Planning first week of BLW...

[Redling]

And I want to go at it fairly confidantly! 5 month DS has never had anything but milk and I am not planning to give him anything until 6 months and go straight to soft foods as the BLW book says. My plan was to start with
Stick of steamed carrot
Steamed broccoli floret
Small pieces of chicken breast

Does this sound ok? In people's experiences should you offer food once a day to start or can you offer two meals if the baby is over 6 months? I was then planning on some breakfast of cut up crumpets, cucumber, and some cheese through the first week. Maybe thick porridge and scrambled egg or omlette cut into strips. I'll be having it too. Then a taste of some casserole like pork or beef in the evening?

I am excited to begin but it is hard to shake off the feeling that i should be pureeing something :) what were your BLW first meals and how did they go? I hope to have him mainly on what we eat quickly (although as husband gets in late he's going to have to have his own dinner on week nights) but want to give him a range of bits to start with.

[PuppyMummy]

I started with just fruit and veg for the first few days.
He had cucumber and red pepper on the first day then carrot, broccoli and parsnip.
I then added rice cakes and bread sticks. and then scrambled egg and cheese.
I started with one meal a day and then added more in probably after 2-3 weeks. His first meat was turkey on xmas day about 3 weeks in.
in terms of meals he has his own unless it's a roast dinner. if we are out I pick something he can share.
he is 7 and a half months now and goes to nursery so eats all sorts!

[PuppyMummy]

sorry, he took to it really well! I found he coughed a lot up to start with, once he got the hang of feeling bits in his mouth he got more confident.
he is now also good with a spoon for yoghurt or porridge. I load it and he puts it in!
Once they are finished its worth just checking their mouths as mine saves chunks like a hamster!!

[Redling]

Thank you! Did you cook the pepper at all or was it raw?

[PuppyMummy]

raw, I went with red as its quite sweet.
he is only really now starting to 'eat' things (I can tell with his poo!) before that most went into his mouth and out again.
he also liked fruit sticks like mango and watermelon.
I also offer him a sippy cup with water in, he plays with it, not sure he drinks any.

I have the blw book by Gill Rapley & tracy someone. it has a good list of easy first foods and what to avoid.

[AuntieMaggie]

My HV advised for the first few weeks to start with one type of pureed food once a day when they aren't hungry (between meals) for a couple of days then try some thing else - so carrot for a couple of days then apple the next few days etc. It apparently makes it easier to spot any obvious reactions and let's their bellies get used to it. Also HV said that because everything they have is sweet (amniotic fluid, milk and even medicines) try to get them used to more savoury and bitter tastes - they have to try a food something like 20 times before they get used to it. After a few weeks they can have most things apart from honey or anything with added salt.

I've been giving ds a mix of puree and sticks of food - I've pureed spinach, sprouts, blueberries and given sticks of raw courgette, apple, cooked carrot, broccoli. The puree stuff he can't get enough of and tries to do it himself though ends up chewing on the spoon but he also loves chewing on the whole stuff and swallows some and spits some out. I'm basically giving him what fruit/veg we have and am pureeing stuff that isn't so easy for him to hold for now.

I agree with checking cheeks - I was surprised how much ds still had in his mouth!

Just remember they don't eat that much at this age its about getting them used to food rather than filling them up as milk is still important.

[AuntieMaggie]

Oh and just strip him off if you can - makes cleaning up easier!

[MrsHerculePoirot]

I also just started with veg and fruit and toast for the first few weeks. I found mine would hold it and suck and then it would suddenly end up in their mouth and surprise thema. Having soft foods meant it then turned to mush between their gums and they could swallow it more easily. I don't think there is anything wrong with offering meats, but I found it seemed natural for me to wait until they had got some chewing action going or use really soft meat like lamb shank that sort of melts if that makes sense!

Our top foods to start were broccoli and cauliflower florets, cooked carrots, roast sweet potato/parsnip/potato batons, peeled pear cut into sticks, banana, mango, melon, raspberries. Toast with mashed avocado, humous, Philadelphia and peanut butter also went down extremely well!

