anyone started BLW before 6mo?

[CharlotteBronteSaurus]

yes, i am aware of the DoH/WHO guidelines.

dd1 was BLWed from 26 weeks.

dd2 is 5 mo exactly. she is not sitting independently, but administering calpol indicates she has lost her tongue thrust reflex. she has good head control and fine motor skills. anyhow, she is swiping at my plate like there is no tomorrow, and i am constantly wrestling bits of food off her.

so i was thinking about the concept of being baby-led, and dd2 seems to want to try. has anyone had any success with this approach before 6mo?

ds is 5 and half months, also at same stage as your dd2 , so have been blw for last week, definitely ate broccolli , evidence in nappy, and enjoyed some banana.

i am just doing it for fun atm , and he finds the highchair hilirious, sometimes he only goes in at dinner but I will build it up gradually.

why wait until exactly 6 months he enjoys playing with the food , and has had tiny bits to eat, all my non blw friends started weeks ago, some even before 4 months.

My DD was about 5 months. We'd been advised by gastro paed to start weaning then, especially as she was 'unlikely to eat much for a while'. She ate for England from day one! I was very careful not to drop bfs, however.

cool. thanks for your thoughts.
next time she grabs a fistful of fish pie i may consider letting her keep it.

Dd is almost 6m now and i started when she was 5m, pretty much exactly in your situation. I think she was teething and really enjoyed sucking on cold carrot and cucumber sticks. I just intended for her to soothe her gums but she gnawed on them like there's no tomorrow, which is when i realised she can chew and swallow the bits of cucumber including the skin which now shows up in her diaper :-).

Once i realised she can chew and swallow, we had her join our breakfast and gave her french toast, omelette and brown bread. She's going to be 6 months in two weeks but really enjoys cucumber and bread, which are really easy to start with.

Starting early looks great to me bc they can practice hand eye coordination, chewing, swallowing etc while at the same time you can be absolutely relaxed about the amounts they take in, and by the time you would like to see them take in more solids they will have many months of practice and eat like champs!

Dd seems at her happiest when she is gnawing on bread or cucumber so i am sure it can't be wrong, even if she is not yet 6 month old. Just follow your instinct.

I was careful about foods introduced before 6 months, by the way. No gluten etc. Foods to avoid are in the NHS birth to five book. So not BLW in the sense of sharing everything from my plate at that stage.

DD is just over 5 months and we gave her some carrot & broccoli on her 5 month birthday. Which she did nothing with!! However, a week later (Wednesday just gone) we were out for lunch for my birthday and she swiped my bread off me and started sucking / chewing (I know gluten NOT ideal before 6/12). Since then I've been sitting her in her high chair twice a day and offered cucumber, avocado, carrot and apple. She's had bits of all in her mouth but then they just end up on her bib, I don't think she's actually swallowed anything but she's having a go.

My friends are all pureeing and TBH I feel a bit left behind. However, DD is the only of these babys who sleeps 12 hours at night and only has 4 milk feed a day anyway. Therefore it's not like I'm desperate to get more calories into her in order to reduce the mlik. Just over a week ago she didn't even touch the food we offered now it's in her mouth and in bits. I hope it won't be long until it's in her nappy too!!! Desperately trying not to stressover it and let her play. Tis difficult though when friends are gloatting about how much DC LOVES their baby rice :-{ !!!!!!!!

dd3 is 6 months this week, she has been sucking things for a while after I got sick of stopping her swiping my food!

She has food when we eat, usually fruit or veg but had some chapatti the other day (home made). She tends to suck & spit so I was happy to start early as it saved the fight over food and she will only swallow when ready.

She has been sitting up for ages & has good hand- mouth co ordination.

DD is 5months today and has been given a few bits of veg to chew/suck on. The only thing that has made it through to her nappy is Banana. The only food she seems hugely interested in is cake though ad I am certainly not wasting that on her unrefined palate! I think your DD is on the large side like mine Charlotte? How's her sleeping now?

DS is five and a bit months here and we give him things to gum on, tbh most of it ends up on the floor but well it's the thought that counts.

we went out on mother's day, and to keep dd2 entertained i offered her a bit of a bread roll, a chip piece of potato, and bit of mashed avocado. all were initially shoved in her mouth, but she didn't really make much effort to move the food around her mouth, and she got bored quickly. which has reassured me that she'll be fine if we leave it another 3 weeks until she's 6mo.

giddyup dd2 is loads better - mostly only waking once in the evening and once more overnight. thanks for asking! how's things with you?

To update you. A week later she is now definately eating and swallowing the cucumber stick and mango I gave her today. Had a good old suck on a piece of lamb yesterday and aubergine disappeared. She also had a rice cake at baby group this morning and about 2/3rds disappeared. She's 25 weeks on Wednesday and seems to be doing really well.

To add our update as well, DD is 6 months and a couple of days now and has been eating lots of cucumber sticks, brown bread and banana over the last week. Yesterday she tried mango and absolutely loved it - I gave her the core to gnaw on and she got a lot of mango down and seemed so happy. She also really enjoys feeding herself banana.

Today I tried rice cake for the first time (I was a bit worried about pieces falling of) but it went really well, it seems to melt in her mouth. She is also learning how to drink from the doidy cup and enjoys water and diluted orange juice.

A month ago I couldn't imagine her eating solids at six months but they seem to develop so fast at this age, every day she seems to master something new.