BLW - Greedy baby, need advise please

[PoppyAmex]

DD is 7 months 1/2 and we've doing BLW since 6 months.

She's doing really well both with food and with water/beaker, she enjoys self-feeding and loves the different tastes (a bit too much, actually).

The only problem is that if I give her choices, i.e. more than one piece of food at a time she will jam them ALL in her mouth hamster style and struggle to chew.

I've been circumventing this by putting one bit of food at a time on her tray, but feel this defeats the BLW principle as she won't be making "a choice", if you see what I mean?

Mind you, she doesn't actually choose anyway, as she'll eat literally everything and anything (apart from broccoli).

Any advice please?

[JollyJack]

She'll work it out eventually. If you keep facing her with the choice and she keeps struggling to eat she'll realise that eating one bit at a time is more sensible. Also, food will become slightly less new so she won't be quite so excited about tasting everything at once! And you need to be prepared to sit at the table for a long time so she is not worried about food being removed before she's finished, but I imagine you're probably doing that already.

DS was a bit like this and now he has definite likes and dislikes and prefers to eat one thing at a time. To the extent that spaghetti and bolognaise are separted before being eaten.

He still eats like a horse though.

[PoppyAmex]

Thanks for answering Jolly.

I just worry so much about choking that apart from knowing every single first-aid step I actually have my phone with 99 pre-dialed next to me when she's eating

So do you think I should just start offering her a few choices again and wait for her to figure it out?

It's reassuring to know your DS got over it though.

[JollyJack]

It's very unlikely that she'll choke. She will probably gag though. Which is totally normal. Choosing and manipulating food, Chewing and swallowing are new skills that your DD needs to learn.

I do think you should put a few things on her plate and she will soon suss it out.

Please calm down and stop worrying so much :)

[Wallison]

Do you eat with her? Only if you don't, maybe she just doesn't know how to eat ie to chew and swallow one mouthful before taking another. Tbh if she's eating everything anyway, I can't see the harm in only giving her a bit at a time. It might not be strictly 'blw' but that is only one way of going about things, and if it isn't working for you then adapting it so it does is only reasonable, to my mind.

[PoppyAmex]

Thanks, Jolly

Wallison, yes I eat with her and she has dinner with me and DH every night. We also make demented exaggerated chewing motions at her.

She chews each mouthful when I give her ONE finger of food, but if there's more than one bit on the tray she just shoves it all in! Like Jolly says it's as if she's scared it's going to vanish.

This is weird because I never clear her tray until after she pushes food out / gives signs she doesn't want anymore. In fact, even after she does this we always wait a bit and then give her the sippy cup.

Wallison I read that BLW babies are (to a certain extent) supposed to self-manage their diets through choosing some foods over others, but I guess it's early days and you're right there's no reason to be so stringent about it.

Thanks for putting my mind at ease guys.

[Wallison]

I understand the self-managing thing but do remember that at this age most of her nutrition will still be coming from milk - it's more about introducing different tastes and getting her used to chewing and swallowing. So I would think that maybe if she just needs a bit more practice with chewing and swallowing one or two bits of food at a timeand as long as it's a good variety of food then that's fine for now and you can always give her more once she's getting the hang of it - which she definitely will, eventually.