Baby-Led Weaning Support Thread #1

[Lippy Chick]

Hi all,

I was wondering about how long to steam things for too, although we haven't started yet, I'm the kind of person who likes to feel prepared. 

Spoke to my HV today and she's going to loan me a DVD that Gill Rapley has brought out about BLW and then get the nursery nurse to come out and have a chat about it.  Apparently there have been a few articles in The Times and The Guardian about it recently and so she's going to get me those too.  She would like to start a wee support group in our area for this, but as she just started the job a few months ago, I think I'm the guinea pig in our area.  She has done it before with the parents in the area she used to work in before here and she said that nearly every parent ended up doing it and had a support group going etc.  So I think she would like me to do it and then chat to parents about how it works and to endorse it really.  I told her about this thread and I think she may have a look. 

The thing is that when you look at other threads, so many parents are struggling getting their LOs to transition from purees to lumps, this just seems to cut all that out, by going straight to it.

Ali, are the recipes in the Jennie Maizels book worth using, am thinking about getting it?

Pauline

[Aly Mac]

HI everyone and welcome to the newbies 

carrot has always been a tricky one for me to steam right.  I use the microwave (just so much easier) and I have a mw steamer thingy - water in the bottom with a basket on the top and a lid.  though lately I have been just using the bottom with the water and putting the veges right in there.  i find the sweet pot, pot come out much better.

I think L is the oldest on this thread (with the exception  of Freya's mum), so hopefully my stumbles along the way will help you all.  I've found that L is still really hungry, and I can't get enough finger food into her and she gets frustrated with picking it up.  she picks it up fine, but I"ve found that she stuffs way too much food in her mouth at once as she's hungry.  I've started to call her a chipmunk  .  I"ve kind of gone back to giving her some mushy food, as I can get that into her and she's started to want to put it in her mouth herself which I think is a good thing (even though it is so messy and I end up picking up the spoon off the floor 100 times  !)  My menu for the day kind of looks like this:

6.30/7 bf
8am solids - 1vitabrit, tablespoon of fruit puree or 1/4 banana
9-10/10.15 nap
10.30 bf
11.30/12 lunch - cheese on toast (think she is ready for 2pieces now), fruit puree pot (120gr).  If at home I would give pieces of fruit instead. OR sandwich of somesort, with avocado & yoghurt, piece of fruit
130-3 nap
3bf
4.30 dinner - corn, ham, grated carrot, zuccini, sweetpotato mashed iwth yoghurt, piece of fruit (depend on how much she had the rest of the day)
6 bf
6.30 sleep......

when I say piece of fruit, I mean 1/3 banana / 1/2 kiwi fruit / 1/3 apple or pear / 2 large strawberries / 2 large apricots.

Just thought it may interest you all what we are doing.  Most goes in, but not all of course. and some days, she's just not hungry. 

Fruit is always a winner - which worries me as it's sweet but happy it's healthy. I try for at least 2 fruit servings a day, one protein, 2 carb, and as many veges as she will take.

I know we don't need to balance it just yet, but I want to at least get into a routine, so she is getting variety.

[Bryony]

Aleesa, that sounds great, and it's very inspiring to see Lily leading the way!!

Just for info for the newer BLWers, here is our typical day:

breakfast - a few shreddies (a wheat-based breakfast cereal, not sure if it's available outside the UK), half a rusk, a small piece of fruit. She eats some rusk and a tiny bit of shreddies and typically just sucks on the fruit.

lunch - whatever I am having - usually bread, cheese (she loves philadelphia cheese!), bit of fruit, breadsticks, etc

dinner - steamed veggies (whatever DH and I had the night before if we remember to save her some ), home-made burger thingies, bit of fruit.

She typically just sucks on stuff but some of it is starting to go in now.

Bryony

[Lippy Chick]

One thing that is slightly concerning me about starting to wean.  Do you get any time to get out of the house, feeding with milk and then also food?  Also, when you do go anywhere, how do you get round the mess that is created by a wee person trying to feed themselves?

How did everyone hear about BLW?  None of my friends have heard of it and I hadn't until my HV told me about it.

Pauline

[Bryony]

Pauline - it gets easier as they get a bit older as thier A times get longer!

