Anyone fancy joining me on a baby led weaning support/ tips/ sharing thread?

[WinkyisbackontheButterBeer]

We have just started and although I have read quite a lot it all goes over the same things and doesn't cover other questions.
It's all so new and exciting/ terrifying.
I wondered if anyone else would like a place to share experiences and recipes, ask daft questions and generally share the journey?

[FormerlyFrikadela01]

Oh i love the IKEA one. The cheapest one they do. The main reason i didn't get one of them is because obviously it doesn't fold so would have had to stay out and space is at a premium in my house. They also need to be properly sturdy sitting up when they use one otherwise they slide down.

And I'm not calling your mum a liar but people have a habit of misremembering things. My mum told me she had us all on 3 meals a day and 2 bottles of milk inbetween by 6 months. She admitted recently after having a menopause baby that she probably remembered wrong.

[FormerlyFrikadela01]

Even if you were weaned at 12 weeks babies still need the nutrition from milk. I've read that the main reason purees are pushed is leftover from the days of early weaning when obviously babies were on purees for longer because they couldn't cope with actual food.

[foxessocks]

Waves at afresh

Can I join you all? My ds is nearly 7 months and has been mostly blw for a month with a bit of spoon feeding yogurt and weetabix although up until yesterday I could barely get one spoonful into him. Last two mornings he has been much more receptive to a spoon so that's progress. From a finger good point of view we have just been offering whatever we are having. I also have a dd who is 3 so second time doing this but ds seems quite different. DD took to food very quickly and easily and dropped milk feeds quite fast. Ds was slower to pick it up but has started enjoying more foods now and his poo has changed so something must be going in! He still breastfeeds a lot during the day but only twice a night now which is quite good.

His favourite foods so far are toast, hot cross buns (you can tell this is my second baby I wouldn't have given dd anything that sweet yet oops!!) , Bread sticks and banana wafers (actual bananas he will have a tiny bit of but too slippery I will definitely be using the tip above !). He also likes potato, green beans and sweet potato oh and peppers.

[WinkyisbackontheButterBeer]

Thank you for the cup recommendations. I might try a few I think.
We have the joie mimzy snacker too. It was given to us so I didn't have to think about which highchair but it seems to do the job.

We had the most enormous poonami at 4 o'clock this morning. I could I'd have cried! Let's just say some of the food (especially green beans) must be going in.
It's sandwiches for me for lunch so will see how dd gets on with some French stick.
While I know that she can have most thinkgs I have to remind myself with less baby friendly sounding foods.

[WinkyisbackontheButterBeer]

Has anyone else's lo started having nighttime poos since starting weaning? We've had one after the 4am feed for the last 2 nights. It's an absolute pita as she's awake and unsettled for about an hour.

Part of me wonders if I'm offering too much too soon.
Yesterday she had French stick and some cheese at lunch.
Then some mash and baked beans at teatime.
This lunchtime some weetabix and banana.

Am I introducing different things too quickly or too much?

[MrsKCoulter]

Can I join? Doing BLW because my baby is not keen on being spoon fed!

Yes to poo disruption - more frequent and much more disgusting. But they reassure me that something's going in! Most of the food I give her gets dribbled out again. Anyone any idea when she'll get over this?

[WinkyisbackontheButterBeer]

We've had cucumber and crumpets the last few days. She loved the crumpets.
Left her with her dad yesterday and he whimped out of giving her any solid food so she just had milk all day.
Most of her dinner ends up in the floor too MrsK. How old is your lo?

I have become weirdly fascinated by her nappies.

[Cranb0rne]

Blueberries give the best nappies

[MrsKCoulter]

She's only just turned six months. But we've been giving her vegetable pieces for a couple of weeks as we couldn't hold her off any longer - she was getting too grabby!

[WinkyisbackontheButterBeer]

I forgot I'd started this thread.

Feeling a bit guilty today. We had nothing baby friendly in so dd has ended up having toast for her lunch. She also had beans on toast for tea last night as I have migrain and can't face the supermarket.
I need to find a way to be more organised.

It's ideal when what we're having is ok for her but this doesn't always happen. Also we eat too late on a night for her really. If it's anything after 5:30 she is past it.

Most of the problem is that I prepare things but she eats such a small amount of it that I end up chucking things after a couple of days.
Maybe the freezer is the answer.
Does anyone make and freeze things for blw? Was wondering if I could freeze fruit and precooked vegetables then just take out one portion?
Does anyone else do this or have any freezer friendly recipes?

[JugglingMum17]

My son is 11 weeks so I have a while to go until BLW. First child I did parent led and then let him explore but this baby I want to wait until 6 months mainly because I have loads to do and I want him to get used to the foods we eat.

Did you start with fruit and veg with BLW?

[WinkyisbackontheButterBeer]

yes, I did banana first then steamed carrot sticks.
Dd then helped herself to a load of stuff off my auntie's plate.
Haven't given her any meat yet but have yet to find anything that she doesn't like.

