A little bit of blw advice please

[lunavix]

We are starting next week, is there anything particularly good to start with, and anything to avoid (particularly choke-wise)

How soon do you roughly start offering a mix of foods, eg toast and topping, or pasta and sauce, as opposed to just some lightly steamed veg or banana?

And what about how often during the day? I know it's when they show an interest, but I'm sure not everyone started offering 3 meals a day?

[AitchTwoOh]

we started a few days before the 26 week mark because dd launched herself at a peach i was eating while she was sitting on my knee, and after that we offered her steamed veggies like carrot and broccoli to play with. tbh dd has never really liked toast with a topping other than butter, if you give her hummous or cream cheese she just picks it off. but every baby is different.

i know that the great thing about blw is that they can eat what you're eating, but in actual fact i think dd was on steamed veggies (jersey royals i remember cos they were in season) and fruit for a good while, say a few weeks. yes, this was from our plates if we were eating it but if we were having moussaka then we just gave her some veg separately. we also gave her cucumber and celery to gnaw on.

personally i'd avoid raw apple as it did make dd choke when a bit broke off. but you can steam it. banana is good but can cause constipation and is also a bit tricky to hold in the beginning. have a look at the first month foods on the blog for geey desciptions of all of this. she was also a big fan of roast chicken then, and still is. and don't forget rice cakes as well, very handy for when you're on the move.

with regards to the amount of food, we kept it separate from milk and made sure she never ate when she was hungry, iykwim? it was most convenient to give her something after her breakfast milk (before she got dressed) and then maybe something at about 4ish. if we were out, then a rice cake and some steamed carrot sticks and maybe a bit of cheese did the trick. tbh i think it took us til about 11 months to remember to do the three meals, becasue she often napped when we were eating and we are terribly lazy, rubbish parents.

i was what happened about the rusk, btw... hopefully dh will change his tune when he sees your baby tucking in. i do pmsl when i hear dh extolling the virtues of blw to his pals...

[CorrieDale]

We started with lunch - all very formal and camera-at-the-ready-ish! High-chair, bib, harness, and well-steamed broccoli & carrot. Next time, I think we'll be adopting Aitch's more casual approach!

We did lunch for two weeks, then brekkie & tea for 2 weeks, then all three. The only reason we waited two weeks before adding meals was that the gagging was quite tiring for DS and we didn't want him to feel overwhelmed by the whole weaning experience. But that only lasts a month or so - maybe it would have been shorter if we'd been less cautious.

We did a variety of veggies to begin with, then fruit, then quickly moved onto well-cooked pasta, toast, etc. I think you can take your child's lead with variety, as well as with timings. Some kiddies take to it like ducks to water, some are less keen. You won't know until you try.

Incidentally, if your DH thinks that BLW is hippy nonsense, I'd start prepping him now for the gagging. It freaked us out a bit, and we were thoroughly on board. For the first few meals, we had fixed nonchalant smiles pasted on, and adopted children's presenter voices as we encouraged DS through the unusual sensation of swallowing lumps!

[catrin]

Was v crap and disorganised so found mid afternoon-ish easiest time to try and give dd food. I didn't introduce a second/third meal until she wanted to eat once a day happily - for about 3 weeks, once a day was fine, she wasn't that bothered. When she got established eating once a day (which turned out to be lunch!) she refused milk and went on to do this with all her meals, so I was keen to hold back on 3 meals anyway as the milk is more important.

Dd loved fruit and veg, separately at first till i figured out (paranoid 1st time mum?) if she liked/hated/was allergic to anything. Pear was her first food and remained a favourite for ages. Once she got the hang of it, I literally just gave her whatever was in the fridge.
IIRC she was eating pretty much anything (eg porridge for breakfast, veg omelette for lunch, pasta with sauce for tea) by 8 months. She never choked on anything, but would not put big bits of anything in her mouth, spat out anything too large.

[ohsmellyjelly]

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[catrin]

Baby led weaning

[ohsmellyjelly]

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[TrinityRhino]

I know my dd3 is only 10 days old but the whole puree weaning thing that |I dfid wiht my other two IMHO is p[art of wqhy they are fussy eaters
not because they weaned on puree but because of the WAY that I did it

I would love to be more casual about it BUT

is there always gagging?? I am an emetophobe and may not be able to deal with that
dd1 was on 4 month baby food jars till she was 2 cause she gagged on a lump in a 7 month jar and I freaked soooo much that I didn't try it again
I know.....hang me, I'm a very bad mum
BUT I think I could cope with it now but not if it's constant perhaps, not sure, obviously plenty of time to think about it before she is 26 weeks

[TrinityRhino]

sheesh thats typing cod would be proud of

[lunavix]

how long does the gagging last for? That will probably work against with dh...

and what size pieces are best offered? I would have thought pieces eg 3or 4 cm for veg but should it be bitesized? I would have thought bitesized would be worst for choking?

