BLW- 3 mths in......experienced blweaners can you answer my questions please!

[cheesenpickle]

My DS is 9 mths tommorrow and I have been blw although I admit I have been cautious. DS has been eating mainly fish, stews, rissotto, chillis, pasta, meat rissoles and the fruit i give him is normally very ripe and i cook veg so its very soft. He hoovers his food so I have to give him his meals in stages to try and slow him down otherwise he just picks up everything on the plate and shovels it in. I have a few queries;

1. I haven't given him an raw hard food ie; peppers, carrots, apples. He has 2 top teeth through ond two on the way. tbh i'm a bit worried, is now the right time to start?. I haven't as yet given him chewy meat like steak etc shall I try that first or just give him both and see how he gets on!

2. I tend to cut up food, he doesn't need food in big pieces to pick it up. Am i better giving him big pieces so he learns to take a bite out of food. He just shoves it in his mouth at the moment or doesn't it really matter if its going down.

3. How do you get them to dip foods?

4. Whens a good time to introduce cutlery, do you start with a spoon, fork or both?

5. At the moment I put the food straight on the tray, When should I start putting in in a bowl. As I said earlier I give the food in stages but at some point he's got to learn not to stuff it all in at once, when should I put the whole meal in front of him?

A lot of questions but would be grateful for some answers from experienced blweaners. Thanks

On 1) we gave DD such things from the start, cut into small enough strips that what breaks off when they chew won't be much of a problem. DD has always handled it fine but took about 6 weeks before she was actually biting bits off the end rather than just chewing it about and not getting very far. Sucked lots of juice out of meat that way though.

On 2) we just give what we eat, only chopping things smaller if they're not really good for her to eat - so yesterday I roasted some beetroot due to time it was pretty crunchy and I whilst I like it like that, she would've struggled with the small lumps, so I chopped it up small and she ate it well. But the potato, swede, parsnips etc. were all left big for her to bite off and chew as she gets on better. We don't always give her things really easy to eat, as she needs to learn how to eat all food, she won't do that if it's easy.

3. No idea, DD would always rather just use her hands. Not sure it matters.

4. We've given DD pre-loaded spoons from the start (and spoons to play with from before that) she can't use them to get stuff out of a bowl, but does place the spoon back into a bowl to ask for it to be refilled - she'd shove her fingers and lick them or try and pour the entire bowl into mouth as a preference though. So we have to hold the bowl.

5. I don't think it's a problem if they shove loads in, they're unlikely to choke through simple amount of food in their mouths and will soon learn an appropriate amount and to spit out the extra stuff. I suspect it's as much getting the hang of using the hands and picking just the amount they want.

Giving it all together also lets them choose what to eat, I think this is important as the body does recognise a bit the sort of nutrients it needs, and it will know better than you and it will give it a chance to focus on carbs or whatever.

DS looks to be a few weeks older than your son, but we also BLW my oldest.
We have given thinly cut strips of really hard things like carrot and apple from the start - use the veg peeler to get very thin strips if your worried. I would class pepper as less hard, and just hand over strips. We also hand over strips of meat, as well as e.g. mince.
We also give big chunks of most things to allow the chewing action to develop.
Neither of mine have dipped either - except fingers!!!
Pre loaded spoons here also. Cutlery seems to come. Think we moved to a fork when the spoon stopped being waved near eyes etc as much, and the knife when it was asked for- toddler knives don't seem to do much in toddler fists except spread e.g jam!!
Bowls??? When the first action with an item isn't to turn it over.
When you say you put things down in stages, do you put down e.g. carbs, meat and veg at the same time? I put down a selection of everything, but usually have seconds cooling on the side to replace things as they are demolished. If you just put down e.g. carbs, then veg when thats finished, your not giving your son a chance to choose his food.
HTH