BLW - support and advice needed, PLEASE!!

[thepriviledge]

I would like to do BLW as all the kids of friends who've done it are great eaters. I've read Rapley's book. Saturday my DS turned 6 months. We put him in the highchair, put some fruit and steamed veg in front of him on a plate and table and he had ZILCH interest. The same went for yesterday and today. He is more interested in looking around than the food. I'm not sure he even registers its there.

He's never grabbed anything out of my hand, so I knew he wouldn't be hugely interested. He is FF and a great feeder. He was a tiny baby at birth, didn't thrive for a while but has caught up.

I don't want to get neurotic or despondent about it because that would be ridiculous so early. But obviously it does give my mum and MIL the chance to get straight in there with, 'I think you should do purees.'

Any suggestions? Should I maybe help him with the food? On a spoon? Any suggestions of what to give to start tempting him? My husband says just leave him, but it's hard to watch him not eat a thing.

Thanks all.

I'm doing BLW with my 7 month old. It is very disheartening at first like your son, my DD did nothing at first, then played with it and made a mess for weeks, and then started to taste but sometimes not at all bothered, and now will eat if in the mood but we quite often miss meals if she 's tired. Having said that for tea she had 2 huge rice cakes with goats cheese, 2 pieces of cucumber, 2 large pieces of pear and a a biscuit. Not a bad effort.

I'm glad I perserved but you need to just ignore all the traditional advice and go with the baby leading. It is very difficult when all your NCT group are spooning in 3 meals a day and our parents generation weaned so early but really "food is for fun until just after one".. I got good advice from the baby led weaning forum.

PS My PIL thought we were mad especially because DD is big. They saw her eat on saturday and she put in a stella performance.

Thanks v much. That's inspired me to continue. I'd be totally delighted if my DS ate the meal your DD. Thats big, even for me!

How about putting little lumps of food in his mouth for him to start off with so he knows what it is? Then he might realise what it is and recognise it when its put in front of him and know that he wants to eat it. This is what I've been doing, works great, no choking and makes almost no mess whatsoever! Not brave enough to BLW due to gagging but will switch to that once he's got good at dealing with bigger lumps.

Please stick to it!! My DD is now 7 1/2 months and is eating so well.
Started BLW at 23 weeks when she grabbed my bread while out for lunch and sucked at it a bit. But for the next 3/4 weeks she didn't do much at all. She's pick bits up look at it, sniff it, lick it, wave it about and drop it. I got very disheartened, wonder if I was doing the right thing, as NCT friends were telling how DS was having 3 meals a day, savoury and pudding etc etc etc.

Then over about a week something just clicked with her. Se now eats amazingly well, & I loved it when we were visiting my parents the other weekend and she sat at the table with us and happily ate roast beef and all the trimmings.

Now everyone else is in awe as DD happily eats penne and tomatoe sauce, chicken and veg, lamb rogan josh, any fruit, and veg, yogurts, weetabix, cheese. Basically anything you offer. I am soooooo pleased I stuck at it. I now wonder why anyone would bother with the fuss of pureeing!!

Good luck!!!

DD has another month to go, so this is advice from what I have read not experience.

Some baby's are interested in food before 6mths some later, that is why it is baby led.

You might want to try having him sit on your lap instead of highchair, if highchair is new to him.

Have someone sit down and eat at the same time, so he gets the idea.

Make sure he isn't hungry or tired.

Remember to treat it more as playtime - exploring textures/tastes/how to handle food. He is getting his nutrients/calories from his FF and will do for a while yet, and his milk is better to fill up with than food, so don't stress if he isn't eating, some LOs don't swallow until they are quite a bit older.

So this is day 3? Ok I just want to prepare you but some take a LONG time to get interested. I know you know that but you'll stop yourself from going nuts if you expect it to takes ages rather than the other way around. I know its exciting giving them first food and its a bit of a let down if nothing happens.

Eat when he is (or isn't!) to distract yourself. Keep offering different things in different ways - raw, roasted, steamed, soup, stew etc. Does he chew toys or a spoon? If so there is probably no physical reason stopping him, there's just a lot of other stuff taking his attention. How about offering a rice cake while he's playing?

From what I have read its really important that they are in control of what goes in their mouth as a baby is more likely to choke if someone else puts it there.

As for the grannies, just smile and say, thanks for your advice, we are trying it this way.

Thanks all - really good advice. I've chilled out too. I think it was SUCH a big deal the first day, and then it's suddenly not. That said, he's definitely getting more interested. I've varied the foods a lot and he's picking them up. He also tried to get banana into his mouth today.

Can I ask:

1. When we sit at the table, and I hold up to my mouth or just in the air, a finger food, he opens up his mouth - as if he wants to be fed! How do I deal with that? I've been putting whatever it is in his hand...

1. Are the BLW recipe book worth getting? I'm not sure how adventurous to be first of all. So any advice for finger foods at the beginning very welcome

Thanks again. I didn't realise how much I needed some support

My DD had fingers of toast as one of her first finger foods and loved it. Just make sure he doesn't have more than one slice a day.

I've cooked a few of the BLW receipes and they've been a bit hit a miss. The ones that have proved popular are pancakes, meatballs, cheese straws and fritatas. I borrowed the book from the library and photocopied the ones that looked interesting (probably not supposed to do that but it's a lot cheaper.)

BLW isn't a strict set of rules to be followed to the letter. You can try stuff on a spoon and give it to your DS too. I did a mix of both and think BLW element got DS used to lumps but spoon feeding him got him used to the idea of solids. I didn't purée, just mashed.

For finger foods you can try chips, homemade burgers with fish or chicken or mince, lumps of fish which don't flake too much, bits of pasta (fusilli is easy to pick up), toast, bits of veg etc. Just think of your meals and how to make them easy to hold for baby.

Also bear in mind that not every meal lends itself to BLW so don't worry if it means popping stuff on a spoon or a fork.

To me, BLW is about letting the baby take control of what they ingest. You can apply that principle to spoon fed meals - if they turn away, don't force or cajole them!

BLW cookbook gives you ideas but there is a recipe section on the website. www.babyledweaning.co.uk

I love the blw cookbook you can be as adventurous as you like as long SA you don't care about mess and don't stress if none is actually eaten. Some babies take ages, like DS, others like DD grab stuff, chew and swallow a little before 6 months. Please don't put anything in his mouth though as that is one of the safety rules, that they won't choke if they are in control. He will still be getting all the nutrition he needs from milk. Just expose him to as much variety of taste, texture and colour as possible. One day he will surprise you by just gobbling it all up.