[lunavix]

I think dd will be eating at mealtimes, simply because we have mealtimes due to ds... she doesn't have regular milk times though so may need to wing it lol.

[DizzyBint]

dd did gag a fair bit for the first month. but because i knew the gagging was a good thing ie to stop herself choking i was very calm about it. after that first month she didn't gag at all, except on things like cabbage which she finds stick to the roof of her mouth. but she can now dislodge things very easily with her tongue or hand. all we did during a gagging episode was to smile at her and do loud chewing noises and chewing faces like ..'nyam nyam nyam' iyswim!

[DizzyBint]

things should be bigger than bite sized at first so they can hold the thing and have enough stuck out to eat. they then tend to take a bite, can't figure out how to eat the bit stuck in their fist, so they drop it and get the next thing. then they figure out how to use two hands, how to move food from hand to hand etc, so they can finish a whole thing. eventually they can pick up tiny scraps, peas and things...then you know their body is capable of eating small things without choking.

[DizzyBint]

oh..and... we didn't introduce things like at one particular time of the day. it was more like every time we ate, we offered her something. but at that time she would take an hour over one thing (a plum for example) so we'd eat dinner, she'd play with a plum. then as she got better at the eating bit, we handed more food over, and more combinations of things. so it wasn't like ok this week we will give her lunches, it was like ok i'm eating breakfast, here have half a banana to play with. now i'm having lunch...have some potato, now it's dinner time..have some broccoli. then it moved on to..have a bit of bread from my sandwich..have some of this veg out of this lasagne....now it's here's a whole sandwich to yourself, and a whole portion of lasagne. she's 9 months next week.

[DizzyBint]

right i'll shut up now!

[lunavix]

No DB that's fab.

When you started did you offer every time you saw her eyeing stuff up, or just once a day and progress?

[lunavix]

Also with things like lasagne is it hands only, or do you offer a spoon? (for them to use??)

[colditz]

I offer a spoon with everything, but he's having none of it! So lasagne would be a hands on experience.

Which is why I haven't cooked it for months, probably.

[colditz]

When I first started I just used to dump a load of 'dinner bits' on his highchair tray and watch what he did.

[DizzyBint]

lasagne is with hands yes. i don't amke it very wet IYSWIM. and we don't eat meat, so it's just the cheese sauce that gets a bit messy but she loves it. she loves the texture of the sheets of pasta and just laughs her head off through the whole meal.

i give her a spoon to bang about for things like porridge. she has one, i have one. i load mine, give it to her. she drops hers, i load that one up, and so it goes on. she manages to eat a fair bit that way. but she's no where near scopping things up herself with it. her best technique for sloppy things is to just shove her hands into it and then lick her hands. i make the porridge thick so she can grab quite big lumps of it.

[CorrieDale]

When DS had yogurt, we loaded up the spoon and gave it to him.

Trinity, I wouldn't worry too much about the gagging. It didn't seem as though DS was going to be sick - it was more as though he had a lump stuck and was coughing it out. Poor little chap's eyes would be streaming and he'd be wondering why his doting parents were just nodding and smiling and cheering him on, instead of helping him out! As long as he was breathing, we left him to it. After a few days, we started to see the funny side, though my mother never did! And, to be fair, nor did DS

[colditz]

Ds2 loves baked beans, strangely. he had peas for the first time today (but ds1 hates them which is why I don't bother with them) and he pounced on them with glee! I was truly amazed, after raising ds1 who, although not fussy, gags on peas, beans and sweetcorn and always has.

[DizzyBint]

did you see farm of fussy eaters on tv over the last few weeks? there was a guy on there, in his 20s, who still gags on lumpy food.

[AitchTwoOh]

dd has peas all the time, colditz, because they are the easiest way to cool down hot food. [lazy]
that, and keeping her bowls in the freezer.

TR and Luna, i reckon the gagging completely went after a month, and in all she probably choked once or maybe twice and gagged, say, fifteen or maximum twenty times altogether. it was a bit disconcerting the first time, but you very quickly see that they're actually getting better at gagging, iykwim, so it doesn't bother you. and we adopted the 'childrens' tv presenter' approach as well, with lots of nyum nyum noises. in fact, nyum nyum is now what dd says when she's hungry...

[lunavix]

Very interesting, thanks guys

[Wallace]

Not read all replies, but we are 6 weeks (i think) in to blw, and still haven't bothered giving breakfast. Just can't be bothered really He has eaten quite a range of foods from the start, just has what we're having mostly.

Somebody asked about gagging. I think it depends on the baby. Ds2 has only gagged a few times.

I'm pretty sure also that BLW has made his fine motor skills develop faster than they may have otherwise - must be greed that drives the development. He can pick up small bits of food and is really getting the hang of this pincer grip thing