To ask you what your baby's first food was??

[ethelfleda]

DS is 5mo and we are going to start weaning at 6mo. He is already showing a big interest in food and is showing all other signs of being ready so want to try as soon as he is old enough.

I like the sound of BLW and maybe a bit of spoon feeding as well but.. well where do I start? Offering food just once a day? And should I put a few different finger foods in front of him or let him try one at a time? How did you wean your baby?

As you can probably guess by my tone, I am a first time mum so I have no idea where to start!

Of course the OP can feed her baby how she chooses. It’s just that there is a lot of confusion over babyled Weaning. I’ve weaned 2, the first one the tradional way and at 6 months he was having purees and sone finger foods, we called it Weaning .

Number 2 was a complete spoon refuser so had to quickly get my head around BLW. BLW does have proven benefits but isn’t for all babies. My first was hungry and lazy and just wanted us to shovel in the purees as quickly as possible.

Mashed banana. Carrot and potato.

We weaned at 5 months with fruit at lunch and veg in the evening.

A chip.

When he was 5 months old my mum gave DS a chip to suck on, he loved it!

Nothing ridiculous about giving them actual food and letting them stop when they want. I find spoon feeding mush until the jar/bowl is empty a bit

Baby rice, then Home made veg purées with the first.
The second was 11 weeks old when his big sister fed him a quaver

Thanks HaveBrillo you’ve put it much better than me. It’s the term I was pointing out was wrong, not the method . Great username too

I was thinking of putting some finger foods in front of him and maybe loading up his spoon with a little mash and let him pick it up himself. Maybe that's naive? But we have been giving him a spoon to play with at meal times when we eat and he always picks it up and puts the right and in his mouth so I figured he may be ok with us doing that. Having said that... If we out the spoon anywhere near his face he opens his mouth for us to 'feed' him even though there is nothing on it!

*the right end

And apologies for incorrect terminology. Have only just started reading about weaning

I think my DS had mashed avocado. And sweet potato the next day. We quickly moved on to finger foods though as he wasn’t a huge fan of spoon feeding.

DD is nearly 6 months so I’m starting when we get back from holiday next week. Am debating what her first food should be.

I’m in the US and blw is definitely less common here. Most of my friends weaned on purées with increasing chunks. They were both horrified and amazed to see my DS eat a sandwich at 8 months

@ethelfleda I think that's a great approach, basically what we did.
Held a loaded spoon out with mash on and within 2 weeks they could grab the spoon and feed themselves no problem. Now at nine months starting to learn how to load it themselves.

Everything else was just finger food on the tray and they got gradually better so now can pick up small things like raspberries, pasta pieces etc.

I know the thread has moved on but ds1 had Chinese dumpling first. Mil popped it into his mouth much to my horror. He was 5 months and I was v v precious about his diet.
However from there we moved onto purée veg and fruit for a month then purée food that we were eating. He had finger foods along side this. But mostly he was still getting the majority of his nutrition and calories from milk food was supplemental.

Ds2 we were much more relaxed.

Soft cooked veg, as finger food, from 7 months old, toast fingers, breadsticks, melon, banana, and after that basically anything we eat.

I can't praise BLW enough! I loved it for my little girl. Her first food was sweet potato wedges and roasted peppers.
I love that they can experiment and eat/suck what they want rather than a spoon being shoved in their mouth over and over. It's great for co-ordination and I think it's great for their learning to experience different textures.
I actually thought it was less work that doing purées as well!

We did blw it was messier than purée but a lot easier. Happy to report at 10 they are both fine with table manners!
We followed the standard book that has been mentioned. Veg, fruit, bread sticks I remember being popular.

I just KNEW there'd be a BLW purist on before long! grin Katie Kirby has a hilarious bit on this in Hurrah for Gin.

There's always one.

Gillian Rapley is a fucking marketing genius in persuading people that BLW is somehow totally different to what mums have been doing for generations.

OP, just feed them real food like you're eating yourself. Puréed, mashed or not, whatever you're comfortable with.

DS's first food was a bit of squashed banana. It blew his little mind.

Laurie have you actually read a single thing I’ve posted on this thread?

No apology needed @ethelfleda

Whatever you do decide, just take lots of photos

Just because it's handy to know... Bananas have a natural seam. Push your finger in an end and it will split in 3 unsticky fingers perfect for little hands

She spat out baby rice but wolfed downash banana.She also liked swede,mango.I sed to puree stuff and put it into icecube trays.The only thing I wouldn't recommend are sprouts pureed.I was not to proud to use jars but not until she was a bit older as they eat only small amounts at first.
Also this is where all her clothes developed an orange tinge around the neck no matter how much vanish was used.

@GlitteryPoop I misinterpreted your original post I apologise didn't realise you were replying to someone who said the whole family should eat the same meal then proceeded to say she puréed everything 🙈

Laurie have you actually read a single thing I’ve posted on this thread?

I think you contributed the (always tedious) 'that's just weaning, not BLW', correct? I've heard that a million times on here and I've no truck at all for all the 'rules' that turn finger foods into BLW.

The basics of the method are totally sound (eating what you eat) but no need to dress it up like it's anything more than it is.

Like I say though, fair fucks to Rapley, I wish I'd published that book.

Here's the Katie Kirby piece, which (as ever) captures my thoughts far better than I could ever do myself.

hurrahforgin.com/2013/10/17/baby-led-weaning-a-little-rant/

We did "purist" BLW with DD (now 8). The first things she ate were some courgette and carrot sticks (cooked) and broccoli. I don't think BLW stops kids from using cutlery as parents introduce a fork and/or spoon for them to use once they're eating quite well so about 1yo.
As a "purist" it does annoy me when people say they are BLW but spoon feed their child or do a mix as it completely loses the point of it.

Chips.

I didn't do it

I thought I would do blw, really liked the idea of it. DD had other ideas, she hated getting food on her fingers, she hated trying to chew without teeth.

She made it quite clear she wanted what I was having, but mushed up, on a spoon. So that's what I gave her.

Steak just before 6 months, sat on my lap and DD had swiped it as I was nattering I hadn’t noticed until MIL pointed it out to me