BLW Banter Thread

[TheCornishPickle]

I've started a couple of threads lately about our first ventures into BLW with Little Pickle and have had some great reassurance and support on here, often from people in the same position. I've also been lurking for ages reading others' similar threads and was wondering if folk fancied a thread where we can have an ongoing natter about how we're getting on? I felt like I was just coming back again and again with relentless questions all about our situation and I'm sure we could be of support with slightly different issues.

So where I'm at is that I've fallen into the trap of offering fruit and veg in one of those feeding net thingies - yak - but ds seems to love it and sucks away like mad until it's all gone then cries! Problem is that the two times I've offered banana straight into his hand and a tiny bit has gone in his mouth he's retched until it's come back out (the second time followed by a load of sick which I instinctively put my hand out and caught!) Where do we go from here? He's just in the habit of sucking the food through the net and therefore 'drinking' it - how do we move onto chewing and swallowing?

fraktious it can be really frustrating, i agree. I feel so sorry for DD when shes tries really hard to get a piece of food, gets it up right to her mouth and then drops it and looks so forlorn!

I just tend to let her get on with it, and just help her by making sure things are in reach and in shapes she can pick up.

I didn't really think DD was eating much either but I had her weighed yesterday and she's gone from 25th to 50th centile! I was quite surprised really.

Have made cheese and lentil wedges for today so we'll see how they go down.

Just need to work on her sleep now which has been dreadful since starting solids..bah

Sorry been away for few days visiting family - but just want to ask has anyone else's DC had a reaction to any food? And does anyone have any advice? My lo comes out in a rash with tomatoes (uncooked & in sauces) so I trying to avoid at the moment & hope he grows out of it. Any advice would be appreciated - will try get to hv next week.

I can't speak for DS but I myself am highly allergic to tomatoes and all related nightshades it's worth avoiding them if you're worried.

Giving chickpea patties a go tonight as feel that ds is only BLW child in the country not to have tried them! Will report back after tea (starving with clocks changing!)

Great thread, we've been doing BLW for a couple of weeks now, sticking to "chips" of fruit and veg at first but think we're ready for something more adventurous now as DD is turning 26 weeks! She seems to have pretty good coordination and I've been surprised by how much has gone in, judging by results at the other end; we've seen the last of yellow breastmilk poo I think! However she seems to be really windy in the evenings, waking up crying pretty frequently until midnight or later, then she seems to settle down. She's also cutting a tooth so it's hard to tell what's bothering her more .Mimmee you said your DD has been sleeping badly too, do you think wind has anything to do with it? Wondered about trying gripe water before bed. We're also now trying to give her her tea a bit earlier to give her a bit more time to digest it all before bed; can't be nice going to sleep on a full tummy! Has anyone experienced this, and when did it settle down?

Hi schmohawk , yes her sleep went really bad when she first started on solids, she got quite constipated which I think was the main problem.

She's nearly 8mo now and I'm afraid to say it hasn't really settled down at all but I think some of that is she is now in the habit of waking IYSWIM?

I've never tried gripe water so not sure about that. I do tea between 4.30 - 5.00pm which seems to help and also don't give her any fruit with her tea as I have found this can wake her up. Also just making sure she is having plenty of fluids - water with her meals.

As your LO is just 26 weeks you could try just doing breakfast and lunch for a few days and see if that helps and then introduce tea when she's more used it?

Hi how's everyone doing with weaning? Is any of the 8mo able to eat mashed potato type of food yet? My 7mo DD is still eating with palm closed. She hasn't figured out she could open her palm instead of trying to suck her whole fist to get to the food in her palms. Bless her.

We had the cheese and spinach muffins for lunch today. It's from the BLW cookbook, opposite the famous carrot muffins. I'm glad to report it's another hit from the book. She kept sucking her fists to get to the last bit of the muffin. It's the first time I made savoury muffins and the dough mix looked a bit odd (with lots of big torn spinach). DH thinks savoury muffins are an abomination, so I've frozen most of them. Hope they will be ok after defrosting in the microwave. Most sweet muffins are fine with this treatment, so hopefully it's the same with savoury ones.

Hi All. Things are picking up a bit here. Chickpea patties were good (dog did end up with most of them but enjoyed!) had toad in the hole tonight with quorn sausages - big hit! Dog didn't get a look in. Salmon next on menu not sure what to do with it - will have a think.

