's fortified with iron... which i thought could be positive.. but i'm not sure!! Any advice?!

[beckygatt]

I use brown bread, toast it, and spread it with unsalted butter or coconut butter. Once I tried spreading on some mashed bananas too. She loves her toast!

[dburseth]

Does toasting it really help stop the lumping up once its wet?

DH has been very nervous with my BLW.  So I explained it to him how purees were pushed so much because years ago(well, still nowadays, too ) people started solids so young and so had to feed purees, but by 6 mos were on to finger foods anyway.  He seemed to 'get it' then.  It also helped to have DS eating at the table with DH's parents on Boxing day! lol.  They weren't worried, so he relaxed.  They were more worried about me getting solids and honey water into him at 2mos, haha, nod and smile, just nod and smile.  The power of generational learning.

Thankfully, DS loves his meat and potatoes, DH is quite concerned I'm raising a vegetarian, tooo funny! 

The leaflets I got here in Canada talked about readiness (sitting up, interest, etc.) but stressed the purees first.