Baby Led Weaning Support Thread #11

[Papaya]

At the start it can be tricky to convince the doubters as they don't take much in (the babies, not the doubters...) but they do start getting more in eventually

And these sort of doubters seem to think that babies need a certain number of "tablespoons" of food or they won't have enough, but they forget that you can measure out 2 tablespoons of baby porridge for breakfast but half of it will probably end up on the face or bib anyway! You still don't know how much went in! So I don't think it's much different.  And after a month or two, my LO was an expert and was eating LOADS of just about EVERYTHING

Her latest discovery is olives - both black and green. Yum! Mussels are also a favourite. Seriously, my child has a more sophisticated palate at 15 months than I did at 15...

[amayzie]

AND- when you make a puree you often have to add water so that it's the right consistency- so where you might be getting 2 tablespoons of food- a certain percentage of that is going to be water... you can add stock- but that's not that nutitionally dense.

Hamish discovered blueberries- not as exciting as olives- but he ate them like a baby possessed! Very funny- the tomato and capsicum all hit the floor- but there was not a blueberry on the floor!

[Papaya]

Blueberries do seem to have that effect - baby possessed I mean. F's only had them the one week we were in Aus, where they were Grandma's special treat for her every day - no one else was allowed to sneak any from the punnet Watch out for the interesting coloured poo.

[lil_ginge]

Hi ladies! I wonder if you could help me with your advice/experience.

I am a little sad and weary at the moment. DD has had over a month of one thing followed by another - and now we have two teeth. She was STTN but now we have NW and EW etc. I say this because as we are starting solids I don't feel quite 'emotionally as up beat as normal!' I am trying to work out what's best for my LO regarding solids!

We started two weeks ago when she turned 6 months. She loved pear puree with rice and also loved woofting down some banana that she held (or we held when it was too slippy!)

Since the teeth - she is on a spoon strike. Actually - she'll take calpol the cheeky lass! (Loves it.) BUT she will eat rice cakes with stuff smothered on them or any toast or try suck on veg. She even munched happily away on DH's cheesy toasty!!!

Thing is: I am SO CONFUSED with all the mix advice.

I know ladies on here keep saying 'Food before 1 is just for fun' but my HV said you NEED To start solid @ 6 months because the goodies they had (like iron etc) from the womb have run out by then and they need to get those bits and bobs from food. She also said, it's important to get to 3 meals a day quite quickly.

My sis in law's LO LOVED food and still drank v well. So I followed suit and bought Annabel K's book. Tbh, I hadn't even heard of BLW!

Now - I don't know what to do! BLW seems great for our LO because she loves to control things herself and has always been very quick to grab and suck on anything. ANYTHING. It just seems so odd and I must admit - I feel a little conscious of family who may be like "Is she actually getting much of that?!" compared to the "Homemade baby meals way"

Aghhhiehwonfoiewhrfowhfruowerh - so conflicting advice and the current spoon strike (no doubt - due to teething) has got me a little flustered. It feels like back at 3 weeks when some people were syaing 'bf on demand' others 'oooo how's her routine?' and then I was overwhelmed with what to do before I thought 'Yes, BW sounds brill to me!'  So sorry for ranting.

[amayzie]

Oh no!! Look hon- there's nothing wrong with either approach- it seems that your LO is doing the choosing for you at the moment!! It is important for them to start solids at 6 months for the reasons you say above- as well as for oral skill development. Of course we have all found BLW to suit us on here- but I guess I sort of thought that if after a few weeks / month or so it wasn't working , I could always then start with more purees...

Some home visitors can get a bit gung hi with the amounts... You will be in 2 meals by 8 months or so.. The time will go fast... Also I was offering foods at pretty much every meal I was home from early on...

Basically i feel that it's important for you to look into the information available and make an informed decision- don't get flustered by what others say- you being well informed is the best way to make the choice that's right for you and your LO...

[londonlady]

And there's nothing wrong with mixing it up. I started with BLW with Sofia, but she wasn't any good at getting food to her mouth, and when she did she gagged so much she would vomit up all her milk...

So we back tracked, did purees for a while... Funnily enough I soon realised that actually she wasn't taking any more volume with the purees, and was happier being in control of the food. So once her gag reflex calmed down and her appetite took off about 8.5m we did much more of the BLW approach and didn't bother making any more purees (fine by me!) Now she will eat anything from a fork mashed meal of whatever we've had for dinner (me and her spooning it in) to any variety of finger foods.

I think the important thing is to follow your baby's lead with whatever works for her.
Rach. x

[lil_ginge]

THANK YOU!

