To have a lot of questions about baby led weaning?

[lizzlebizzle33]

I have started blw with my 6 mo old, so far he has tried cucumber, pepper, toast and crumpets, eggy bread, chicken, banana and pineapple.
Well when I say tried I mean mushed around his face and hands and dropped on the floor.

I guess I'm just wondering what foods you tried your babies on first? What you found they really enjoyed.

How do you get over feeling they're going to choke on everything?

Do I have to steam Apple for him or is it ok just to give as it is?

And did you find that it was worth it or did you try blw and then end up giving baby food?

I think I'm just getting stressed at how little he's actually eating, whether it matters or not and how much food is being wasted on the floor.

(Well I say wasted, usually whatever he drops is my lunch, I'm circling like a dog 😂)

My now 4yo was babyled weaned and basically he was allowed to try anything off my plate (I don't cook with salt anyway).
His very first food at 5.5 months old was a prawn sandwich he nicked out of my hand halfway through a breastfeed. There was very little I didn't let him try after that, Just don't cut the pieces too small, they're fine sucking on slices of raw apple.
Some favourites right at the beginning were :
Steamed asparagus
yoghurt (eaten with the hands, fabulously messy)
Steamed carrot sticks
Thai veg curry (with extra coconut milk added to make it less hot)
Anything on Mummy's plate.

You do need to watch them, but for the first few months it's all about having fun and experiencing the different tastes and textures.

I tried BLW with my second but he was losing so much weight that I ended up spoon feeding him some food as well - not really purees as I never pureed anything. He had finger foods from the start and just ate what we did with a few adaptations.

You can read up on it - Gill Rapley book on BLW and Annabel Karmel on purees and finger foods. Both claim your kids will turn into awful fussy eaters or choke and die if you follow the other's method. Its all very commercialised which makes the whole thing difficult. Personally I would do some reading and pick and choose which bits work for you.

Please read this on the 'food before one is just for fun' myth. It's really important that babies 6 months and older get all the nutrition they need, some of which only food can provide.

http://breastfeedingwithoutbs.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/bullshitometer-food-before-one-is-just.html?m=1

Just on the terminology. Traditional weaning methods have always involved finger foods as well as purees. For this reason, there is no such thing as a mix of BLW and traditional weaning. You are either weaning or you are BLW. This sounds trivial but it is quite annoying when people bang on about how wonderful they are for BLW and how terrible traditional weaning is when they ARE traditionally weaning.

I weaned using purees and finger foods myself and why anyone would put themselves through the pain in the arse of feeding Weetabix, yoghurts etc on loaded spoons I do not know. BLW advocates seem to think parents are too thick to know when their child is full. (The pursed lips, face turned in the other direction and hand knocking the spoon away are good clues) I was accused of force feeding my child 'mush' in the early days of weaning because I used purée well no because I'm in tune with my baby and actually I think spoon feeding does wonders for developing communication between parent and child. Rather than chucking a handful of blueberries on the high chair tray and leaving them to it while you wash the dishes.

Anyway I could bang on about this all day but to sum up - babies need food, just because BLW is trendy doesn't mean it is all positive. Use your instincts.

Bldg did exist 14 year ago so I fed puree,bananas,papaya,sweet potato turnips.They only have a couple of spoonfuls then top up with milk.I just let the purees get lumpier,then just mashed what we were having,gave her her own spoon once she started grabbing my hand to bring the food to her quicker.Sheaving apple slices(leave the peel as this stops it breaking off),bread and butter fingers and using her own spoon by 1( an sometimes getting it in her mouth).At this age they are explorin he world through their mouth so a good time to give them a try on lot of different things.
I stopped taking baby food out with me as soon as I realised she loved bread and soup just very bad at waiting for it to be cool enough.
How sound good but until they can use a spoon they miss out on a lot of different flavours.

