Baby Led Weaning Support Thread - Part 9

[snowbird]

Thanks for all your thoughts and advice.

Khalam's mama - she's had banana, sweet potato and carrot today lol so will see how it goes. Slicing the grapes is a good idea - will try it tomo!

LJ's not woken at all the last 2 nights and she had a softer poo this morning so fingers crossed. Think it must be the solids/constipation.

LJ has started taking water out of a doidy cup for the last few days and is doing well. I hold it for her.  She's drinking more than I expected.

Xx

[creations]

Snowbird, I see you're in the UK.  If you've been sent a weaning pack from your HV (or info in the birth to five book) there should be a purée/mush/lumps/finger-food schedule on there, and you'll see that finger foods are recommended to be introduced at 6 months even if you go the purée/traditional weaning route.  One of the schedules I was given showed that pureed food was only offered for 1 to 2 weeks, then mashed for another couple weeks then lumps.  It is a RAPID move from one to the other and finger foods THROUGHOUT.  So, maybe think of it this way; all you are doing is missing out the puree.  That's how I approached it because I haven't read the book.
I think the general belief that purees go on for months and months comes from previous generations who weaned at 12 wks or even 6 weeks rather than waiting until 6 months.
I'm SO glad I went this route with DS because everyone at the baby groups I go to has problems with their LOs eating.  Either they refuse to move on from stage 1, or refuse to eat home cooked foods and will only take jars, or the mother complains that the baby wants to hold something and feed themselves but she won't let the baby as it makes too much mess (at 13+ months).
My DS is turning 10 months soon and he makes just about no mess, most meal times I don't even have to wipe the floor over.  The only time food goes to the floor now is if I am not fast enough in reading his 'I'm full' signals and remove the food from his tray and clean him up.  He has a lovely patient character in all other respects but is so very impatient to get out of the high chair once he's had his fill and will systematically drop every item onto the floor once he's full.

grapes - I avoided anything that size/shape for a couple of months until I was confident DS had really good mouth control.  I heard too many choke incidents about grapes.  I now cut them in half but don't worry about him eating them.
prunes - agree they are great to naturally control the BMs.  DS loves them but I'll only let him have one (he'd eat a pack if I let him I'm sure!).  I did let him have 3 once but realised my error the next day

[Papaya]

To clarify, the time I let F have five prunes, she really needed them ...usually we stop at one or two as well!

I wish F were such a tidy eater, creations! To be fair, she is pretty good and CAN be extremely tidy, with no mess to wipe up at all except her hands and tray. I think it's mainly the teething at the moment has her a bit scratchy and impatient and there's a fair bit of throwing going on. I'm just keeping meal times pretty short right now, as I think she's just not that interested in food while her gums are bothering her.

[beckygatt]

We're not getting on badly here but I'm sometimes having trouble knowing what to give her. I know she is supposed to be able to share our meals but at 6 months is it really ok to give her, eg pasta? Or yesterday for dinner we gave her chicken and rice, surely rice is a bit small?

[Papaya]

My LO has had rice since day one - literally, her first meal was rice with carrot. I just made sure it was well cooked, maybe a bit more than I usually would, so it clumped together nicely. She was more interested in throwing it for quite a while, but now LOVES it - makes taking her out easy, as we're guaranteed to be able to get a small bowl of plain rice everywhere here, and I know she will eat that and some fruit and be happy, even if not much else is suitable for her.

She had pasta pretty early on too - again, cooked a little more than I usually would. Plain first, then with sauce (as I gradually introduced the sauce ingredients, tomatoes etc).

So at first, she didn't share our meals, although I always ate something at the same time as she did. The first couple of weeks I tended to prepare things just for her to get her trying a few things and checking for intolerances, and then I started adapting one or two components of our meal for her: If we were having rice and curry, she'd have rice and steamed vegetables. If were were having pasta with a sauce with lots of different ingredients, she'd have plain spirals, or with a bit of olive oil and herbs sprinkled on.  Now we eat most meals together unless she needs an early night; and she eats pretty much everything we do unless it has dairy, in which case I make her a similar alternative.

[creations]

I know she is supposed to be able to share our meals but at 6 months is it really ok to give her, eg pasta? Or yesterday for dinner we gave her chicken and rice, surely rice is a bit small?

This is perhaps where 'my' method is maybe different from the book (as not read it).  I didn't give him my meals, instead I ate his.  When first introducing I made things especially right for him, ie baked potato or sweet potato wedges etc and I ate a few of exactly the same.  It meant I needed to make myself something later on when he was in bed but the very early days he was overwhelmed by having more than one or two foods or items on his tray so this bit of limitation worked for us (it was only a short period of time really).  This works well with Tracy's toddler guidance to HELP your LO (hold back, let him Explore, LIMIT, Praise).  There'd be no harm in you having a 'full' meal and just giving LO one aspect of it though, like pot wedges or a few green beans say.

We now (10 months) have 'proper' meals but they are all still prepared with him in mind so it is still more a case of I eat what he eats rather than the other way.  I don't put salt, sugar or honey in anything, I make his sandwiches with unsalted butter, bake with unsalted butter etc.
Pasta is a big hit here, with or without sauce and vegies (again cooking everything without salt).  He liked pasta straight off, the only difficulty was finding a shape he could pick up easily.  Spirals, twists or shells give a good grip where as penne doesn't.  Everyone does the spaghetti meal I think, some kids are really cute eating spag, mine just got annoyed that I'd given him something too difficult to eat so we won't be doing that again for a good while!
My DS has never liked rice, there are very few things he won't eat but that's one of them.  If you don't feel confident about the size you could mush it slightly (yes cheating but I don't care!) or offer the chicken and leave the rice out until you feel better about it.
We have curry and chilli here, but not major hot.