I think - I googled to see about mixing it up reading some posts of a lady with similar thoughts and some of the BLW crew online were like "NOOOOOOoooooOOOooo, not while the sun rises! Do you realise that doing a bit of both is not really BLW!!?!?"

I am actually v thankful as my MIL is an older lady. Was told COMPLETELY different advice to what we were. But when she sees Autumn woofting down some cheese and giggling at us she said, "I think, why not do a bit of a combo because she looks to me like she is loving that right now!"

So maybe I will see if in a few weeks she'll take a spoon again - and if she does, eventually see if she'll use that as well as her mitts! If no spoon - then - great. We have ourselves a sophisticated food flinger.

When you guys cook a meal for family and give LO some - are you very careful about how it's cooked and what's in it? For example - if I cook a spag bol... do I need to make everything completely from scratch? (Goodbye Lloyd Grossman sauce?) and if I do a curry it has to be completely home made - even the paste used?

[Papaya]

Well, I would say if you do a 'bit of both', it's NOT blw - but that doesn't mean there's anything wrong with it! Do what suits both your LO and your family

The main reason for doing as much as you can from scratch is so that you can control the salt, sugar content etc. Babies under one should only have 1gr of salt per day. But of course you can use some ready-made stuff - just read the labels and be aware of what's in it, maybe choose low-salt varieties where you can. You can balance things out over the day - so if you know you're using a pasta sauce with added salt for dinner, make sure there's no salt in anything else that day.  I don't add any salt to anything I cook now, and DH and I just add it at the table.

[londonlady]

For me, I kind of thought well - what does it matter if it's not BLW in it's strictest sense? I'm not breaking any law by offering something on a spoon... lol. I did traditional weaning with my son and didn't introduce finger foods til nearer 8-9m and he is still a brilliant eater, with Sofia I offered finger foods from the beginning at 6m and she is shaping up to be a similarly good eater. To be honest she didn't really get the hang of them til about 8m anyway so really, it's been no different.
 
The end goal is that you have a baby that eats a variety of foods, textures, tastes, and enjoys themselves while doing so.

You have to be a bit careful about the salt, but now my DD is 10m I am using premade sauces occasionally, but don't add any salt to the pasta / rice and I just make sure that everything else she eats that day is home made / no salt etc. More often than not I do make my own, but there are also lots of great baby sauces - check out Peter Rabbit organic pasta sauces (they sell them in waitrose) which you could use for all the family or just separate out a bit of mince for the baby.  Not sure about curry pastes - I know annabel karmel uses them in her recipes after 1yr... Probably worth looking at the labels for the salt content and deciding from there.

R. x

[lil_ginge]

sighhhhhhhhhhh... Thanks peeps. That's really helpful.

And restoring my sanity.

I think everyone is aiming at the same things - a kid that loves food! So... sticking someone on a stake for giving them a chicken drumstick - or a spoonful of pureed sweet potato is a little tiresome. Especially when - if you zoomed ahead to the same kids at 14, you'd probably find them both tucking into a Big Mac with their pocket money!

[Fiver]

Personally, I have to say I agree with Nuala - if you're spoon feeding purees and also giving food for them to eat themselves, that is "traditional" weaning and offering finger foods.  The whole point of BLW is "letting your baby feed themselves".  If you want to do spoons, you can give loaded spoons and let LO pick it up themself and put it in their mouth (which they do pick up quite easily).

I know I posted this link http://kellymom.com/nutrition/vitamins/iron/ on your BF post, but feel it's worth putting it in here too for the information of others (obviously if you're FF and BLW, it doesn't apply)

[amayzie]

Yeah- people often don't realize that with traditional weaning you want to be starting on finger foods pretty much straight from 6 months anyway- it was when you started at 4 months or so you needed months of purée.. With BLW it is more about getting the baby take the lead- and that's harder to do if you are spoon feeding.. .

[beckygatt]

When I first started blw my mum was a bit concerned that she wasn't getting enough down (though not in an unsupportive way). But honestly after the first few weeks the intake increases so fast. Now she just amazes me; she'll eat more than my 3 year old sometimes! So I wouldn't worry about amounts. I did pretty much pure blw and it was fine. Recently I did start giving her yoghurt on a spoon sometimes as the loaded spoon thing wasn't much of a success. She's so well established on blw and I never force the spoon into her mouth if she seems full. I am curious as to how I will be able to transition her to start using a fork or spoon herself though...?

[Fiver]

I've found DD will now often just point at our cutlery or moan instead of eating her food, meaning she wants some cutlery of her own.  She often won't then use it, but has a little go and then gets on with the faster method!

[amayzie]

Someone suggested once beckygatt starting with a fork (appropriate shape etc) as its easier to control the food- you know , it stays put...