6 mth old today and first day of BLW-anyone want to start BLW journey with me ?

[fakeblondie]

I`ve never done this before even tho dc 4 !
DD1 18yrs
DD2 15 yrs
DS1 7 years
DD3 1/2 !

Totally breastfed to date and very content.
Allowed her to help herself to my plate tonight where i ensured she could reach soft green beans if she wanted to.
She loved it-made a mess-squashed it and mushed and and ALMOST sucked it !
Well thats my experience so far !
Am about a quarter way thro eading the BLW book and very confident that she`s totally fine just breastfeeding for quite a while yet as omly have to look at her to see that nature is working wonders x
Bit scared about the whole lumps bit tho but willing to give it a good go x

Some of you were asking for more meal ideas. These are scrumptious for all the family (allegedly the recipe used in Leon restaurants)...

Sweet Potato Falafel

Makes around 18 falafel - enough for four

2 medium sweet potatoes (orange inside), around 700g in total

1½ tsp ground cumin

2 small cloves of garlic, chopped

1½ tsp ground coriander

2 big handfuls of fresh coriander, chopped (about 30g)

Juice of half a lemon

120g gram flour

A splash of olive oil

A sprinkling of sesame seeds

Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 220C/425F and roast the sweet potatoes whole until just tender (45 minutes to 1 hour). Turn off oven, leave the potatoes to cool, then peel.

Put the sweet potatoes, cumin, garlic, ground and fresh coriander, lemon juice and gram flour into a large bowl. Season well, and mash until smooth with no large chunks. Stick in the fridge to firm up for an hour, or the freezer for 20-30 minutes. When you take it out, your mix should be sticky rather than really wet. You can add a tablespoon or so more of gram flour if necessary (the water content of sweet potatoes varies enormously).

Reheat the oven to 200C/400F. Using a couple of soup spoons (put a well-heaped spoonful of mix in one spoon and use the concave side of the other to shape the sides) or a falafel scoop if you have one, make the mixture into falafelly looking things and put them on an oiled tray. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and bake in the oven for around 15 minutes, until the bases are golden brown.

Anyone getting probs with vomiting (cf gagging/retching)

We've had 2 evenings with vomiting - both days when had yoghurt at breakfast and also a small tea - normally doing breakfast/lunch only

Seems too long a time gap to be yoghurt related, and naps fine after other meals, so don't think tea related ???

Any ideas - is vomiting just part of weaning I suppose - I've seen others report wind/tummy ache etc.

The main problem I have with finger foods (can't really call it BLW as I am still giving purees for at least one meal a day) is that my DS only picks up the things he wants to eat - namely toast and rusks/biscuits and occasionally rice cakes. He's stopped chewing on cucumber and green beans and broccoli are lucky if they don't get thrown on the floor straight away.

Do I just keep lovingly cooking/steaming his veg and eventually he might take it?

I know babies naturally have a sweet tooth and am wary of letting him indulge in too many sweet things (eg he only has a sweet snack occasionally), but will his taste for more savoury things just gradually develop.

Hey! Can I join please - a tad late? I also confess to not being a blw newbie having done it before with ds 2.3yo but thought it'd be nice to share the journey with doing it with dd (nearly 6m) as I don't know any other blweaners in rl this time round.

Planning to offer dd some food on sat for the first time (as dh wanted to be around to witness the big event) altho as you've all probably noticed there's not likely to be much in the way of actual eating happening!

Will probably keep sainsburys in business from the humous mountain I'm likely to be buying over the next year or so if ds is anything to go by!

< Waves to mlic >

Just had a cream cheese sandwich and it was a hit. Although she seems to be losing interest a bit more quickly the past few days.

I went to get her weighed today and she is still on the same curve she's been on since she was born. The health visitor was all 'Well I'm suprised about that considering she's just having breast milk and finger foods, well done you i suppose.' Bitch.

sorry please ignore the above - too many threads open at once and posted in wrong one. need to get off MN and on with chores!

He seems to be sleeping a bit better now, he used to be funny about not sleeping alone, but was able to put him down and walk away last night. Maybe BLW is exhausting or he's just 6 months

Hi did post last week but thought I'd update. DS is 6 months this week and BF, we started BLW 5 days ago and its been great - really good fun for both of us. For some reason he gets the giggles when gumming food which makes me laugh and he giggles more!

We've gone in at the deep end and he's basically had what we've been having with some modifications. Biggest hit to date has been lentil dahl. We had it with rice but I let his cool and firm up a bit and spread it on rice cakes which he loved and sucked it all off. So I spread more and more on the soggy rice cake until he got bored. Spent that evening fretting that he would be up all night farting but he was fine. Other faves so far have been avocado, pear and toast. Nappies have been darker brown, smellier and with food lumps so although most things are just getting a good gumming theres obviously stuff going down.

We are finding that he is never really interested at brekkie time so we do "brunch" about 10.30 and "tea" at 5.30. Is anyone else finding breakfast a bad time?

Yes, we're the same with breakfast - dd is barely interested. Lunch (around 12) or tea (around 5) seem to go much better.

Had some success with cheese and lentil wedges (from the BLW recipe book) tonight. She actually took several small bites and I think swallowed. Will await the evidence tomorrow!

Breakfast is the best time of the day for us, he's ok at lunch and seems too tired by dinner...

