Baby Led Weaning Support Thread #11

[amayzie]

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=92560.0 Try that for a starter!

This ebsite is ok http://www.babyledweaning.com/

and although this isn't a BLW site as such- it was still my BIBLE!! I had the site on 'speed dial'! http://wholesomebabyfood.momtastic.com/

Others will have more i'm sure!

[maggie2]

Thank you Katy - I'll check those out:)   

[suemsm]

Hi all,

We started BLW in earnest about 3 weeks ago with 6 month old DS and it's going brilliantly. I am delighted with the progress he has made, his fine motor skills seem to be on a projectile of improvement, along with his hand eye co-ordination, and this week he appears to be 'eating' more than just testing out the different 'toys' on his tray. (Nappy contents would concur with that impression    )

He is now having solids at lunch and dinner, at times when he is not hungry per se as he has had a BF somewhere in the previous 30 - 90 mins.

I'm just wondering what the likely progression is with BF as he does start to eat more? I am completely relaxed about how much he eats. My mantra is "food is for fun until you're one!" and I know that his BF are what's important nutritionally. I'm just curious if there is a pattern of increasing solids resulting in decreasing BF with BLW?

We seem to be in the middle of some growth spurt/teething/wonderweek BF frenzy at the moment where previously 4/24 feeds have been replaced by 2-3 hourly demands 24/7. Fingers crossed that will be short lived and we will be back to a more sustainable schedule for Mummy!

[creations]

maggie, I think Katy has already given the websites I used for background info.  I didn't read the BLW book, but I did do some reading around.  The main things I 'armed' myself with were:
- basic first aid (I did a short course for infants, tbh my LO wouldn't settle in the creche provided so I missed most of it, but saw the demo on what to do in a choke situation.  They are just as likely to choke on a button or some other object they shouldn't be getting their hands on, but it does help you relax into the whole process if you know the difference between a choke and a gag and the procedure for a choke if you ever needed it)
- the list of foods that shouldn't be given prior to 12 months
- finger food suggestions and recipes (lots on the BW recipes threads even without going further afield)

Although the idea is that baby eats what you eat I found I was suddenly cooking half a dozen times per day and searching for suitable foods.  It would have been handy to have had a few things in the freezer that I could have just lifted out but I hadn't prepare that way.  Even just a batch of mini fruit pancakes or sweet potato min-muffins would have been a great back up in the early days.  it took me a while to get on top of things that way because I just hadn't expected my LO to eat so much so early.

Sue, there's a big growth spurt around 6 months I think, could be you are in the midst of that.  I also found the first weeks of BLW my LO took lots of extra milk feeds (bottle fed so I could see exactly how much as well as knowing the frequency increase), rather than the usual 4 he had about 7 or 8 in a day, needing a bottle feed directly after a solids feed even though he had had his fill of milk only an hour before.  It did calm down though.
WRT dropping or reducing milk feeds, I think it will become apparent when LO is taking less and it may be time to drop one of the milk feeds (many people drop the afternoon feed first, we dropped the mid morning feed first though as it worked out better that way for us) but that won't be for some time yet.  There really isn't a need to purposely increase solids or purposely reduce milk, if LO is offered solids to their fill they will naturally reduce their milk intake over time.  You might find this helpful:
http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=67569.0

A reminder too that LOs should be offered water (in a cup) with solids meals as solids don't provide the balance of fluid that milk does.

Have fun - I SO enjoyed our BLW.

[amayzie]

We found like creations that we didn't really need to really 'drop' any feeds as such- or we didn't have to worry about the timing as hamish just started not being interested in a feed. SO after about 6 months we were on 4 feeds a day (about) this was after he was on 2 naps- morning, after nap 1, after nap 2, bed.. thenat about 9 months or so he started refusing the bed time feed- so i worked on moving his feeds to more of a morning, after nap one (this was usually for us at atround mid day or 1pm or so) then bed time. There was a bit of time when i needed the 3rd feed to be more like 5pm or 6 rather than bed time at 7. Then at probably 12 months or so (it's hard to remember!!) he started AGAIN refusing the BT feed, and i was back at work more and more, so again we started dropping the mid day feed. SO although i did need to do some work moving the feeds- i just followed his cues as to when he wanted to drop a feed.

You wil find as he moves towards 9 months he'll eat more and more. By 9 months i think he was on 3 meals and one or 2 snacks?

Also- we did pure BLW (no purees, no feeding him) and waited till 6 months to start- EBF also.. and at the 12 month check up was in the 75th percentile for weight- so even though it seems like they don't always eat much it all sort of evens up in the end.

[Fiver]

We carried on with 4xBF during the day up until around 12m doing wake up, around 10.30am, 2.30pm, BT and then (usually) a feed in the early hours somewhere too.  Just treated the BFs as a snack.

[suemsm]

Thank you Amanda, Katy & creations!

Really interesting to hear about the increased nursing when you started solids, and thanks for the tip on the water. I have offered DS water, he thinks it's a great lark. Very cleverly drinks from an egg/medicine cup and then pulls a face & spits it all out! Maybe that's a reason for the increased nursing, keeping his fluids up.

