Baby Led Weaning support thread #12

[*Ali*]

Lol yeah.  We were aiming for the recommended 180 days but thought might as well start on Saturday when we're all together and it's the weekend in case it upsets her. 3 more sleeps! 😁

[eva026]

Very good thinking. Fingers x she enjoys it, although I’m sure she will. Nothing more fun than mushed food in your hair and up your nose 😂

[*Ali*]

1 more sleep

[Gabiascher]

When doing BLW do i offer 3 meals? Or start with one? My lo is almpst 7 months, not sitting yet, but not wanting purees. Interested in my food so decided to do BLW.
Since purees that ive tried ive always worked on lunch amd soemtimes dinner or breakfast.
Since BLW i just do a little breakfast and whatever he takes i give lunch always more food, and kind pf like an afternoom snack at 4 pm.

Is this right? Does it matter? Or do i need to establish a meal to move on to another meal?
And is it ok to feed him at this point with my hands or a fork im stilll really afraid hell choke because when he sits on me i cant really see anything?

[eva026]

Well the idea of blw is that you let them feed themselves. Chunks of food they can fit into their hands and chew on, loaded spoons or kiddie forks they can try get into their mouths. They don’t get much in at the start , so I really just sat her down with us at all meals straight away. Just remember that they are t supposed to have much salt at this age, so whatever you are having but cooked without salt.
Not sure about the whole safety thing and feeding on your knees.

Do you guys know anything about giving stuff like raisins at the age of 10mo? I rwD up about it and done say it’s a choking hazard and others say it’s fine. Also, at what point would it be ok to give harder stuff like uncooked peppers or apples and stuff?

[dache]

DD2`s high chair should be arriving tomorrow. She`s 5m1w but she is showing signs that she is ready for sometime now. Trying to grab food from us and looking at us so sad when we eat
She has diarrhea for a few days now so I gave her a tinny bit of banana. She`s not a fan lol. I have the BLW book and will read up today.

I`m no expert because in this, with dd1 we took everything very slow, we gave her raw veggies much recommended which now I dont even remember when that was. lol
 

[eva026]

She gets uncooked veg but only the soft and squishy kind. Worried about choking on bits of the hard stuff like peppers but I guess at some point she’ll have to learn how to eat that too, just can’t remember when.

[creations]

Gabiascher - it's perhaps better to read up about BLW before you move forward with it.  As pp has mentioned it is about baby self feeding not you putting food into baby's mouth which can be more hazardous than baby doing it themselves. Also baby needs to be able to sit up without falling before you begin BLW.

Do you guys know anything about giving stuff like raisins at the age of 10mo? I rwD up about it and done say it’s a choking hazard and others say it’s fine. Also, at what point would it be ok to give harder stuff like uncooked peppers or apples and stuff?

I only offered raisins/sultanas when I was really confident in DS's ability to self feed, I imagine he was older than 10 months but can't say for sure.  But I started prunes really early, about 6 months and he loved them, the soft ready to eat (no pip) sort were great for gumming on and not small or hard or round for choking on. I watch closely as they are very sticky though and sometimes he needed a hand holding it but he would pull my hand to his mouth so he was still in control.
Raw pears are often quite soft anyway (they made mine refluxy though) maybe a better option than apples?  Apples I rarely gave raw and on the rare occasion it was a whole one so he had to grind his teeth/gums on it to grate it off rather than break off a chunk from a slice or wedge.  I would think you can offer most things at 10 months though.  Peppers I would give a large slice (like a quarter pepper) rather than long thin batons as the big chunk is less likely to break off suddenly in small bits and easier to gnaw on.  I didn't give really hard stuff like carrot batons until older.

DD2`s high chair should be arriving tomorrow.

Yay! Exciting

[eva026]

Lol and Thats why I love these forums, I never would have thought of giving a quarter of a pepper.
Ok will hold off with the smaller things till she’s 1, not long now anyway. She’s pretty good at picking up little things and putting them in her mouth, had lots of practice with bits of kitty litter and cat fluf  she manages to find despite the fact that I vacuum 2 a day now!

[eva026]

You can totally give food in a feeding mesh if baby isn’t sitting up yet. DD2 was very ready for solids at 5.5m but wasn’t quite stable enough so we did feeding meshes till she was.