As for the amount of food on the floor..... Well, BLW is more of a mess, can't deny that! To be honest, if the food was salvageable on the floor at home, I would pick it up and give it back to mine. Clearly, my floors at home are a reasonable level of cleanliness and they are all day picking up toys off the floor and putting on their mouths at 6 months. . . .

Just do a bit of everything. I found a really handy way of not getting confused about it was to invent a brand new terminology which was called 'Weaning In Our House'.

I gave them finger foods to chew and play with and suck. Hard stuff, soft stuff, things like roasted spears of parsnip which had a fairly robust outer coating but which would soften up on sucking and bits would go in.

I'd give a bowl of plain yoghurt and a spoon and let them get on with that themselves.

I'd sometimes load a spoon and give it to them and see how well they did.

I'd let them get a bowl of porridge and hands in and suck the hands. Haha.

I'd make sure that for main meals there would be a mix of these things so that for everything that got sucked and nothing was eaten, there would be something which went down. This from about 7 months, when they were starting to want to eat stuff, be hungry instead of just messing.

If they seemed to be getting frustrated with not getting stuff in, I'd help - load a spoon and offer to let them get a good mouthful. Avoiding too much frustration when clearly hungry was always a good option it seemed - it was a short road to hungry baby losing it at lack of actual food going in and the tears starting. But if they were happy with it, I'd leave it.

It changed every couple of weeks as they grew and their abilities changed, and 'favourite' foods got more obvious. (That's what makes me most about the 'philosophy' aspect of weaning methods - surely they just bloody change and develop ALL THE TIME so a responsive weaning process hopefully just meets the needs you see emerging?!)

I reckon the only really important things are :

• bring in as much varity in taste and texture as you can so they (hopefully) are encouraged to be unfussy;

• let them get on with as much of it on their own as possible so it's fun and play and they learn more themselves;

• watch and interact so that it's even more fun and they don't choke badly.

Oh and food on the floor - yes to cheap shower curtain under the high chair!

if they don't seem to like the taste puree a bit to get them used to it.remember its the first time.all these new falvours can be daunting to some ,palette so don't give in.
do a mixture of both.but work with what you have in your own meal.so mash potato.give him some of yours.if your have broccoli.do the same for him.this is also helpful for them being able to copy how its done.
we also tried when she struggled for her to put it in our mouths.then do the same now mummy tried.
boiled and and soldiers.
use the enthusiastic voice.yes I said it.ge tthem excited.
don't panic.dont show fear.they will sense it
be with them at all time.
don't make a big thing of it.its about rying to get them into a noral routine after all.so don't make meal time into a spectacal.so don't focus in on them if they're being tricksy. but make it nice for them too.its a balance.

Not sure I see the point in BLW personally. I gave DD a mix of puréed and finger foods and she was happy enough.

I found a dog the best way to deal with food on the floor

I didn’t give foods that were difficult to chew before they turned one. Maybe I was being paranoid but I was very fearful of them choking. So no apples, pears etc.

I would give similar things to you but also after about 9/10 months introduces a spoon and showed them how to use it for things such as porridge, puréed fruit and yogurt.

DC3 ended up mostly being breastfed for the first year, she wasn’t overly keen on food.

Sighhhh
Personally the only difference I think for weaning is giving finger foods straight away.
It's definitely preference for mum/baby.
We did blw and I'm glad we did as meant easier mealtimes, coordination improved the downside is of course the mess that comes with letting them have a free for all.
No one can say how things will be different for each kid but just go with what your comfortable with.
My kid was ff and ate OK and my friend bf and her baby boy always preferred boob 😂 just go with the flow

Hey there. Firstly there is a brilliant Facebook Group called Baby Led Weaning UK - highly recommend heading there. They have lots of information, photos, safety stuff and recipes! They also have all the links to research on BLW on there along with how BLW is safe too. Also the community is lovely and are great at answering questions or for just sharing ideas.