Breakfast best time for us too, it's either toast or porridge. Porridge is via spoon but at least it's 'real' food I suppose!

Lunch is ok if he's not overtired (bad daytime sleeper).

Dinner is often a battle or a game of 'let's throw the food on the floor' if he's tired.

Tried gumming on some strips of chicken yesterday - was pretty good until that went on the floor :)

Interestingly he made more effort with the toast today, like he was actually trying to eat it rather than just suck on it. Poor veg didn't get a look in though.

I want to try him with egg/omelette but there are allergies in my family and have read that some people wait for 8 months or even a year to introduce egg - what have others done?

Waterhorse - cheese and lentil wedges sound interesting what cookbook is that from?

FortunateHamster - we tried strip of omelette a few days ago with DS (6 months)and he gummed and ate a few bits - no after effects so I am assuming ok?

Hamster, omelette has been our most successful meal so far. But then again there aren't any allergies in our family.

Vicky - I got the recipe from the Baby-Led Weaning Cookbook, however it is also available here.

I thought they were really tasty although slightly dry. Think I would try adding a little more cheese and onion to the mix next time. What was amazing was that dd was more enthusiastic about these than anything else we've tried so far. Maybe I just caught her at a good moment!

I'm one week in ...is this normal?

• DS not always interested in the food
• Sometimes only interested for a minute or so
• Absolutely no idea what to do with a cup (yet, despite demonstrations and "help" - or am I starting this too soon anyway?)
• Not always keen on even being in the high chair, eek.
• vomited the spoonful of porridge that I spoonfed him (not BLW, I know)

It's just that, from scanning this thread, it seems your DCs are taking to this very naturally.

I can't see many similar "oh, he's not bothered yet" stories and I have a HV (and a mother and a MIL and a sister and a SIL) freaking me out saying I should be giving him purees or he'll NEVER learn to eat and will NEVER be weaned.

Meh.

Oh, catdoctor! My apologies! Yes to vomiting, see post above...

Right, just read more of this thread...seems this is more normal than I thought. It is really hard to relax about this without any support from...anyone. You lot excluded.

DS goes through all of the above stages Mothigail.

I thought he was getting the hang of the cup but last night poured water over himself and then proceeded to bang it on the table (this is with 'help' from me)

He is also sick sometimes, but it tends to be after a milk feed. I try and give him a full feed about 1/2 to an hour before solids, then a little after as like a drink, but I think he drinks too much and then it makes him a little sick.

Do what you feel comfortable with, I'm sticking with 'How I feed my baby is no one elses business'

Someone asked me the other day whether I was going to stop BFing, and I pointed out that if I stopped now, I'd only have to make formula, buy more bottles etc, so what the point.

Yeah, I'm kind of edging towards the "it's nobody else's business" mentality but I must admit that, as a first time mum, always very in two minds. About EVERYTHING.

I also realised something: half of the time when DS is trying to eat aka playing with a rice cake with some mashed avocado it is not him who is frustrated at all. It's me!

Just need to relax.

In general.

In life.

I'm not an anxious parent or anything.

Hi all, sorry not been on sooner its been manic here.
DS has been out of sorts all week, I suspect its teething. He's not sleeping well and we are all exhausted with the wake up's every 2 hours

We tried pear, which was a great success but he gums a bit, then its in his mouth, then he gags. I was good and let him get on with it but did have to fish a rather bit out of his mouth.
Maybe I should microwave, like the apple?

He loves rice cakes especially with philly on. Was hilarious watching him trying to fit the whole thing in his mouth!

Not tried citrus fruit yet. On our list of things to try.

Moth - I get woried too - am I doing the right thing, about EVERYTHING

but I see my bab, sitting at the table, banging tray with excitment, eyeballing his bowls - what have we got today? and then I see my friend's bab, turning his head from being pureed and sounding cross/unhappy and I think - BLW seems so natural somehow

There we go, that's it - precisely the reason why BLW appealed to the laid back person trapped inside the anxious parent that is me.

I suppose for me it's an approval seeking thing, too, if I'm honest. I see BLW parents as confident people, doing their thing and not waiting for an HV, MIL, etc to give them a nod and a smile. I am not confident and perhaps even a bit of a sad old conformist. I sometimes wonder if I digged my heels in so much with the EBF knowing that it was what I'd been "told" to do (as if WHO were going to send me a certificate at the end, or something).

Anyway, onwards. Steak and chips for dinner so we'll see if he has a chew on the meat.

Mothigail - I have the same worries. dd does sometimes show a lot of interest and even eat food (which gets me very excited) but then will go several meals showing no interest. All my RL friends have babies (not BLW) who seem to wolf 3 meals plus snacks, making me sometimes worry if I'm taking the right approach.

I have taken to occasionally trying to spoonfeed softer food such as weetabix or mashed avocado, but am trying really hard to keep that to a minimum (and to get her to handle the spoon herself). I think I need to relax more and let her get on with it!

The only thing that is consistently going "well" is the doidy cup - dd loves it and is very enthusiastic about using it, although she hasn't fully grasped how to manage the water in it yet!

Mothigail, my DD has had a distinct lack of interest the last few days and before seemed so enthusiastic. From what I've heard it takes a few months before they really get it so it's best to be as relaxed as possible - easier said than done I know!