blw - what things can she have?

[BigBoPeep]

I've successfully managed to keep both grannies at bay until now but as the big 6mo looms there is mounting excitement about being able to give her 'little bits of this/that'...

Now, for me lazy I'm happy to keep her ebf as long as possible. She still seems so young? Can't believe I was being spoonfed etc at 4mo! I'd happily give her a bit of banana to give her something cool to play with and taste but as for food, I'm happy breastfeeding. But The Grannies are so desperate I'm going to throw them a bone and let them give her stuff - but apart from banana, what stuff can she have? avocado? I don't eat bread. I don't want them giving her custard creams!

What exactly is baby rice etc? Should i let them spoonfeed her for fun? I really know nothing about baby nutrition, milk all the way for me til much later!

From 6mo, the dc have just eaten with us. No whole nuts, no honey and make sure grapes are cut in half, watch salt content etc but there's no reason not to include dc in family meals from the beginning. DD's first meal was a roast, DS had cottage pie.

She can't have nuts or honey but there's not much else that's banned after six months

If there are allergies in the family that can affect things though.

toast fingers were a great first finger food! Pasta, roast or steamed veg, strips of meat, pieces of soft fruit, etc are all good finger foods

blimey! I just look at my ickle wee baby (not really - she's well over 20lb lol) and just can't imagine her eating FOOD food!

go easy on toast, a couple of slices are I think over their daily allowance of salt!

mince is one of the hardest textures to get to grips with so leave that for a while

anything else really - grapes and cherry tomatos I cut in half at first, avocado slices are handy, oat cakes

MrsLettuce where is the nut thing from? I thought the most recent research said that the earlier they were introduced the better?
I'ld still avoid most peanut butters (not nuts, lagumes anyway) because of added salt but I'ld give almond or cashew butter. And Cashews are nice and soft

DS loved baked salmon when we were BLW (if only he'ld eat it now! )

And the grannies will beam when she is sitting in her high chair eating a roast dinner ! Just give her whatever you are having (good opportunity to cut back on salt though) and let her sort it out herself. Noodles are fun

Avoid honey and anything that could be a choking hazard (nuts, sweetcorn at first etc) but apart from that they can eat anything really...DD has just had beef stew with mashed potato and asparagus for tea because it's what DH and I were having-she wolfed it down!

(Oh, just don't add salt to cooking.)

this really is going to please the grannies!

The things she shouldn't have are the things you shouldn't have when pg and also honey. Watch salt, then go for it. DD has had chicken, mash and peas for tea followed by homemade smoothie ice lolly - yoghurt much easier to handle when frozen (this had mango and peaches mashed in too ). Peas and sweetcorn fantastic for fine motor skills!

Step away from the baby rice! You can do it!

First foods banana, strawberries, pineapple, mango (leave skin on for easy holding), avocado (ditto), pasta (spaghetti particularly easy to hold surprisingly) just plain or with tomato sauce, pesto, cheese sauce (try blending with spinach), bolognaise pulsed in the blender, spoon dipped in yogurt for baby to hold not Granny, roasted carrots, parsnips, piece of cheese (found very thin slices better than a chunk), pitta strips (can spread with cream cheese, hommous, nut butter), strip of chicken (chew on rather than actually swallow at first), big flake of white fish or salmon, scrambled egg or omelette, ripe pear, nectarine/peach, broccoli or cauli florets,

I did end up spoon feeding porridge and yogurt, but I needn't have bothered really. Try the plum baby spelt porridge rather than lacking in nutrition baby rice if you feel the need. But milk is the only food for months yet - but they enjoy tasting everything and their hand eye coordination is vastly superior when they self feed IME. Have fun!

Ignore baby rice. It is like wallpaper paste for filling up babies of impatient patents who are desperate for them to sleep/grow up. It has no significant nutritional benefit.

