Starting to wean (BLW)

[Northernmama123]

So my LO is 22 weeks and I've had the go ahead from my HV to try her with solids.
She's suggested avocado or cooked sweet potato and I'm definitely all geared up for BLW.

I have lots of recipes and have read tons about it but I just wondered if anyone had any suggestions/ideas of what to give her in the early days? Exciting times :)

Hi,

I did BLW with my two a while back and I used to go onto a BLW page with a forum on it that was very helpful for ideas. Also, I had this very useful book by Gill Rapley.

From memory - until 6 months you're supposed to avoid dairy and wheat, so it might be better to wait a few more weeks so that you can introduce a wider range of foods.

Good luck - it's all really exciting!

PS. Was your HV knowledgeable about BLW? When I started it 15 years ago with my baby, none of them seemed to know what it was. It would be good to think times had changed!

We had dietician help weaning ours due to allergies etc.

Her advice was to start with breakfast as you're always at home. Keep breakfast consistent. Weetabix with cows milk and some toast and marmite were her suggestions. We only use brown bread and she said that was fine (I don't like white bread)

Then do tea / dinner as again you're at home. Don't over think it, try to eat with them and basically offer what you're having. Don't add salt while you cook, no whole nuts, blue cheese or honey but the rest go for it.

Save lunch for last so you're more confident before doing food outside the home. Pouches or sandwiches are great for out and about.

Start peanut butter early as there's a lot of evidence now that introducing early reduces the chance of allergies. My second was in a medical trial about this so that's from the allergy specialists at the Evelina childrens hospital.

Then seriously don't over think it.

Yes I've had two info sessions from my local health authority and they've both talked about BLW a lot. My HV seemed an advocate :)

That's great to hear! My HV was all about the baby rice. Neither of my kids liked baby rice much. I started weaning the traditional sort of way with DC1 at 5 months as advised by the paediatrician (he was premature so they advise it as the iron stores run out early). He didn't have any hand eye coordination and wasn't able to sit unaided, so I knew he wasn't ready for BLW. However, as soon as he was (around 7 months) I started using BLW type strategies. With my younger one, who wasn't premature, she was amazingly good at BLW when I started around 25 weeks and would even take loaded spoons off me for porridge and feed herself.

It's amazing how quickly things changed, with my first child the HV etc were so sceptical, then just 4 years later with my second, they knew lots about it, ready to support it.

My suggestion would be, if you are at all worried about reactions etc, is to get a notebook and write down what they tried, especially if they tried a bunch of new things. My second tried most parts of a christmas dinner within a week of starting! Then if something comes up, you can look back and see if there is a trend, or what might be the culprit to a reaction. Words are better than trying to remember!!

Mostly, have fun. My girls pretty much just ate anything we did, I cooked without salt as that is a problem for them, but otherwise, they tried everything. One of them loved curries!