We BLWd DS who is now 11 months. We found it great as it just meant we didn't have to go to any extra effort for his food or feed him whilst our dinner went cold. It was nice sharing our meal times with him. One of his first meals was Roast Dinner, beef and all. We jumped straight into all foods, including chillis and curries. I think I had it easier though as I'd seen my niece be BLW (she is 6 months older than DS) and we also attended a baby first aid course which taught us about what to do if a baby is choking (hasn't happened for us yet - touches wood )

The point of BLW is that the baby weans themselves at their own pace - as long as you are introducing lots of different textures and flavours then your baby will get a good idea of all types of food. Milk plays a top role before 1 and as long as weight gain is good then don't worry about what they are actually eating .Also, BLW is meant to give positive food associations too. You are still at very early stage!

You'll see your baby go through many stages during weaning. DS was more interested in broccoli or other finger foods at first as they were easy to pick up. Then he went onto peas and raisins as he enjoyed practicing his pincer movements and then from 10 months his favourite food is anything that requires a spoon or fork as he loves practising his cutlery skills.

The NHS page actually has good basic information too: www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/solid-foods-weaning/#how-to-start-solid-foods
They state on there how letting the baby go at their own pace and exploring foods themselves in important.

DS just had what we had (I reduced the salt content significantly) and I didn't worry about how much he ate. By 1 he had a good appetite and was ready to move to cow's milk once or twice a day :)

With DS2, he'd hold a broccoli floret or whatever, then suck the thumb of the same hand, iyswim? We tried purees for a few weeks, then tried again with BLW. He's fine now at 6.8! 😂

Yes forgot to mention I mainly did it because I couldn't be bothered making separate food for DS.

I traditionally weaned all five of mine and they turned out fine. I know 2 horror stories of blw and just couldn’t do it. Do what you feel
Comfortable with. It’s a short phase In the grand scheme of things.

RedKen
We did blw and I'm glad we did as meant easier mealtimes, coordination improved

What do you think is difficult about getting a stick blender out? And what coordination is improved?

Seriously, the way some blwers go on, you'd think that feeding a puree to a baby involves 8 hours worth of prep/cooking and then tying baby's hands behind their back whilst force feeding them. 🙄

Traditionally waned both my kids. Both started with purée and finger foods and by 7 months all purée was replaced by whatever the rest of us where eating. Using purée dies not mean they will be stuck on it or turn to fussy eaters like many who BLW would have you belive.

Aw hun 😘

I'm doing a mixture of both currently. Also I recently did a children's first aid course. The tutor was not a fan of BLW due to the risk of choking.

We did main meals as spoon fed so she was getting g something g. Dessert snack etc were BLW. Now she's nearly ten months a d doing great so it's all BLW. She has preety much anything. Fish is her favourite

I did a mixture with my 4dc. My reasoning was that food comes in a variety of textures including soup and mashed potato/veg so that's what I did. IMO giving a young baby a chunk of steak to chew is odd. Slow cooked in a casserole with some veg seems to make much more sense at least they can chew and swallow it and get some goodness from it.
But each to their own.

I did blw 9 years ago, and really enjoyed it. Basically carried on giving DD milk as normal, and chopped up what we were eaten and shoved it on a plate for her. So strips of chicken, steamed broccoli, carrots, beans chips etc. She loved it, and still really likes her veggies to this day. It's really easy, but forces you to cook and eat food that can be cut into strips - no rice, soup etc. I like it because there was a good link between 'broccoli looks like this, and tastes like this'. DD now 10 has a great appetite, eats loads of fruit and veg, and I've never had to hide it in her food. The only downside is that she has really terrible table manners! Give it a go OP, but don't go to a massive effort to create stuff, it's just dispiriting when they lob it around.

Mine wouldn't let a spoon anywhere near their mouth once teething. Ended up BLW by default. All 3 of mine were the same at this stage. Now they are grown up they have completely different likes and dislikes - eg one won't eat potatoes, one likes smooth mash, one likes lumpy mash - so I don't think it makes any difference.