The nut thing is about chocking.

i just pureed what we where having at the time i don't add salt to food anyway and make most stuff from scratch (cause it saves money )

i blw with both of mine and now i have trouble spoon feeding my one year old as she wants to do it herself

remember if your dc turns their nose up don't make an issue but cone back to it in a few weeks its amazing how many things they change their mind about in a short time

good luck

The fun stage begins! Like other posters have said, the sky's the limit. Eggs must be fully cooked as well, so no dipping bread soldiers yet! My DDs just ate what we ate when I did blw, with their portions taken out before adding salt.

Good luck and have fun!

ok she had a piece of cooked carrot and use an interesting smush-it-into-the-table-top-and-suck-it-off technique and when she finally got a good mouthful, spat it back out with a look of horror and pasted it over her head. Great entertainment value!

what is it with grannies and giving them food?? MIL has been trying to give DS bits of food for ages, and making slightly mocking remarks about him having to wait for his carrot sticks as he isn't six months yet. I know they weaned us early but why the obsession with it?

Woohoo i'll be starting blw in a few weeks too! Also should have seen mil face drop the other day when I said ebf will be her main food for ages. Had to pick her jaw off the floor. Cow

It's all about them wanting to take the DC for a night/weekend/ever... anyway sorry to hijack BigBo, the carrot sounds amusing. We're starting blw today, can't wait for the smushing and licking and spitting to begin.

Just marking my place as I want to reread all these fantastic tips! Bopeep I am going to be starting the same thing in a couple of weeks. Dd3 is 5 and a half months,she grabbed a potato wedge off my dinner plate last night while I was chatting with dh! Good luck!

With my first I looked up the best foods and she had her own stuff made for her... after that I just chucked her (babies 2 & 3) what we were having. We don't even keep salt in the house so it was never a concern for us. Spag bol is a favourite BLW first food! I got told I cheated because I used spirals, but they've loved spaghetti too.

As for if she's ready, my eldest (who oddly was the earliest born) was ready bang on 6 months and ate like it was what she was born to do. My second wasn't even able to sit until 7 months, tasted stuff but didn't properly eat until 10 months and even then she preferred to breastfeed until about 22 months. My third started around 7 months (which is 6 months by her corrected age) when she just started to steal food and managed to wolf down more than her sisters by stealing it from their plates! She's 15 months now and still eats more than the pair of them put together, we often buy two meals if we're out just so they can eat her left overs!

no problem on hijacking it is a bit annoying, i hear about little else from the grannies thesedays...

what about drinks? can she have one of those teaty cup things with some water maybe? i'm in a little bit of a panic now because in 2wks i will have to go do a 2hr early shift and if she's in the mood for suckling and doesnt get it from daddy she will scream blue murder the whole 2hrs!! i dont own a pump, have never expressed etc. she CAN go 5hrs without food and does for a couple of hours while i work from home every day but this will be me AWAY, like, properly!!

Hello, can I ask a quick question too? With blw do you start with one meal a day and gradually build up to three meals?

PS BoPeep when I leave my 5 month old with DH and DMIL for a morning or afternoon she doesn't seem to ask for milk - she just waits until I am home and has a good feed then, so maybe your dd will be ok if you aren't around?

I tended to just give a bit on something I had rather than focus on one meal. If anything the evening meal was the fist main meal for the first few weeks

Would go something like
Breakfast: offered bit of my porridge ( eventually had own), and chunk of banana to chew/ play

Lunch: piece of my bagel and some avocado

Dinner: main meal of day same as us, but generally a few veggies, some meat/ fish, and carb of some sort

Started at 6months, I would say by 8 month I was giving 3 meals a day, by a year he was feeding himself fairly neatly from a bowl with spoon/ fork

I always put food in bowl/ plate rather than just on highchair/ table as some do, just to teach earlier that the food should go there and save me having to teach now

See how they go. At the start they might get most of it on their high chair/in their hair/on the dog so I'd offer something two/three times a day. How much hosing down can you face . When they're actually eating more you can bother about the timings. Remember that once you start you probably won't get away with them seeing other people eat without feeding them something though .