We never went out before the first nap anyway so that was easy to give breakfast then. Then we did tea just before bath and bed. I didn't start doing lunch until Katie was 7 months old when her A times got longer.   If we are out I sit her in a high chair if there is one available, and give her less messy stuff like bread, fruit, cheese, steamed veg - whatever I can find. I keep a supply of breadsticks and rice cakes in my bag in case there isn't anything suitable wherever we are out. And plenty of baby wipes...!

Bryony

[Cornish smiler]

Pauline, I have only recently got the book myself, but think I will definitely do some of the recipes in there - it all depends on what you like!  Sometimes I just need an idea of something to do as I'm not terribly adventurous, so I like having books with lots of different things.  The writer is vegetarian I think so some stuff is vege but she also gives alternatives for us meat-eaters!  Completely up to you but I am glad I have mine.   
As for going out with BLW, well Sam is like Katie in that he has his breakfast and tea at home and we just opt for the less messy options at lunchtime if we are out.  Until Sam gets bored with the food, he's normally quite good and doesn't spill an awful lot and I never let him self-feed yogurt etc if out as that's just silly!!!!!!! 

Aleesa, you sound really organised with Lilly's feeding and what you're doing sounds just great! 

Did Sam a bolognaise type sauce with pasta today and he looked like he'd had really cheap fake tan on him as his face turned a sort of orangey colour thanks to the tomato paste!!!!  Needless to say straight in the bath (with big sister) and they had a fab time together.

Ali x

[Freya'sMum]

Ditto to everyone else here, we only ever do lunch out of the house, and self-feeding has been brilliant for this because I've never had to worry about having to take loads of messy gloop with me, just a selection of salad or veg sticks, some bread and butter, fruit, rice cakes, cheese cubes in an airtight container, easy to transport, and as Eryn has gotten older, she can eat it on the move too, in the car or buggy.

I also don't worry about how much mess we leave behind at a restaurant if we're eating out, with 2 self-feeders there's always going to be bits on the seat and floor, I just leave a bigger tip by means of an apology for the extra clearing up ! Freya always requests fish and chips at a restaurant, so both girls share one adult portion, and it's that dry mess again, not a wet one, so I don't feel too bad about it!

I've been wondering why I never felt that I had the problem with fitting it all in as some of you describe, then I remember that Eryn was a 30 minute napper, and dropped down to 1 long nap at 11 months (not my choice, but has actually worked for us in the end ), so our activity time was always quite long enough to fit solid foods and something else in!

I found out about BLW thru our local NCT magazine, Eryn flatly refused anything sloppy/pureed off a spoon, and my health visitor said "just feed her anything she'll eat" and meant it, skips, wotsits, quavers, chocolate pudding - anything ! I decided that there must be a better way and the magazine had a BLW article, so I googled it, found all the articles and decided to give it a go - I have since advocated it here (the FSF forum must be sick of me talking about it by now ) and to everyone I know who has since had babies, but as far as I know I'm the only one doing it locally, most folk think I'm mad!

Ax

[Bryony]

Oh yes I came across it from the NCT magazine too. I thought it sounded like it made a lot more sense and I liked the idea of Katie being able to eat with us from an early age.  Our health visitors think I am very wierd though and don't support it.  But I am happy and feel we are doing the right thing.

Bryony

[Aly Mac]

I heard about it on here, from Freya's mum, when I was stressing about her food!  No one here has heard about it, and i don't really mention it too much.  I gave info to my mums group, but they didn't seem too keen.

I'm the same as the others with lunch - i intro'd it last to make it easier.  Cheese on toast is my sure fire food to take out for lunch for her. as it keeps her occupied and she loves it....

[Cornish smiler]

I tried puree for the grand total of 5 days, found Sam just did NOT like it and saw somewhere (can't remember where now) about Baby Led Weaning.  Think it was about the time Gill Rapley's (sp?) article came out.  I did a search on it then saw that you did it on here too Alison so I jumped onto the bandwagon!!! 