[DorotheaHomeAlone]

Hi OP, I did blw with my 2 and yes, the freezer is your friend. If we have roast chicken, bolgnaise, meatballs, chicken curry etc after they're asleep I pot up loads of small portions to freeze. We just add salt to ours at the table (although your tastebuds also adjust!).

If you're still in the early stages then don't get too hung up on things needing to look like a real meal. As long as you're chucking a decent mix of fruit, veg, carbs and protein at them over the day it's all good. A few roast potatoes from last night a lump of cheese and some avocado and (cut) cherry tomatoes is a meal for a baby! Scrambled egg is always a handy backup.

I do try to give a mix of grown up flavours and textures but I also don't worry about repeating some basic favourites to save effort. And microwave porridge, made thick and cooled with yoghurt, is my emergency plan b if everything has hit the floor that night.

Enjoy!!

[DorotheaHomeAlone]

If you're nervy about meat mince is a good starting point. So loaded spoons of bolognaise or a meatball they can pick up. It breaks down easily in their mouth compared to pieces of chicken or pork. Steamed fish (in the microwave from frozen pieces) also very popular here.

[WinkyisbackontheButterBeer]

DorotheaHomeAlone
Thank you for your reply. Mince us a really good idea.

[dontpokethebear]

Hi Op. I think at this stage, I wouldn't be worried about how much food is actually going in. It's all about exploring tastes and textures rather than nutrition.
Her main source of food should be milk until she is one. Don't try dropping any bottles at this stage.

It sounds as if you're well on your way though!

[WinkyisbackontheButterBeer]

dontpokethebear she is definitely well on her way and lives snack time. I just feel a bit bad that I haven't given her any fruit or veg or anything new for the last couple if days.

Does anyone know about freezing cooked veg? Or have any other bright ideas?

[dontpokethebear]

I freeze cooked veg. Saved my sanity! Actually I freeze everything apart from rice and meat that has been defrosted.
Frozen fruit such as melon was a God send when my lot were teething.

[WinkyisbackontheButterBeer]

Super, thank you.
I think I might have an afternoon of cooking, chopping and freezing. Definitely need to cut down the amount of waste.

[dontpokethebear]

Every week or so, I did a mass batch cook of different veg sticks and do little mixed bags. Just serve with scrambled egg, cheese, meat, whatever .
I'd only par cook them though, otherwise things like sweet potato just disintegrated when it was reheated.
Which reminds me, you can sprinkle the sweet potato with parmesan and stick in the oven for a few minutes, to melt. Yum.

[hiimmumma]

Hello!
Joining in.
My LO is 6.5 months.
So far BLW going well I think. Mainly just offering versions or bits of whatever I'm having.
Obviously fruit if going down a treat but savoury is a bit harder work.
He dosent seem to like me spoon feeding anything but happy to feed himself finger food. Just some stuff (sweet potato and similar) is hard for him to do that. He just gets in such a squishy mess. He then can't pick anything up because his hands are so slippery and he gets frustrated.
Any tips on how to get him to eat off a spoon?
Or ideas for finger foods..
There's a lot of food intolerances in the family so trying to avoid dairy and wheat if possible.
Also no teeth yet so that's not helping much.
Thanks!

[WinkyisbackontheButterBeer]

We realised today that dd has cut her first tooth. I feel a bit bad as I didn't realise it was coming through.
I had a batch cooking and chopping day today. Did a range of fruit
Potato croquettes
Pea, mint and potato patties
cheese, ham and spinach pancakes
Banana muffins and
Have portioned up and frozen the left over tomato pasta from tea.

Hi hiimmumma
My dd got frustrated with slippery food to start with but has become more dexterous with practice. I do find that drying off particularly slimy foods with kitchen roll helps.
She will not let us spoon feed her but will happily shove the spoon in her own mouth if I put the food on it. We just have to watch that she doesn't put it too far in.

Right, going to finish freezing what I have cooked and stop dh from eating any more of the croquettes.

[MrsKCoulter]

It's definitely all about having stuff prepared! I need to do some freezing too, good ideas. Best things here so far have been pancakes, porridge fingers with apple, and pasta - going to try pasta bake so it's not too slippery . My baby is getting a bit constipated though so taking it easy even though she does seem to be swallowing a lot more of it now and finding new ways to get it to her mouth!
Tried a bit of chicken yesterday which was nerve-wracking but she seemed to like it. She also accepted some lentils off a spoon which was a breakthrough!

[hiimmumma]

MrsK - my baby is getting constipated too. Is this normal?

I scaled it back about the past few days to help him get his guts in order. He went 3 days no poo then when it came it was really solid. Considering that he's not really decreased the amount of breastmilk he's taking I was a bit concerned...
Anyone had similar and know if it's normal?

[WinkyisbackontheButterBeer]

Sounds like it must be common. Dd went the opposite way initially but is now on day three of no poo.
The one in Saturday was epic though. My poor mum had to completely strip her off in the car.

She doesn't seem to be in any pain though. Just a bit trumpy. How long did you leave it before worrying?