Baby-Led Weaning Support Thread #1

[Cornish smiler]

Hi Bryony, nice to see you!  I'm feeding Sam both mush and finger food - eg today he's had baby porridge but I made it quite thick but apart from that I'm not using any puree type food for him.  Aren't you oranised getting your vegs ready for 10 days time! 

Can anyone tell me if it's OK that I put porridge on Sam's spoon, passed it to him and he fed himself?  He was tucking into it big style.  Needless to say it went everywhere, including in my hair (I forgot I had it all over my fingers and scratched my head!) but it was all good fun.  He gagged a couple of times but soon got the hang of it and even cried when I took the bowl away bless him.  He's sound asleep upstairs now, worn out after his BLW exploits no doubt!!!!!

[Aly Mac]

i"m no expert but i figure the more independant they are the better! way to go sam!!!!!!!!!

We tried cubes of potato and sweet potato today for lunch but she can't quite get the pinch right yet.  The mush I give is getting thicker which is good.  Am buying a cooked chicken tomorrow so will give her a piece of that the chew on and see how we go.  I think it was the onion in the sausage that caused her to gag - I should have grated it instead.

[Cornish smiler]

Yay to thick mush!!!!

Speaking of which .....

[Freya'sMum]

Bryony,

A pure baby-led weaning approach doesn't advocate 'mush' because younger babies cannot feed it to themselves, so if you want to do it this way (I did, it was fine!) you start with foods that are solid in the fist, with a bit sticking out of the top that they can chew with gums to turn it to mush in the mouth, so something like a mini ricecake, or steamed veg sticks/florets are good starter foods!

HTH?

Ax

[Bryony]

Thanks Alison and Ali and everyone...

Today we stopped at a service station (driving to my parents' in Wales) and Katie was watching me eat a pastry with SUCH interest.  On the table. To my mouth, To the table, To my mouth. Over and over. Lots of people started watching her and laughing, she was so funny!  Something tells me she may be interested in trying some food when we get back home next week...

Think I will go straight for trying steamed veg and see how she goes...

Bryony

[Freya'sMum]

Tis the best way (IMO!),

Ax

[Cornish smiler]

Sam's getting the hang of it  now - I was eating a biscuit and he went to grab it from my mouth cos he wanted it!!!  Also, when I put him in his highchair he grins and his little legs go swinging away.  I've got evidence (via his nappy) that some of the broccoli he had yesterday got through  - thought you'd like to know that.  He's got a new way of eating his Organix moon biscuit which is to just put the middle of it in his mouth and chew/suck and repeat until the whole thing gets so sloppy it just falls apart!!!  He seems to definitely be eating more now and went mad for banana even though it was slipping and sliding everywhere!

Bryony, you'll just love it and so will Katie - it's just such fun!!!!

[Aly Mac]

I wish I had of not gone the mush route, but kind of hard to back out of it now.  So doing a combo.  Lunch is normally finger food.  Today was some chicken (when really well) and some toast fingers with avocado.

Love the pic of Sam too - so cute!

Lilly also gets very vocal and bangs the highchair table for me to be quicker with the food

[Freya'sMum]

Aleesa,

Hey, don't feel bad about doing the mush route - we BLWers are so much in the minority, and had Eryn taken to purees at 6 months that's the route I'd have gone too - it would be a bit much for Lilly if you took all of her familiar foods and quanities away just 'coz you wanted to change to self-feeding, would cause much frustration, so a combo is the right balance for your situation!

I feel very proud of us all!

Ax

[Cornish smiler]

I'm a bit confused here!  I have read the Gill Rapley guidelines and in it she stresses that the baby MUST pick the food up themselves and if they can do that then developmentally they will be able to cope with it.  However, I also thought it's OK for us to hand the food to the baby.  Sam actually does not bother with food if it's in front of him BUT if I pick it up and pass it to him it's a different matter.  He's just demolished half an Organix moon biscuit by holding it, sucking it and making it really soggy and messy and then eating the bits that break  off (some of them - some he just spat out!)

So what do I do do you think - leave him to help himself but run the risk of him not eating anything as I don't think he's really hungry, or carry on passing it to him.  I don't want to be doing it wrong from the start iykwim!!   

Sorry to have yet more questions!!

[Tanners Mom]

Hi Girls!
Tanner is feeding himself now!!! A couple of weeks ago - anything I put on his tray he didn't even consider putting in his mouth but now he's eating lots of stuff! I'm SO proud of him!! His pincer grasp (is that what you call it?) is getting SO good...I can tell his fine motor skills are really developing! I'm visiting my family this week and am excited for them to see him feeding himself already!

Erin - thanks for the tip about wheat toast with fruit puree - Tanner loves it!! He ate two 1/2 inch strips of it this morning and it was only our 2nd morning trying it!

Bryony - I started with purees as I hadn't heard about BLW so I plan to continue doing purees at every meal as well as finger foods. Tanner just LOVES his purees so I'm not going to take that away.