BLW is brilliant fun - enjoy it!!!

[Eminybob]

We are just coming to the end of week 2 of BLW and have tried pretty much everything!
For tea I'll give him a bit of what we are having so he's had sausages, chicken, steak(!), and steamed and roasted veg. I'm eating healthier too as I'm really thinking about what I'm cooking and avoiding the salt.

Otherwise, the hits have been:
Cheese
Pear
Nectarine
Tomatoes
Jam on toast (use a sugar free brand like St Dalfour)
Rice cakes with homemade humous, cream cheese, but butter etc
Cucumber

And I've just this morning made banana pancakes:
1 ripe banana
1 egg
Handful porridge oats
Whisk up and fry - like american style pancakes, then cut into strips. They were yum, and went down really well with DS.

Been having a bit more trouble with the loaded spoon, he tends to pull the food off the spoon then put the wrong end in his mouth

Get an antilop high chair from ikea if you can, it's just the right size and shape for blw, and cheap as chips. And some sleeved bibs. I found the best are the terry cloth ones lined with plastic, with elasticated sleeves. The completely plastic ones I found a bit useless, you need something a bit absorbent.

There have been times where I have wavered and thought about switching to purees but you need to hold your nerve, it's a longer process but when you see your little one actually eat something for the first time it's worth it.

And remember - food before one is just for fun!

[AuntieMaggie]

Agree with the ikea high chair and sleeved bibs though ds manages to still get messy under them. And if you don't have a wipe able floor put something under the high chair.

I looked at the jars/pouches in the supermarket and couldn't find any single veg ones like broccoli - they're all mixed in with other things which strengthened my resolve as I want ds to know what veg tastes like!

[Redling]

Thank you! I've got the Antilop and sleeved bib already... Can you tell I'm excited?! We have wood floors downstairs and tiles in the kitchen so that's good! Might get a plastic tablecloth for the floor. Your foods and experience is exactly what I'm looking for Eminybob! And his Dad wants to get him on steak as soon as possible :) I know all babies are different but I hope he'll be happy eating. And I don't plan to reduce his milk feeds until I can see he's eating. I love cooking and planning new meals etc so I want him to have a good experience. I know nothing is a given but I can try.

[squizita]

Joining for ideas! :)

Also saw a thread mentioning iron/baby ricE. If I use baby vitamins I can just go with the flow? It seems to be the only potential gap if they don't eat much but drink all their milk. Ta!

[CornishYarg]

We started off with some of the vegetables from our roast dinner - roast potato and parsnip and some steamed carrot - so similar to what you're planning OP. I mostly just gave vegetables for the first couple of weeks while I gained some confidence. Then I started giving DS whatever we were eating and he became more interested in food.

Things I remember being popular early on were:
Toast fingers or cheese on toast
Loaded spoons of yogurt and porridge or Weetabix
Broccoli, baby corn, green beans, carrot, swede, courgette
Hard boiled egg
Chunks of cheese
Meat especially casseroled meat and strips of roast meat or steak
Pasta spirals
Cheesy lentil wedges from the BLW cookbook
Satsumas and strawberries (I remember DH and I hunting high and low for a strawberry because we were convinced he'd dropped it as it disappeared in seconds but he must have virtually inhaled it!)
Jacket potato (bit gross though as he used to gnaw away and eventually spit out the skin!)

With the mess, I found an ordinary bib which was fairly snug around the neck eg the bandana style ones, under a long sleeved bib worked well. The cloth bib protected his clothes from the food (normally yogurt) that sneaked between his chin and the neck of the long sleeved bib.