[dache]

Ok,  dd2 would be 6 months this Thursday and we'll start blw but we didn't follow this plan with dd1 so I have a few questions. I have the book but I'd rather talk about it with other moms.
I have already given her bananas apple and peach in meshes.
Did you immediately start giving what you have for breakfast or still introduced foods one at a time, not pureed but the piece for lo to eat?
I know the book said don't worry about allergens, do you follow that or you follow general guidelines for things like berries, eggs, meats ect.?
Can you share ideas for what to start with? I usually have oats with fruit for breakfast, smoothies or eggs.
How soon do I add lunch and dinner? I saw on the previous posts a lot of the members started with dinner but for me dinner is most challenging because of dd1. But at the same time I wonder if starting dd2 with family dinner will improve them.

Hahah, so many questions. I think this lo will love foods as much as me unlike her sister who us fighting me at every meal.

[eva026]

I did one food at a time for the first month or so, then wiem i saw She was Ok, we just startem giving her everything. Vegetables arę good to start with, as well as fruit and egg yolk.  you don’t actually have to “do” dinner, that’s the beauty of blw, you just plonk her by you with food to eat and she plays with it, eating bits, while you can eat in peace.

[*Ali*]

 No we didn't go slowly at all as we've no history of food allergies.  I gave her a floret of broccoli for lunch on Saturday then from Sunday she had everything that was suitable for her that we had.  She had homemade pancakes (we don't use sugar) with strawberries and banana for breakfast and then roast beef, carrot, broccoli and Yorkshire pudding for Sunday lunch. From then on (3wks ago) she's had a little bit of whatever we've had for every meal she's awake for.  If she sleeps through a meal she just misses it.  She had a big finger of steak the other day and gummed it and sucked it until it was white! Still not a huge amount goes in so I shouldn't think she's getting any more food volume-wise than a baby being spoonfed purees.

I just avoid food with added sugar or salt. Although I'm not too worried about salt if she's only having a smidge. She had smoked salmon pate on crackerbread yesterday and a suck of a sausage at the restaurant in the week.

[creations]

I know the book said don't worry about allergens, do you follow that or you follow general guidelines for things like berries, eggs, meats ect.?

I followed general guides on what foods not to give to babies (honey, salt, sugar, whole nuts, anything small and round, fish with bones etc) but mostly in terms of choke hazard and other health reasons rather than allergy reasons.

Can you share ideas for what to start with? I usually have oats with fruit for breakfast, smoothies or eggs.
How soon do I add lunch and dinner?

I think I started with lunch rather than breakfast.  Introduce breakfast when when he wanted it and dinner too. We were quick to 3 meals but that was down to his appetite rather than me wanting him to have lots of meals.
Not sure what sort of breakfast I started with tbh, but I do remember settling on a baby muesli which was for age 10 months+ and I gave it much earlier made with a very small amount of milk so that it was thick and I rolled it into balls, so he could pick them up, usually fresh fruit too.  He had that muesli for a couple of years.  Had a long phase of one egg omelet (cooked quite firm and cut into biggish pieces) for breakfast when he wasn't eating protein the rest of the day, then switched back to the muesli when his protein picked up.  I liked the muesli because it was fortified with vits etc, where as normal oats aren't.  Lots of people make oat fingers though, maybe try that?
I wouldn't offer smoothies just because of the higher sugar level, I'd offer the fresh fruit instead.
I gave whole egg early on but in the UK they are lion marked which means no salmonella so if they are slightly undercooked it doesn't matter, although I think they were all firmly cooked anyway as either omelet or frittata.

Actually, just saw Alis post,  I think breakfast I started DS with pancakes, the sugar free mini pancakes which are on all the BLW blogs and recipe sites. I batch cooked and froze. They were great for snacks and take out and about too.
Mine also had a full Sunday roast at 6 months (minus gravy) and loved it.

[dache]

Thank you so much ladies. Great information!

Based on the your information I`ve decided that I`d share my meal with her whenever she is up when I eat. I`m dairy and soy free because of her but we already have experience with that with dd1. All my meals are cooked from scratch so it won`t be difficult to follow the advice about salt, sugars ect. I`m ready. lol