[beckygatt]

Thanks ladies, that helps!

[Khalam's Mama]

I have been cooking meals with B in mind. I dont think this goes against the book. It is the same as cooking for my 2yo. I wouldn't cook vindaloo for him but maybe make a milder curry for example. B was slow to start but since hitting 6mo 3wk ago he has come on so quickly. Today he had banana and pancakes for breakfast, loaded spoon soup and bread then yogurt for lunch and chicken, sweet pot wedges and broccoli for dinner. The book says to offer 2 or 3 things per meal and something from each food group throughout the day. I bought some fruit for helping the bm's including prunes. I Will give them tomorrow. I do find dinner is too close to bt if he fats with us but i have tried to at least get him and k to eat together.

[snowbird]

Thank you all! This thread is great! Lovely to talk about it and get ideas from you all. My books turned up today - blw, the blw cookbook and annabelle karmel's 100 finger foods. Flicked through blw and read your comments and already feeling better.

LJ woke crying at 3am constipated again.  She's so good with it though - when she was calm I left her and she babbled away to herself until she fell asleep.  How lucky we are!

Think banana might be ok as she was fine just with this. Think carrot may be the problem - going to try cutting it out for a bit and see how she is. Going to try cheese on toast  and then some fruit.

Maybe pasta bolognaise if we have it for dinner early enough. We have the same prob as Khalam's mama - the main meal is too late for LJ as she's in bed between 6 and half 7, depending on whether or not she cat naps in the afternoon.

Xx

[beckygatt]

Dinner is late for S too but she has it with DD1 and I nibble a bit of whatever I give her. Is cheese ok from now? And I assume its the baby yoghurts for now?

[snowbird]

Yes, I tend to eat with LJ if it's not a meal time- normally whatever it is she's having.

I've given LJ strips of red Leicester cheese a few times and she had a good suck/nibble on it. Definitely her father's daughter - another cheese fan!

Wondered about the yogurts myself...

Xx

[creations]

Snowbird, I know I've already said this many times, but possibly not recetnly where you might have read it, so I'll say it again.  Carrots firm my LO up.  If you find it is causing the constipation you don't have to rule them out for ever, use them as a natural control of the BM.  Depending how DS is I make carrot or give prune, it's really nice to have these foods as 'tools'.  Obviously serious constipation could need meds but using the foods to balance it all out avoids it getting serious.

As long as there is no dairy allergy you can give cow milk in cooking (including cheese and yogurt etc) from 6 months, UK guides.
Beware of what yogurts are aimed at babies and children though.  Many of them are PACKED with sugar.  I used to buy a big tub of 100% cow milk yoghurt with nothing added at all.  DS loved it, you can add some fruit of your own if you want it flavoured.  I stopped yoghurt though as it aggravates his silent reflux.
Cheese is fine, but I'd suggest do some pack reading to learn about salt levels.  Go for one you like which is as low in salt as you can manage, it's amazing how the salt levels vary on the diff types of cheese.  I try not to give cheese on the same day as something else that has salt in it (like canned tuna for example) or give in very small quantities.

[dburseth]

Hi, I've started ds on some solids the past 2 weeks.  A bit of BLW(banana, yams and avacado) and some spoon fed cereal. I don't have the book so I've just been going by online reading so far.  I'm starting slow because we're not quite 6 months yet(2 more weeks) but my boy is ready and willing to eat!  I have 3 questions for you...

I understand the idea of feeding cereal at 6 months is mostly for the enriched iron and they need more at this age, no?  So with BLW do you just make it thicker so they can use thier hands or concentrate more on other foods high in iron?  If so which ones would you suggest starting with? ds will grab the spoon already and put it in his mouth, but he shoves it too far in right now if I don't help him and I worry he'll just hurt himself.

He has 2 teeth already and he tends to bite chunks off.  Do I need to worry when he's just starting out? 

How do you incorporate breast feeding with solids?  I've been bfing first then waiting an hour maybe so he's not ravenous.  Then offering again after to wash things down.  I offer him some water at his meal, too, but I don't know how much is really going down.
Thanks in advance

Are there any other websites other than babyledweaning.com you would suggest for more info?

[beckygatt]

I gave cereal yesterday by putting some on the spoon and letting her hold it and put it in her mouth. It was very messy but she seemed to love it!

Tbh I just feed her when we're eating irrespective of bf times. Sometimes she might 'eat' very soon after a milk feed, other times might be soon before. As long as she's not hungry and agitated

[Papaya]

hi Cam's Mom!

I have never given baby cereal at all, but do give porridge nice and thick so she can eat it with her hands, or so it sticks to a loaded spoon. It's fine to introduce meat for iron though! One of F's first meals was a fat chunk of roast beef which she gummed away at with delight. Or broccoli is good, egg yolks, whole grains (eg, porridge - doesn't have to be iron fortified). Another good trick is to give something high in vitamin C at the same time to help iron absorption, so a tomato wedge with the beef, or some mango with the porridge.

We aim for solids 1 - 1.5 hours after milk - but sometimes it's earlier or later if's that's more practical. I try not to give dinner too close to BT though. At the start I offered milk after as well, but TBH she was never very interested - she'd rather have water with her meal.

I wouldn't worry about him biting off chunks, so long as he's in control of what goes in his mouth. He'll probably gag a bit but it always looks worse than it is! Just make sure you know how to recognise the difference between gagging (very common, nothing to worry about), and choking. Choking is no more likely with BLW than with any other way of weaning, but of course always possible and it's good to feel confident that you know what to do if, heaven forbid, it does happen.

That's the website I got most of my info from too. Have you read the book?