BLW - in a nutshell, please - dos, don'ts, etc

[TBJP]

Hi

Really struggling to read books right now, hands full with DS and reading on MN is much nicer/easier. So, if anyone would be so kind, please can you tell me the key dos and don'ts, what I should NOT feed him, anything I need to know please. We haven't started anything yet, still 100% BFed, but wanting to BLW very soon.

Can he have just anything from my plate, or should I do him his own portions without herbs and spices? I don't want him to have boring bland food, want him to enjoy lots of tastes from the start, if possible.

How much do I keep BFing him vs solids?

What's the deal with nuts?

Thanks in advance

Do put food in front of him and let him play. I never bothered cooking separate meals for dd.

No to whole nuts and honey. Not too much sugar and salt.

Enjoy.

Thank you for replying.

So some salt/sugar is ok?

Do give him little pieces of food, stuff that won't fall apart when he plays with it.

Pasta shapes
Chopped up chicken
Pieces of cooked veg
Meatballs
Fallafel
Soft fruit
Fingers of toast
Bits of pancake.
Breadsticks
Cubes of cheese

Cut stuff up small enough that he won't choke on it - grapes and cherry toms in half.

Nuts are a chocking risk. He can have herbs and spices, but not too much salt and sugar. You can get low salt stock cubes though - Kallo (supermarkets) and Boots Baby Organic. No honey until 1, as there can be traces of botulism in it.

Have a look here.

As your DS gets a bit bigger, you can get baby yogurts in screw top pouches (like Ella's Kitchen food) in most supermarkets, which worked really well for us.

Cook yourself healthy meals, then plonk some in front of baby too, and enjoy your meal while they make of it what they will. To be nice to them, choose larger pasta shapes, rather than spaghetti, and don't cut up veggies too small, but they scoop stuff very efficiently with their fingers anyway.

Invest in a shower curtain for the floor, an Ikea antilop high chair, and a box of Napisan.

Most important thing is to chill out and let them enjoy their food without you stressing about what they've eaten or the mess.

1g maximum salt a day - there's about 0.5g in a slice of bread, 0.25g in a weetabix biscuit, so I don't add salt (or stock cubes) to any cooking to allow for some bread/weetabix/hummus/peanut butter/cheese in his diet. Do use herbs and spices though, and ds seems to prefer food with a bit of taste.

I'm probably quite lax on the sugar front compared to a lot of people and allow ds some cake or biscuits if I'm having some. I don't sprinkle extra sugar on anything though.

Thanks so much for all the advice so far. I don't know why I thought we had to stick to 'whole' foods - can he really have cakes and pancakes etc straight away?

We do cook pretty healthily, but also enjoy cake!

Thanks for the shower curtain tip! :)

I think the very first foods ds had were things like roasted veg sticks, banana, pear, courgette - mostly because they were easy to hold.

Some of his first meals were chips and cake though

No harm in starting slow, but I do tend to share a bit of what I'm having with ds.

Pancakes are no prob (mashed banana is really nice, or stewed apple as fillings). A bit of cake won't hurt - ds grew up with the idea of pinching stuff off our plates, so would try anything we were eating

Excellent - he's been looking so deprived since Shrove Tuesday! I think he deserves a pancake!

Thick scotch panacakes work well too. I used to put gratted apple or mashed banana in the mix.

With the exception of salt you really don't need to worry too much about seasoning. As far as I can tell it is a myth (probably put about by people selling baby rice) that babies love bland food. DD's first foods included vegetable curry, dhal, rice mixed with raita, mature cheddar, houmous and spicy pasta sauce. She rejected my few attempts at pureed veg and is much more likely to eat veg if it is in a curry sauce or at least dressed with some garlic or lemon juice rather than plain.

We kept spiciness to a minimum initially but now she is 11m we've started to ramp up the chillies a bit and she seems to like that too.

Ooh useful thread for ideas!

Our first meal was Sunday roast. Veggies done in chip shapes plus broccoli trees and strips of chicken. Was amazed at how well DD did and there wad even evidence if the broccoli in the nappy afterwards!

Do offer foods big enough so that they stick out of the fist
Do expect meal times to take longer
Do expect lots of mess
Do relax and enjoy
Do keep milk feeds up and let baby decide when to drop any

Don't put anything in baby's mouth - he must do it himself (this is important for safety - if he has the dexterity with his hands to get it in then he has the dexterity in his mouth to deal with it.
Don't stress about quantities consumed its about learning and tasting and having fun
Don't try to coax baby into eating if he's not interested just try again later
Don't try to give food when baby is hungry. It will take time for him to learn that eating helps with hunger and he will just get frustrated. Give milk feeds first.

An absolute essential for me has been the Summer Tiny Diner mat as we eat out frequently and it means I always have somewhere clean to put dd's food, be it on a table or high chair tray .

Hth