Lilham DD is just starting to manage to open her hands. She seems to only be able to do it by using both hands - one to guide the other one IYSWIM? It works quite well but usually results in her stuffing far too much into her mouth

I might try the cheese and spinach muffins - I've been looking at the recipe and couldn't decide whether they would be nice or not but will give them a go now!

I did fishcakes last week which went down very well tootssweet you could try that? Also did ratatouille (sp?) which she liked but was a bit difficult to pick up I think.

I'm struggling for ideas for vegetable type dishes (bit embarrassing as I'm veggie!) any ideas?

Thanks Mimmee hope your DD settles down soon! We've had a couple of better nights here, I'm trying to give her potentially "windy" veg at lunchtime then carbs and protein for tea- cheese and lentil wedges from the book seemed to go down well! There seems to be loads to fit in at the moment, still doing plenty of milk feeds on top of food prep and long meal times; breastfeeding alone was so easy and flexible, now I'm really having to be less of a lazy slattern get organised. Now she's asleep on me and atheists steamer is hissing away, probably turning everything to mush! The best laid plans...

Atheists steamer???? And the steamer!

Mimmee I struggle with the veg too. It seems rather tricky to get the right shape and consistency for DD. It seems things that you blitz and then remake into a lump (like burgers and muffins) are so much easier for DD to handle. I'm hoping it'll improve as she gets older. Like yesterday, I have stir fried carrots. But the carrot batons came off in little 'cubes' when she bite them, which she just spat out and gave me a funny face. I seem to be stuck with boiling veg to soft mushiness for her which I don't want to do.

Also I lot of the vegetarian dishes we do are beans, and I think it'll be nearer to 12mo before they have a good enough pincer grip for that?

BTW try this Ottolenghi's sweet potato gratin (this or this). It's super easy if you have a mandolin or a food processor. DD loves it and it's one of the few veg I've found I can cook to a soft squishiness without boiling them to death.

Schmohawk I know what you mean by feeling constantly feeding her. That's why I don't bother timing milk and solid feeds or I'd go crazy worrying when to feed what. One thing I found when going out is the standard of highchair varies a lot. Some are so low that only half of DD face is over the table!

Schmohawk LMAO at your Atheists Steamer!

It's difficult with veg - I think DD is going to turn into a sweet potato or a courgette! I haven't really tried her with any salad type veg, lettuce, tomato etc because I'm not sure she would be able to manage it? But I eat a lot of salad-y stuff myself.

Lilham that sweet potato gratin looks lovely, I'll try that at the weekend.

I know what you mean about the feeding thing, I find the whole day seems to be either BF, solids or naps with little pockets of time inbetween! I wish I'd appreciated just how easy EBF actually was at the time...

Well, we tried the beef and broccoli stir fry with noodles from the BLW cookbook tonight, it went down well with DH and I (the kind of thing we'd have had anyway). DD did well with the broccoli, was a bit confused by the noodles but gave them a go, and eventually gave the strips of beef a good gumming, although I don't think much actually went it, but hey. Bit difficult to know how thickly to slice the meat, didn't want her to tear off a big chunk- need to have faith in the gag reflex I know!
We've not tried any salad veg either, as you say Mimmee I'm not sure how she'd handle it. Lilham carrot seems to go straight through undigested here! It's definitely the more "melty" veg (the usual squash, sweet potato and parsnip) that seems to work better. Will give that gratin a go too. Wondered about beetroot for some different nutrients, but that's probably just asking for trouble

I give tomatoes frequently to DD. Depends on the size of the tomatoes, I cut them into either 4 or 6 wedges (like an orange segment kind of shape). Initially I took away the seeds in the middle, now I give them with the seeds bit in. It's very easy for DD to handle. She's only 7mo, so I'm sure yours can handle it too. And since I eat a lot of salads, DD is going to turn into a tomato soon . Lettuce on the other hand, ends up going soggy and limp before DD discards them. Oh schmohawk you are brave to try beetroot. I don't think I can face the stain!

I tried the spanish apple cake from the BLW cookbook tonight. DH and I had it for pudding after dinner and we both loved it. DD asleep so I won't know whether she'll like it till tomorrow. Going to give her some for breakfast, as I'm a bit stuck in a rut with apple and toast with cream cheese for breakfast everyday!

Hi everyone, new to this thread, have been redirected from the April 2011 postnatal thread. My little girl is 27 weeks, and we started BLW two weeks ago.