I don't remember who - but one of you mentioned that you made your baby 'broccoli/cauliflower cheese'. What is that? Just broccoli and cauliflower in cheese sauce? Sounds good!

Aleesa - great idea to put avocado on toast. I think it's great for Tanner to eat avocado b/c it's SO good for his brain but it's hard for him to pick it up (slippery) so I think I'll try it on his toast!

A question on the sausages...do you just run the chicken through a baby food grinder? I have one of those hand-crank ones...will that work? I would like to try making these!

Do you all totally crack up watching your LO eat? I'm in stiches!!!!!! Tanner will reach for the food on the tray and before he even picks it up - he's got his mouth WIDE open and ready!!! And then when he brings the hand with the food toward his mouth he uses his other hand to push in the 'food' hand!! 

This is SO fun!! Thanks, Alison for making this a part of BW!!!
~Jaci

[Cornish smiler]

Hi Jaci, it was me who did broccoli and cauliflower cheese.  What you thought is right!!! I sometimes top it with some breadcrumbs and tomato slices and pop it under the grill.  Very nice!!! 

Tanner sounds so sweet the way he eats his food!  Sam's a way off that yet but I'm sure we'll get there. 

We've had a good day today re eating apart from breakfast but I'll ignore that!  I was out at my friends house for lunch and she produced these gingerbread men for Zoë and her 2 children.  Z couldn't eat hers so gave it to me and I was merrily chomping away with Sam on my lap when these pudgy little hands appeared from my lap and grabbed it and shoved it into his mouth!!!!  He demolished a fair bit of it with great gusto.  For dinner I steamed courgette sticks and he had a good go at them and then I sliced a nectarine for him.  He did his best effort yet as he stripped all the inside of the nectarine from the skin with his teeth and ate it all - just a pile of skin on the highchair tray.  I felt so proud!  I had to hold it for him cos it was slippy but once he got a good grip he did it himself.  Then finished with a little bit of avocado and that went down well too.

So all in all good steps in the right direction and I'm just seeing it all as good fun and nothing to get stressed about which is such a difference to the whole puree thing!!!!!

Can I echo Jaci and say thanks Alison for bringing this to us.

[Freya'sMum]

Glad to have other people who are as passionate about it as I am - most folk around me think I'm bonkers, my SILs had their los on 3 puree meals a day by 6 months (to help sleep thru the night ) and were only using milk feeds as a drink not as food!

They thought I was totally mad offering Eryn a whole boiled potato and steamed veg sticks at Sunday lunch whilst they spooned vast quantities of pureed roast into their los - youngest SIL visited today and commented that she was amazed that Eryn still had 4+ breastfeeds per day! I didn't see a single drop of dairy enter her ds (14 months) all day - I hope he still has a bedtime bottle!

I genuinely believe that BLW (or self-feeding) is nature's way of ensuring that babies do not 'eat' too much solid food too soon, and can maintain their milk intake!

Having said that, I won't judge those who choose to adopt the stages/purees approach - I just want to make sure that their los have all the milk they need too!

Ali, in the BLW FAQ post I wrote about a 'pure' and a 'modified' approach - perhaps in the pure approach, babies should scoop the foods from the tray and self-feed, but hey, you know your lo, and ds's independence doesn't always mean doing it all by himself, it can mean ds 'asking' for help with things he can't manage yet! So, by holding the foods up for ds to grab you are modifying the pure approach to meet the needs of your individual child - that sounds very baby-centred to me! Eryn wants to use a spoon to scoop up her miniwheats at breakfast, she hasn't the dexterity yet, but has a good go at it, and then when she gets frustrated, she demonstrates her independence by asking for my help (ie she gives me the spoon )!

Jaci, the 'sausages' are made by blitzing an apple in a food processor, squeezing the excess juice out, then putting it back into the food processor with a raw onion, 2 raw chicken breasts, 2 slices of bread and fresh herbs of your choice and blitzing again to a really smooth consistency - you then shape into burgers or sausages (whichever your lo prefers or can manage) and frying in a little oil or baking in the oven! Yummy!

Have I caught up with everything?

Ax

[Cornish smiler]

Thanks for that Alison, I'm assuming that as he gets older he'll be more able to pick things up himself but in the meantime I'll carry on helping out.  Once he has it in his hands he's fine (as long as it isn't slippery like banana or avocado) and he really seems to enjoy sucking/gumming the food - it really is lovely to see.  Mum & Dad were up yesterday and were very surprised to see him gumming away at a broccoli tree!!!

BTW, your sausages sound lovely - what temperature do they go on and how long do they stay in the oven for?  I'm being very organised and have set up a doc on my computer for BLW recipes - how good is that!

[Freya'sMum]

Ali,

I have to confess to frying them but I usually bake everything on Gas Mark 6 (I think that's 200degC) for about 20-30 minutes and hope for the best! You'll notice as you get familiar with me, that I don't really 'do' measurements - sorry if this is less than helpful?!

Broccoli is a great shape for self-feeding! Cauliflower too!

Ax