Baby Led Weaning Support Thread - Part 9

[baileyscommet]

Good evening ladies, I was after a little advice. My little man is 1 on the 3rd February and isn't eating much at the moment for meals. I've got a few questions, hope it's ok to take advantage of your knowledge!

He is quite happy to 'snack' but isn't eating a meal - do you think this is just a phase?
Also he won't eat anything from a spoon, so desserts are a nightmare - he just throws the spoons. Yoghurt, custard etc are all of the menu, any ideas? Do I give up or just keep trying?
Also my little man really favours fruit over anything else, he just goes mad for it. I do give him it at every meal but I'm wondering if I should hold back some to see if he eats a variety of other things ie more meat/carbs etc...

[creations]

I'm not sure if there's any recommendation on when to offer pasta. And lucky for us, we eat a lot of soups - so I can cook everything in them and just take them out for Victor before I add spices! What about sour cream? I use it a lot for sauces and vegetable dishes...

They can have just about anything from 6 months.  The things they can't have are salt (no more than 1g per day), sugar, honey, raw shellfish, and whole nuts (and beware of other choking hazard sized things).  If there's any allergy in the family then you would hold back on that food until later (maybe at age 1).  Pasta is fine, big fav of DS's.  It's good to use a shape that sauce gets trapped in, like shells, or twists, they are also easier to pick up with fingers.  Occasionally I make some separate pasta shells for DS when I have spaghetti because he won't entertain the difficulty of spaghetti, he wants food he can eat, not play with.
Spices are ok although I wouldn't put too much in for the LO.  DS has had chilli and curry since 6 months.  The only problem we had was a skin reaction to something in garam masala which I had sprinkled on potato wedges.  He got red blotches on his hands and face but he wasn't sick.
Maybe you could add some big chunky veg in with your stews or soups and take them out just for the LO?  When I make a stew I put in some extra big bits for DS and serve his first, picking out all the good sized chunks for him.

[Papaya]

Also he won't eat anything from a spoon, so desserts are a nightmare - he just throws the spoons. Yoghurt, custard etc are all of the menu, any ideas? Do I give up or just keep trying?

Will he eat from a loaded spoon? ie, you put some yoghurt etc on the spoon and leave it on the tray, and let him choose when to pick it up and try to put it in his mouth so he feels like he's in charge? It'll be messy at first (they always seem to want to turn it upside down!) but you might find that he gets the hang of it pretty quickly. My LO is about the same age and is just starting to be able to scoop porridge out of the bowl with her spoon herself, and get it in her mouth, with a little occasional guidance.

Or you could try giving him pieces of fruit and showing him how to dip them in the yoghurt or custard. Or how about a baked custard that's a consistency he could pick up with his fingers? Or forget it altogether for a couple of weeks and then try again =)

My LO is super keen on fruit too, and has it with every meal, but only after she's had other things. If you're really worried that he's not eating anything else because he's waiting for fruit you could limit what you offer.

[amayzie]

I also offer a loaded spoon by using a long spoon, preloaded, and holding it in front of ds... At about mouth level. He then grabs it either just behind the bowl of the spoon- or the stuff on the spoon- and eats it like that. It's a good way to prevent the battle if the spoons (but I want the spoon mummy!) and to give them some control- without it all ending up against the wall. I figure it can be easy to scale Bach my support from there too...

[snowbird]

Hello ladies, not been around much recently but hope you're all getting ok!

WS wondering if any of you would mind telling me what times your Los eat/have milk. LJ's having so much milk at the mo - 30 fl oz - and not eating much at breakfast (unless it's Cheerios) or lunch. She will eat lots of tomato and cucumber if I offer it to her at lunch and fruit also. She's eating much more at dinner (5.30pm). Tonight she ate loads of pasta bolognaise, green beans and broccoli. And then only had only 5 oz before bed. She normally would have 9 oz. so good progress there.

Up until today it's been like this...

7am - milk
8 or 8.30am - breakfast

11am - milk
12.30pm - lunch

3pm - milk
5.30pm - dinner

Milk before bed (between 6.30 and 7.30pm)

This morning we gave her weetabix first. She only had a quarter and then drank 7 oz milk - the same as she would normally have if milk came first.  We thought maybe she was just full up on milk so not that interested jn eating too many solids.

What do you think ladies? Thank you! Xxx

[londonlady]

Wow, your LO is doing really well. Our timings are similar to yours, but we're getting virtually no solids down. Is your LO managing all those foods BLW style at 6m 1 week? That's incredible. My DD is still gagging a lot and although she much prefers holding and feeding herself her own food vs. purees, she doesn't seem to be making a massive amount of progress as we've been at this like a month now...

Fair dues, Sofia is teething at the mo, but I'm giving her another few weeks to start taking more and then I'm going to switch to food first, milk 2nd, as I think the volume of milk she's getting is interfering. Either by 8m her appetite will have increased to meet the food and milk on offer, or we'll have to bring the 28-35oz of milk down!

I am beginning to feel like I hate weaning!

[snowbird]

No, LJ's 9 months. You read the countdown to my wedding anniversary by mistake, Rachel we've been purely blw for 3 months now. I'm quite happy with how she's going - but just like you I'm wondering if the milk is interfering. Not sure when to feed. One problem is we're eating every couple of hours so it's hard to get out and about.

Rachel, Sofia's not even 7 months yet so I really wouldn't worry (sure you already feel calmer now you know how old LJ really is lol). It took LJ a while to eat properly and now she doesn't seem to be eating much for breakfast and lunch. I'm stayinG calm about it - they learn to eat at different paces like everything else and will eat what they need.

