6 mth old today and first day of BLW-anyone want to start BLW journey with me ?

[fakeblondie]

I`ve never done this before even tho dc 4 !
DD1 18yrs
DD2 15 yrs
DS1 7 years
DD3 1/2 !

Totally breastfed to date and very content.
Allowed her to help herself to my plate tonight where i ensured she could reach soft green beans if she wanted to.
She loved it-made a mess-squashed it and mushed and and ALMOST sucked it !
Well thats my experience so far !
Am about a quarter way thro eading the BLW book and very confident that she`s totally fine just breastfeeding for quite a while yet as omly have to look at her to see that nature is working wonders x
Bit scared about the whole lumps bit tho but willing to give it a good go x

I've been tentatively introducing solids for a month now. DD is 7mo, doesn't eat at every meal, every day. Is ebf the rest of the time.

She definitely likes her food though. She has a good suck on everything that I put in front of her. Yesterday she had some steak, couple of chips, half an onion ring and some mushroom at the pub with us.

It seems that as much ends up on the floor as in her tum, but I know we'll get there.

The BLW book can be pretty much condensed into one sentence: Put food in front of them and let them get on with it.

Oh, and don't worry about lumps. We've had a couple of heart in mouth moments when she's gagged on something, but that's all part of the learning curve for her. Just grin and do over the top nyom-nyom-nyom noises and she'll get round it. Be prepared to rescue potato skins and toast from the roof of her mouth.

Sorry, massive post

wow thanks.
Do you litereally give her whatever your eating ?

my sis and i did this with dniece last year. she was exclusively breastfed, and we were both at parents house. i would sit with dn on my lap at meal times, and give her bits of whatever we were eating. she loved it, and by time i left, she was actually consuming food rather than just sucking on the bits of chapati etc i gave her. :) all the food i gave her was homemade, so for example, i never gave her any sausages, but she had lots of egg and veg etc.

Literally bits off my plate.

On Christmas day she had some Turkey, veg and a roast potato. She had a bite of sprout too . A couple of weeks ago she had some Yorkshire Pudding.

Obviously when I say 'had' I mean 'sucked then dropped on the floor'.

TMI alert I've had evidence this morning that some of the mushroom went down on Wednesday. Nice

Mmmm mushroom poo. I thought it was quite reassuring finding a whole slice of mushroom intact in DD's nappy, if she can swallow something that big she's not going to choke on the odd lump in her mashed potato.

Hello, started BLW about 2 weeks ago with my DD. So far bread, cheese, roast parsnip and sweet potato and chicken have gone down well. The plum baby yogurts are a favourite too (preloaded spoons). I was a bit worried at first when LO appeared to be struggling with the odd big piece of food-but DD always managed to cope with the odd gag here and there! I am enjoying it and was so nice when we went out for lunch the other day-DD had a piece of my sandwich so no need flaffing about with a spoon. The BLW cookbook is good for a bit of inspiration for mealtimes.

Hi there, mind if I join in?

DS is actually 6 months on the 18th, but if he is in reach will grab any bits of food he can and try to shove them in his mouth, so I guess he is ready!

I will be doing a bit of both - puree and "baby-led". One thing that concerns me is the idea of introducing one food at a time to rule out allergies/intolerances. how does this work with BLW? Or should I just get on with giving DS whatever he wants? BTW, he is second child, I also have DD who is nearly 5 (only found out about BLW when she was nearly a year old, so too late!), so no PFB thing, just wondering how it works.

well so far weve SUCKED green beans - thats it ! Lovingly steamed pears and apples and put them on my plate in the hope that she would go for it - but grabbed a huge piece of bacon and banged it on the plate for 5 mins ! Hmmm- not sure if shes actually that ready !

Hello can I join? Would be good to have a bit of support as everyone I know is doing purees.

DD has just turned 28 weeks and we started giving her bits of food a couple of weeks ago. Not given her food every day so far, as we've been waiting to get back to normal after Christmas, but so far she has "had" butternut squash, carrot, parsnip, bread stick, red pepper and cheese on toast. Of these, it was only really the parsnip and carrot that were given a really good gumming. The breadstick was useful in showing that her gag reflex works well though!

I'm looking forward to giving her more regular "meals" from Tuesday.

In answer to the question above about introducing one food at a time, my understanding is that there is no real need to do this unless there are allergies in the family, but I could be wrong.

One question I have is that DD has been exclusively breast fed until now, and I was very happy to wait until she showed signs of readiness to start BLW. I have now just read another thread on this board that links to papers suggesting that solids should be introduced earlier than 6 months and, in particular, that gluten should be introduced before 7 months to reduce the risk of wheat allergies or coeliac disease in the future. I need to give this some further thought, but am hoping I haven't delayed too long! No history of food allergies in the family though, so I should probably stop being PFB about it and just crack on!