Someone asked about the "official" BLW way of feeding sloppy foods? I don't know what the Gill Rapley approved way is (pre-loaded spoons? fistfulls?) but my LO seems to be happiest sucking thick soups, weetabix etc off my finger. We also give it on a spoon sometimes too, but I try to be careful not to force it into her mouth and let her move her head forward to get the spoon in her mouth so she is being more proactive.

Made the mistake of giving her a (halved) cherry tomato today. She initially sucked with great gusto, keeping it at the front of her mouth, then managed to suck it into the back of her throat, leading to a massive choke/purple/puke. Big tomatoes only from now on - I was terrified!

So far have only made eggy bread from the BLW cookbook but it went down a storm. Planning to make the tuna potato croquettes, but was going to wait until next time we have a dinner with mash, so I can make extra for her things. I'm scared of taking too much effort to make her nice things that she's only going to chuck on the floor

Ladies I'm hoping you can help me out. DS adores cheese but I'm worried about how much salt there is etc.

I made a couple of cheese parcels with filo pastry and he gobbled them and he eats fresh goats cheese by the handful, in fact if there's cheese involved that's all he's interested in. It just doesn't seem very balanced to me?

I'm trying to limit the number of cheesy recipes but as I said if it's on offer he eats that and picks or spits everything else out.

Frak if he makes a beeline for the cheese and ignores the rest perhaps just leave him to it but limit how often you give him cheese. Also not sure of scale but think hard cheeses are saltier than soft as a rule so maybe mix them up a bit? Haven't tried Joanna on cheese yet, maybe this week.

My ds is 11 months, loves cheese with a passion! Can now open the fridge, find cheese & bites the block (in the packet)... :/

fraktious just thinking could you try polenta maybe? If you grill it it has a similar texture. Also cream cheese doesn't have as much salt I think?

Speaking of cheese - did the cheese and spinach muffins and they are delicious. Really surprised actually because I thought they would be gross!

Hi all. Just wondering how much your LOs tend to eat? Does it vary alot? My 8mo DD does now tend to eat something at every meal but sometimes it's still not very much (a bit of carrot, a bit of rice cake, some apple, a mouthful of omelette). She rarely (tho occasionally) wolfs stuff down, and when she does it's usually fruit.

Do this sound like your LOs too?

I'm also feeling a bit crap about resorting to veg and fruit for meals and not giving her more proper meals. Anyone got any good quick lunchtime type meals? We do pasta and a little bit of pesto, omelette, avocado, but need some inspiration.

spaceal I've found that my DD will eat less if she's tired, especially at tea time. If napping has gone well (the holy grail!), and she's well-rested, she can spend longer at the table and eat more without getting grizzly. Today's lunch of cream cheese on toast seemed to go down really well here, as did hummous on rice cakes the other day- not sure if these are proper meals though! Cheese and lentil wedges were good too, although they need more preparation time.
I also discovered today that leftover rice pudding, chilled and sliced (it had set!) makes an easy breakfast with a bit of fruit :) However I think I overestimated poor DD's eating skills the other day by giving her quite a big chicken drumstick towards the end of a meal. She gamely gave it a suck but then burst into tears! Sorry, DD!

Same as schmohawk. DD eats better when she's well rested. This usually means she has a good breakfast and lunch. Most evenings she's too tired to do dinner. I'm thinking of moving dinner for her to around 5. This would mean we won't eat together as a family though.

spaceal I'm sure veg and fruit is fine. Or give your DD a deconstructed sandwich? Like I have cottage cheese and banana sandwich today. This can easily be made into a blw lunch. Another common one here is cheese on toast. Also, I love having frozen muffins. I defrost it in the fridge the night before, and warm it up in the often for DD's lunch. A batch makes 12 muffins, which is nearly 2 weeks of lunches!

Thanks shmohawk and lilham - it's reassuring to know your LOs' appetites vary too. My DD seems to have a bit of dairy intolerance which means cheese in all its varieties is off the menu at the moment but I do keep meaning to try some muffins (without cheese) so will have a go at the weekend, and otherwise persevere with veg and omelette and houmous etc. Oh, and I am going to make some lentil things too. Think I need to stock up the freezer with easy things to defrost/heat up.

Agree that a well-stocked freezer would be the way to go. Just need to find the time to make lots of muffins now! Lilham we've also moved DD's dinner time forwards to about 5.30 ish but 5 might be even better depending on naps and milk feeds. We then have ours around 6, as she's picking at whatever's left on her mat. It's quite a change after years of eating at 7-8!