[Redling]

Thank you all, you've really reassured me that BLW works and that you can do this without purée or a strict timetable of introducing. It's all very well reading the book but seeing babies have successfully started eating real food at 6 months is such a help. I'm generally a laid back mother who trusts my instinct, but weaning is such a big step I really wanted to read up and ask advice, you've all made me feel very confident :)
Squizita I think I read that vitamin D is something to top up with BF as after winter a mothers reserves will be low too, so I'm going to try and give dairy from the beginning. It's a bit different as I FF so that's already fortified, but babies can be very low in vit D as they are always covered up from the sun. So the more the better :) if you ask an HV or in Boots they'll probably be able to tell you what the best supplements are. I'll be looking for vits once he's on cows milk and off FF. I used to love my Haliborange and try and sneak more than one!

[Hobby2014]

Joining for ideas!
Question though, if I made say spagbol, is he ok to have it how I make it, like oil in pain for mince, sachet of spices, chopped toms, spaghetti etc? Or is there too much sugar in the toms, no oil etc? Is there too much, ( any?,) salt in the sachet of spices?

[squizita]

Oils and fats are fine (not groundnut if allergy history perhaps). Salt might be the only issue. Some people say no spices but I can't find any medical reason for that bar chilli etc is too harsh for little tummies so normal herbs and non hot spices should be ok.

[CornishYarg]

The spag bol sounds fine as long as you check the salt content of the sachet of spices. You do need to be aware of salt content but don't get too worked up about it. Remember that they're probably only having a very small portion so a tiny proportion of the total salt content of the dish.

Herbs and spices are great although as said above, I would avoid lots of chilli! I used herbs and spices, pepper, lemon juice or tomato puree to make up for using less salt in things like casseroles.

[Redling]

My friends little girl loved Thai Green Curry at 12 months :) they used to mix yoghurt in her portion to make it mild. I'm planning to cook normal meals without salt and then add salt and chilli to ours :) herbs and non hot spices, the lot! See how he takes it though :) fats are good for them so oils would be fine I imagine.

[Eminybob]

While I'm on here, does anyone have any tips for the loaded spoon? He just can't seem to get the hang of it without it going everywhere but his mouth. No matter how I hand it to him he always grabs hold of the loaded bit, so it's all over his hands or fallen off the spoon and then if he does get the right end in his mouth there's nothing left on it!

So is there a knack or is it just practice?

And cornish can you provide the cheesy lentil wedges recipe? It sounds good

[CornishYarg]

Eminy I'm struggling to remember but I think DS just "got" loaded spoons fairly quickly. It was still messy obviously but no real tips I'm afraid.

The wedges from the BLW cookbook:

Put 225g of red lentils and 450ml of water in a pan. Bring to the boil and simmer for 10-15 mins, skimming off any froth occasionally, until soft and the water has been absorbed. Finely chop an onion and fry until soft.

Lightly grease a 9in cake tin. Mix the drained lentils with the onion and 100g grated cheese, 1sp dried mixed herbs, a beaten egg and 25g fresh breadcrumbs. Season with pepper (it needs a decent amount imo!). Press into the tin and bake for 30 mins at 190C. Allow to cool slightly then cut into wedges.

[AuntieMaggie]

squizita my HV said they don't need vitamins while they're still having milk

[Eminybob]

Thanks Cornish that looks brill.

[Redling]

Lentil wedges look great!

Does anyone cook using alcohol? I often use a bottle of beer in a steak casserole, or red wine in a Bolognese or stew, as these are cooked for a while and the alcohol cooked off, I don't see a problem, except it seems vaguely wrong?! Haven't found any bits in BLW book about it yet.

[squizita]

Auntie the issue is iron. It starts to wane in breast milk at 6 months but many kids don't eat much meat/egg yet. They need a lot (but not too much).

[AuntieMaggie]

squitza the HV definitely said no vitamins for the baby but mum should be taking vit d. And they can get iron from green veg like spinach which ds loved though I pureed it. I'll double check with hv next week.

[Eminybob]

Oh Redling I meant to say, I bought a book from Amazon called baby led weaning step by step and there is a meal planner in there for the first week which I got a lot of my ideas from