Oh yes, and I don't fret too much about any mess Sam makes - I explain first what we're doing to the waitress and apologise in advance, then apologise after, then give an extra tip!!!  We don't eat out often and as I said Sam isn't too bad for mess, but I still warn the waitress!  Has anyone else noticed that other people in the restaurant pay a lot of attention to what you're doing to your little one - I get lots of looks and quite often someone will come over and say how refreshing to see a baby not eating pureed muck out of a jar and actively tucking into his food  !

[Bryony]

Has anyone else noticed that other people in the restaurant pay a lot of attention to what you're doing to your little one - I get lots of looks and quite often someone will come over and say how refreshing to see a baby not eating pureed muck out of a jar and actively tucking into his food  !

I get comments from waitresses like "well I assume she's too little for a high chair" and they are rather stunned when I explain that actually yes I would like a high chair for Katie and yes she will be eating with us.  Meanwhile I get to enjoy my lunch while Katie is incredibly busy sucking all the margarine off a bit of bread roll 

B

[Lippy Chick]

Thank you all for the encouragement.  Even just mentioning BLW as an idea I might be doing to my friends has opened up a huge can of worms.  Most think it won't work and interestingly, most older people I speak to about it think it makes a lot of sense.  We've been conditioned to believe that pureeing everything to within an inch of its life is the only way and the right way.  A few friends with babies a bit younger than Alice are interested to see how we get on with it.  If I get those articles from the HV, I'll try to pass them on, somehow.  What do you do when you go to visit friends?  Much the same as when you go out to restaurants etc?

Ali.  I think I'm with you about getting recipe ideas and knowing what to cook and give to her.  So, up for suggestions.  I may well get that book too.

Bryony.  It was my HV who suggested it to me, she did it with her children, 20 years ago and really advocates it now to parents.  The articles from The Times and The Guardian might help persuade your HV that it's a good idea. 

Off to bed.  "See" you lot tomorrow.

Pauline

[grahamsmama]

I also don't worry about how much mess we leave behind at a restaurant if we're eating out, with 2 self-feeders there's always going to be bits on the seat and floor, I just leave a bigger tip by means of an apology for the extra clearing up ! Freya always requests fish and chips at a restaurant, so both girls share one adult portion, and it's that dry mess again, not a wet one, so I don't feel too bad about it!

I figure I'll just leave a nice tip and not worry about the mess.  We actually do eat out a lot, but I figure that anyone serving us can't be too shocked that my three kids are going to make a mess.

I hadn't heard about BLW officially until I read about it here.  But, we did sort of doing a modified BLW with dd#1 because we didn't start weaning until 7 months d/t food allergies and by that point she just wanted finger foods.  So, that's what we did with a little cereal occasionally, but mostly I just did things she could self feed.  With Meghan, I'm going to give her a little cereal because part of the point of us starting solids so early was getting more formula into her, but other than that we're doing self feeding.  Meghan does not like spoon feeding at all!  So, I give her the spoon and let her guide it to her mouth. She's very clear about when she's done! 

As far as getting out of the house we do our errands in the middle of the day and feed breakfast and dinner at home.

[grahamsmama]

I thought of a couple of other ways to lessen the mess a bit.

Only give a couple of bites of food to your lo at a time.  Wait for her to eat them (or mash them up her nose or in her ears or whatever-- ) before giving more. 
Try a long sleeve bib.  We just got one and it's great.  It has a pocket in the front to catch some of the crumbs and little food pieces.  I also like the disposable bibs for when you're out and about.  You can also buy these button things at One Step Ahead that you use to turn a napkin into a bib.  Then you can just throw the napkin away.  How convenient!
You can also buy disposable (and reusable) placemats to take out to eat with you.  I did this with my big kids for a long time and will probably do it with Meghan too when she's older.
Right now I have a portable booster with it's own tray that I take with us to restaurants.  That way she has her own tray and it's easier for her to get her food and easier to clean up because you can just stick it in the dishwasher.
It's really not about preventing the mess, just containing it!!   

[Bryony]

thanks Lyn for all the tips!  We have a tinydiner mat which I put Katie's food on, whether at home or out and about, which you just roll up and take home to wash. It has a scoop thing to catch the bits that escape. So it means slightly less mess when we are out...

Unfortunately Katie is too small for those cover-all bibs - they only make them for 6 months and up, and Katie is in 3 months size clothes and can't find her hands in even the smallest size!

Bryony x