About to start BLW - anyone want to share experiences

[hopingtoo]

Hi - I'm about to start BLW with dd - she'll be 6 months on the 12th but we go on hols then so wanted to give ourselves a week to get a bit used to it. Mixed and matched some spoon, some self feeding with dd1 (who's a good eater at 4) but wanted to try the full BLW with dd2. Worries are whether she'll eat enough - she still breast feeds at least every 3 hours, 3-4 at night, and was hoping we might be able to cut back a bit with solids, particularly at night! Also intersted how she will take to self feeding and how we can adapt our food for her. Be good to share advice/tips/setbacks/achievements with others at a similar stage.

I haven't started weaning my daughter yet as she is only 12weeks but have thought about blw! I am worried about her gagging and choking so I'm looking forward to seeing the responses you get... I mentioned it to my mum last night and she was mortified at the idea which has made me a bit edgy about the whole thing! still have a fair bit of time to figure out what we will do!

Hi my DD is 7.5 months old and we do mainly BLW as she hates being spoon fed. It has being going fab and every day she suprises me with how well she manages to eat and swallow. When we were having lunch today with my SIL and her DS (9 months), My DD was tucking into homemade pizza fingers and little chap was being fed baby food, my SIL said "it's such a shame that she has to feed herself", I giggled and said "feel free to try her", which of course SIL did, DD responded by spitting the baby food all over her and then made a face as if to say "What on earth are you doing!!!!" Funnily enough SIL didn't say anything else for the rest of the meal even when DD then tucked into a whole apple! Enjoy weaning!

My dd is just under 8 months and we've been doing BLW, although haven't been fanatical/puritanical about it. I'm loving it! DD1 was weaned on purees and she's a good eater but to be honest I just felt I couldn't be bothered didn't have the time to make lots of purees and different foods. We also happened to go on holiday just as dd2 turned 6 months so she had mostly fruit initially as it's easily available, and bits of crust. I don't know if we've been lucky but she has hardly ever gagged on anything and has been totally into it from day1. It's amazing how adept she is at spitting anything she can't manage back out and I've learnt to become more relaxed and trust that she can handle it. Her and DD1 often eat the same thing, and we all eat the same if it's a family meal, which makes life easy. DH and I are also totally free to enjoy our own meal as we don't have to feed her - brilliant. I do give her foods that need a spoon, like yoghurt, but either hand her the spoon or pop it onto her tray and she shovels it in herself. Be prepared for lots of mess and enjoy.

I did BLW with my son and would definitely do the same if I had another. We started in the winter and it was easy when preparing our dinner to cut stick shapes of potato, parsnip and carrot that he could hold easily when roasted. He would have a finger sized piece of pork or whatever to chew and suck as well.

Also plain cooked spaghetti or noodles (hilarious! it turns out that sucking long strands of spaghetti through your lips thing is intuitive ), slices of fruit (I would microwave wedges of apple until they were slightly softened, he would spit the skins out), slices of pitta bread with humous or avocado. He really liked crusty bread so I would give him lumps to dip into homemade soup made from tinned chopped tomatoes simmered with a few handfuls of red lentils, mixed herbs and loads of pepper. For breakfast I would give him thick porridge with grated apple and cinnamon or mashed banana, toast and cream cheese, or rice krispies mixed with a bit of yogurt, he mostly ate it with his fingers but would mess about with a spoon as well.

Basically he ate the same as us. I have never cooked him a separate meal to us and he has never had pureed food. I don't have any issue with it at all, there has just never been any need.

I used to put a tablecloth under his highchair so I could hand back food he had dropped, or shake it over the bin.

You have to be patient though. It takes them a while to get the hang of it (some longer than others) and you don't have any control like you might if you're actually putting the food into their mouth yourself. And I didn't notice him BFing less at night for quite a while.

About the gagging and choking; remember gagging is not a bad thing, it is the defense mechanism that stops them from choking. If you're nervous though, see if your children's centre does an infant first aid course. I went to one that cost £3 and it was brilliant. Also remember, a baby can just as easily choke on liquid or puree.

You can get info and swap ideas with others on the BLW forum.

Good luck. And sorry for the essay .

Hi!

Can I join in too? I have a 15 week DD & am hoping to do BLW. I have to admit that apart from deciding I like the idea the only other thing I've done is buy a book!

Quenelle, your post was very helpful and reassuring with regards to gagging/choking.

Just marking my place..