Amiable - I think the one food at a time rule with purees is if you're introducing solids well before 6 months, but I'm not sure about that. I think once they get to 6 months it's generally accepted that their digestive system is mature enough to cope. If he's already grabbing and trying, let him get on with it, but maybe don't introduce solids formally until he's officially 6 months? I'm no expert, but that would be my gut instinct.

Waterhorse, have you read the Gill Rapley BLW book? They should have it at the library, if you don't want to buy a copy. It explains why early introduction isn't necessary. It's a good read if you need reassurance. DD is 32 weeks (I think ) and she doesn't have every single meal, every day. We're just taking it easy and let her eat when she looks like she wants to. She eats toast, so that's the gluten introduced before 7 months

Discovered yesterday she hates baby porridge, but loves weetabix and (grown up) rice pudding. She's determined not to eat baby food!

Thanks Dancing I have read the Gill Rapley book, which was very helpful, and I was confident that I was doing the right thing by waiting till now to wean. I think I'm just having a little wobble having read some other threads on this board over the last day or too, linking to reasearch from 2008 that talks about the need to introduce foods earlier (and specifically the gluten before 7 months). This is just one paper however so may be a minority view. Everything else I have read does talk about waiting till 6 months before weaning as being the best route.

Anyway, I'm not going to dwell on this as I can't go back in time, but will perhaps take things a little faster than I had planned - two meals a day to begin with, say, rather than just one a day as I'd originally planned.

I've also got the BLW recipe book for ideas, so looking forward to trying some of the recipes out. Will let you know how we get on.

Glad I've found this thread - we're tentatively starting going down the BLW route as I also have a puree-refuser :o

I need a confidence boost as I'm petrified DS will choke but have ordered the Gill Rapley book which is hopefully arriving tomorrow so, armed with as much info as possible, I'm going to give BLW a good shot!

DS gave a banana some good gumming tonight but gagged lots which scared me, he managed to break off some really big lumps. Before this, he has had broccoli which just got squished in his hands, some rice cakes which he really enjoyed sucking and toast.

I've found that bananas are quite tricky for DD too Jess - they're really clumpy and sticky and DD doesn't seem to cope very well.

She does love rice cakes though and toast with jam on.

Hurrah for BLW!
DP had to pull a slice of mushroom that was half in, half out of DS's bum last week. I think it slipped down his throat before he got around to gumming it much.
I've developed a fascination with DS's nappy contents, it's great to see things are actually going down, if not quite being digested yet

Hi everyone. Thanks for comments/advice. I think I will go down our local library for the Gill Rapley book, as so many of you rate it.

Just5 - snorting with laughter at that mushroom story - DD just asked me what was so funny, and looked at me like I was mad when I told her!

I've decided to go down the "try everything and watch him carefully for any odd reaction"-route, so DS has (very enthusiastically) enjoyed butternut squash/carrot puree today, and a teeny bit of bread - lots of gagging, but he was keen for more, so it hasn't put him off. He has also had banana, but agree with everyone who has noted its slippy-ness (is there a better word for that?! )

The book basically says "Put stuff in front of them and see how they get on"

It has chapters on the development of weaning - why we are so driven by purees, and what people did before the invention of purees (I'm not sure, but I think it was when there were dinosaurs)

But it basically comes down to Let Them Figure It Out For Themselves, or food before one is just for fun. Let them explore what tastes go with which texture (and what it looks like whole, rather than the confusing issue of beige puree could be bread, potato, porridge, banananana, cauliflower or chicken).

Oh, and it talks about the gag reflex, which is totally different from choking. Don't panic when they gag, it's something they have to learn to deal with before it moves further back in their mouth. It's designed to stop them choking, so let them learn how to move their food back out of the way so they can chew it down to swallow.

Just5 - I know exactly what you mean! I'm surprised at how much does come out exactly as it went in. I'm sure that will change as her gut matures and she learns to chew better, but it does make for interesting viewing

Anyone want a free copy of the Gill Rapley BLW book? Just finished it and am happy for it to go to a new home. First response bags it

mamma1mia if your offer is still on I'd love your copy. Will read it, then pass it on to the next mumsnetter.

Hello - I am starting BLW in a few weeks so marking my place if that's ok.

We'll hopefully be joining you, DS is 6 months on 25th of the month. We are EBF and looking forward to having a go at the BLW malarky - sounds fun!

bouncingblueberries no worries just email me your details and I'll pop it in the post to you :) My email is [email protected]