And thanks for the information on how they decrease feeds. I'm happy to let him take the lead so I guess he will let me know when the time is right. He's only a little dot (5th percentiles for height and weight) so I'm definitely in no rush for him to reduce his milk intake, although if he could take more of it during the day than overnight I wouldn't argue with that 

We had a rather curious episode today. I offered grapes to DS for the first time. He pushed them around his tray while he scoffed down his avocado toast. I thought he was struggling to pick them up because he had smeared them in avocado so I picked up a piece and he took it from me & ate it, seemingly enjoying it.

Forward a couple of hours & he woke from his pm nap quite distressed & ended up vomiting up his lunch. He went from pale & lethargic to his perky self almost immediately the offending contents were ejected. I can only assume it was the grape as he has had avocado toast multiple times with no ill effect.

Certainly makes me more interested in the theories that babies will instinctively avoid foods that won't agree with them. I would never put something in his mouth, but I fear I made an error in assuming he wasn't eating the grapes because they were tricky for him to pick up. If I'd thought more about it I would have realised that he has previously been very stubborn about getting something to his mouth if he was keen on it. I'm now thinking he wasn't pursuing them because he didn't want to eat them. Silly Mummy!!

Anyone else experienced something like this?

[amayzie]

Oh poor bubba! I haven't experienced the poor reaction as such- but they can be very particular. 

With the water- i found that while hamish was having 4 and to a degree even 3 breastfeeds he wasn't really drinking ANY water- LOTS of spitting out!! FUn fun fun!! I figured that he actually didn't really need it- especially as he's always been a big fan of fruit, so gets some fluid through this. It's only recently that he's been drinking more.

[creations]

No I haven't experienced that sort of reaction to food.
There are many foods which DS has asked me to check for him, esp as he has become older and more aware, if he sees something he isn't sure of he will ask what it is (in his own way) and may want me to try a piece before he will.  I generally think of it as 'checking for poison', after he sees me eat it he will try it and with 95% of things will swallow the mouthful even if he doesn't really like it and won't take more of it (the other 5% tends to be meat and fish which he is more reluctant to eat but even then often tries a taste - sometimes spitting it back out).

I've read about the theory of LOs instinctively not eating something they may be intolerant of but tbh I don't go for it.  Stick a red berry in front of my DS and he WILL eat it, poison or not.  Equally he'd have no idea not to put raw eggs or chicken in his mouth.  Some foods I had to restrict because of reactions for example sweet potato and carrot (amongst others) gave him bum burn the moment he pooed, awful red contact reaction which would blister and bleed during periods when he had too many of these contacts (and I don't mean from sitting in a dirty nappy - he was changed immediately) and some foods because he has silent reflux and they were too acidic, any sort of orange, satsuma would make him reflux and give him diarrhoea but if he saw those foods he would scream with wanting them and be so angry with me for not letting him them.
That's why I don't really go for the theory.  I respect different opinions on it though, maybe it's just my LO that can't gauge for himself.

[Fiver]

suemsm - if it's any comfort, before starting BLW DD was either 2nd or 9th centile and was up to 50th by her 1y check

As for the reaction, could he maybe just have eaten a little bit too much for him rather than it being some sort of "reaction" to the grapes?  I've not had anything like that with DD, though.

[mumofalice]

Can't believe it but my DS is going to be 26wks tomorrow (6 months on Wed) so it's time for weaning to start - not sure how it is possible, but it is!

I did (pure) BLW with DD and want to do the same with DS so I thought I would join the thread as I had so much fun sharing our BLW journey with other BLW Mums on here last time.

The only problem is I can't remember for the life of me what we started with . . . so I've got to try and fit in some cramming tonight!

[Fiver]

Wow, doesn't time fly!
I think we gave a slice of apple and a slice of melon.  The melon was almost as big as DD!

[Chrissy2000]

Hi guys, just wondering if someone can give me some clarification.  DS is 5.5mths been watching us eat and opening his mouth for about 3 weeks.  Has great hand/eye/mouth coordination - everything, but everything goes in there.
I've started trying him on purees in the last week or so, and at first he would open but now wont have a bar of it.  The other day I was eating a banana and he was all - where the heck is my banana, so I held it out for him and he gave it a lick and a chew, but I was worried he might bite a big chunk off and choke so I mashed some up and tried it with the spoon, but again not keen. He seems to always want what we have.
I'm wondering if the BLW might be the way to go for him, but I'm not sure what finger type foods to start with?  I've seen a few posts where mums have used those mesh bags with success and I have one but haven't used it yet.
I'd appreciate any ideas to move forward since he seems so keen, but isn't into the spoons and puree route.
Cheers
Chrissy

[mumofalice]

Wow, doesn't time fly!

Yes, too fast . . . I'm not happy about it either 

I feel a bit silly even asking the question - but when you gave the slice of apple did you soften it at all? I can't believe how little I remember 

[Fiver]

Actually, I didn't soften it and she didn't eat a whole lot of it (no teeth!) but you can bake a whole apple and offer slices of it.  That said, she didn't have teeth for a good while and managed steak without, so the apple with practice shouldn't have been an issue

Chrissy, most LOs don't actually choke on food, but gag instead.  There's a great FAQ about it here - http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=241398.0  Like mumofalice you could try some baked apple or some toast or steamed vegetable fingers.  Really you can offer (almost) anything you're having so you're not cooking two meals.  If it's too small for LO to get hold of to get to his mouth then that's fine.  It just means his development hasn't got that far yet and at some point he'll be able to.