Indeed very reassuring about the choking...I hadn't thought of it that way...I think that phrase will be going in the memo bank!

Hi, can we join you? We're BLW (mostly) with DD. I tried purees with her from about 5.5 months, but really wasn't interested - spat the food out initially (I don't think she was ready) and now grabs the spoon and holds it away from her. She will occasionally take a spoon, but only if she's holding it (it's all on her terms).

She's now 6.5 months and is much happier with finger food, so I'm concentrating on that (although the control freak in me keeps trying her with a spoon and puree occasionally).

She's doing quite well in the sense that she'll pick the food up and have a chomp on it. I can't say she's actually eating very much though which I'm finding frustrating as her little friends are all happily eating 3 square meals of mush and dropping milk feeds). She does best with carbs and 'brown' food - bread crusts, rusks, homemade cheese straws, porridge fingers, rice cakes etc - but she's not embracing veg (typical!). She tried some broccoli once, but has ignored it since. I'm trying to give her 'family food' but it's hard. Tonight she has salmon and pesto and baby corn, porridge fingers (she doesn't know it doesn't go!) and I'll give her some banana or something. In all likelihood none of that will go down, or even get more than a passing munch and I'll give her a Goodies gingerbread men (she loves those).

DD gags, but I can see it's a useful thing. She manages to move the offending bit of food away from the back of her mouth/throat and either spits it out or gums it and swallows.

Rationally, I know she'll get there eventually, but I'm finding it a bit hard to be patient and accept that it's a slow learning curve for her.

Incidentally, I'm BF 3 hourly in the day and twice at night. I'd love to start dropping daytime feeds (I'm bored of BF in coffee shops/restaurants now), but I doubt that's going to happen for a few weeks yet.

Hi all - sorry not been back since I started this thread, but great to get some responses. We're on day 5 now and dd seems to like it, she's tried everything I've given her, seemed to want more and particularly seemed to like tomatoes, cream cheese bagel and marrow! We had gagging on lettuce (she wasn't really meant to have it but grabbed it off my plate and I thought I'd see how she got on) and bagel - but in both cases, the gag reflex seemed to do its stuff. The mess is quite something, particularly with runnier foods - yoghurt, porridge! -but already she is holding on to more and dropping less.

I'd feel happier if she was getting more food inside her - sometimes she seems frustrated and it feels like we are making her work very hard for a few tastes. So I know what you mean about the patience and the slow learning curve, carrotcake.

I really don't mind the BF during the day, I continued some BF with dd1 up to 15 months despite faster move to solids, but I really would like not to feed 3 times at night for too much longer.

But generally chuffed with how well she's taken to it, even though the friend and mother of 2 who joined us for lunch today, was astonished by the sight!

My prediction was right. Not much (any) salmon and corn went in, but the gingerbread man was devoured.

I can't decide if it's naughty giving her the gingerbread men (no added sugar, but sweetened with concentrated grape juice), or whether to be pleased she's eating something. It's good practice afterall (she copes amazingly well with it), but I don't want her only to eat biscuits!

We saved some sausage, potato, sweet potato and veg from our dinner tonight so we'll see how that's received tomorrow.

What size of tomato do you give hoping? I tried half a cherry tom but she couldn't pick it up. It sounds like your DD is doing well.

Have you tried porridge fingers? 3tbsp porridge oats, 3tbsp milk, soak for 5 min, microwave on high for 2 min, then cut into fingers while hot and leave to cool. A bit less messy than porridge. DD did ok with them the other day (although ignored them today) and her little friends love them. Might try adding cinnamon to make them more interesting

I do enjoy bf, and plan to continue until I go back to work (at 1 yr), but bf-ing a distracted 6mo old in public can be a bit of a trial. I'd love her to only wake once at night too (I figure once is a reasonable expectation).

Hi again - still seems to be going well with BLW here. Sweet potato chips went down well today and yesterday she persevered for about 20 minutes with a quarter pear, cored, skin left on, ate pretty much all of it (dropped and picked up for her many times but each time she demanded it back fairly vociferously, amazing what they can communicate when they want!). Also had some fish this evening - coley cooked in milk, stays relatively firm so she can get a hold of.
Carrotcake, we do plum tomatoes halved or ordinary tomatoes quartered which she seems to be able to get hold of and suck the flesh.
And I'm sure a gingerbread now and again is fine, as long as you are still offering lots of other stuff too. Offering and letting them choose seems to be a big part of BLW.
A week in and I think we'll persevere - despite the mess!