I would keep offering a variety of finger foods to give Sofia the practice. She'll soon work out what to do and the gagging will lessen. Am assuming it bothers you more than it does her?? LJ just carries on once she's gagged!

And my favourite quote that keeps me going...

"food is just for fun until 1!!"

Xxx

[amayzie]

Remember too Rachel that the nutrition density in the milk (so how much goodness per oz) is much higher than in the solids you'll be offering- blw style or purees... So I wouldn't start reducing milk feeds yet to encourage solids... You wouldn't start that till closer to 9 months...

[londonlady]

Ah! Sorry snowbird - in my defence, it was nearly 10.30pm and Sofia had been up and down all evening with teething pain so my head obviously wasn't screwed on right!!!

That makes more sense then, I was thinking WOW this baby is incredible!!

The gagging doesn't bother her or me, it's the torrent of vomit that comes afterwards. I think she has a really sensitive gag reflex which is fine, we've had no choking worries, but clearing up all that sick every time she gags is just crazy so we backed away a bit from BLW, and started with a few more mushed up things. I continued giving her some finger foods but leaned towards ones that dissolve in the mouth more easily / don't require too much gumming. As you're in the UK you probably know the Organix brand, she loves the carrot corn sticks which she can hold easily and they just turn to mush once they've been sucked a bit.

I know she's thriving as she is (she's packing on the weight without taking much solids) so that's fine, and I know the HVs say food is just for fun at this stage, but I kind of need to have a future plan in mind so that I can relax about it in the meantime. (Control freakish tendancies!)   I was thinking that by 8m (another month to go) we should have dropped the DF, and hopefully her appetite for food will have increased... She has seemed interested for ages, and lunges at people with food, but when it comes to her turn, she just not bothered...

R. x
 

[beckygatt]

My Sophia is having 3 solid meals and 3-4milk feeds during the day, plus still having 2 NFs . So her day is something like this, although solid meals are quite flexible as she eats with us or DD1. Eating right after milk doesn't seem to affect her intake all that much.

7.30 - milk
8/8.30 - breakfast
12 - milk
12.30/1 - lunch
3.30/4 - milk
6 - supper
7 - milk

Not sure how much milk she has as its BF. Solids are improving all the time but there will be times she doesn't eat much at all, especially if she's teething.

[creations]

snowbird at your LOs age my DS had milk and solid feeds at roughly the same time table as you're on.  We were just moving from bottle to sippy cup for the two day milks though.  ie bottle first thing in the morning and last thing before bed but the milks at 11am and 3pm were in a sippy cup along with a snack.  The snack would be something carbsy and something fruity.  Most LOs drop the 3pm bottle/breast first but DS was the other way around and we moved to the 11am sippy and snack pretty well but the 3pm bottle hung on a little while longer.

I really know the feeling of feeding every couple of hours.  I've been feeling like that since DS was born and I keep thinking the next stage is going to make it easier but it doesn't!  You just have to pack some snacks or lunch and go out without thinking about it too much 

[MommyMoulton]

I gave E a cheese stick today... he managed to get it into his mouth and play with it for a bit... but eventually got a piece off... and it was a big piece... I was so worried about him choking that I took it from him and then got the piece out of his mouth... tried again a few min later. same thing only this time he tried to  swallow the piece... ended up gaging then choking where I had to pat his back forcefully... then he puked. eveyrthing... like the cheese stick, his solids and most of his milk bottle from an hour earlier.

Did I do something wrong? Or is BLW not for us?

[Papaya]

MommyMoulton, that gagging reflex is really common. It doesn't mean there's anything wrong, it just means that your LO is working out what he needs to do with the food in his mouth before he tries to swallow it. The gag reflex is quite far forward in the mouth, so it actually prevents choking - the big bit of food doesn't get as far as the air passage, IYSWIM. The best thing you can do if LO starts gagging is to just sit back and stay calm (I know it's hard!), let him sort it out and then be there for him if he needs you. I bet he won't - my LO gagged regularly at the start, and sometimes brought up some milk too, but she'd always be ready to reach out for more food straight away so I knew I was more worried by it than she was!  There's a big difference between gagging and choking (which is really rare, both with BLW and with regular weaning - my LO was more likely to choke on water from her sippy cup than anything else and putting fingers in LO's mouth can interfere with the gag reflect so could make things worse  . The gagging stage didn't last long with us - a couple of weeks tops. And then just the occasional gag after that.

It sounds like he was having trouble with the cheese today though, so perhaps you'd feel more comfortable holding off on that for a week or two until you're both a bit more confident. What else have you tried? You could stick with things like well-steamed veges or soft fruit perhaps, things that will hold their shape to pick up but mush in the mouth a little easier? There's no hurry to introduce heaps of different foods at this stage.

HTH  

[Khalam's Mama]

I agree I would give things that dont come off in big hard chunks until he gets used to it more and the gag reflex lessens. We had lots of gagging and vomiting to start but it only lasted a week or two.

B has only really started eating good amounts at 8.5mo but is gaining weight great. I did purees from the start with DS1 and he wasn't interested in food for about a month either.

[beckygatt]

MM - I agree too. S does still gag sometimes but always sorts it out. I haven't given cheese sticks yet but I did give her grilled cheese on toast which she loved and managed quite well.

We are on 3 meals a day now and she gets a fair bit down. Should I also start adding a snack? S is 8 months tomorrow! Its only just occured to me, I still think of her as 7. How time flies!