BLW

[LiamsMummyJaz]

Sorry but what does BLW mean??

Baby led weaning

Ooooooohh. I never would of guessed that! Thank you kindly

It's Baby Led Weaning.

In a nutshell-
wait till baby is 6 months old.
buy Ektorp highchair (other brands are available)
place a variety of food on said highchair. (can be anything from this age except foods in high salt and sugar)
Stand back with admiration as baby attempts to put food in to mouth.
Launch major cleaning operation once baby has finished.

Seriously though, it beats spooning mush in to their mouth and they develop good motor skills (think pincer grip for picking up peas) as well as being able to control how much they eat.

Thank you!

My DS will be 4 months on Sunday and I am having a gander on the weaning thread to have a looksee what's to come. Atm he's more interested in eating his fists

Best avoid whole nuts, whole grapes and honey too (although don't be stressed if they actually get hold of any of them, just the risks aren't really worth it)

quick hijack - what exactly can't you give from 6mo?

Can you add to my list:

Hi salt items - so no bacon, ham, sausage? or just occasionally for these items?
I guess occasional use of cheese is ok?

Hi sugar - best go for nothing with added sugar basically,, use fruit purees as a sweetener,

Honey

What is the deal with wheat ?

Dairy ok in food/sauces but not as a drink
So butter, cream, cheese fine, just no bottles of cows milk, right?

Toast with butter, cream cheese etc all fine?

Nuts - no whole nuts - but PB ok if no known allergies in immediate family?

Cut grapes/round food in half

Anything else?

High salt items are not completely out. A high salt diet is out, but 1g of salt (the recommended limit at 6months) is a fair a bit, so a little bit of the items you list are fine - just don't give all of them at the same time. Limit total salt, not individual items.

I would avoid sweetening at all, fruit purees not really much better than sugar, but yes natural sugars are probably better, particularly than sucrose (normal table sugar)

Honey is out because of a botulism, adult guts appear to be able to rejct the botulism spores, but young babies don't. Than can lead to infant botulism where the spores grow inside them, it's not particularly fatal (~95% recover) and pretty rare (less than 1 in 10,000 in the US but most before 6 months, incidence over is even rarer). However it can be almost completely avoided by not having honey, normal cooking does not kill the spores - so just avoid, little risk, but not worth it.

Yes, all Dairy is fine, the problem with cows milk as a drink is the nutrition mix is simply wrong, and if you give them the majority of their calories through it, the excess protein, sodium and potassium will leave them struggling. As part of their diet it's fine. Remember most of the babies calories will still be from milk/formula.

You should probably introduce wheat early in the weaning process, it seems likely that early introduction limits coeliac disease / intollerence, but there's not huge evidence (babies are difficult to do ethical studies on :) )

No need to avoid food with common allergens, there's currently no evidence that it's more likely or harmful and some suggestion the other way. (ie the newborn defence is less likely to over react to an allergen so a negative response will be mild, and by seeing the allergen it gets used to it.)

Throat sized squishy things like grapes and Small hard things like peanuts are choking risks, one gets stuck in the throat, the other can be inhaled. The hard should be avoided, the former should be cut up small. Remember a baby can choke on anything though, and at any age, they need to learn.

Ok tks so much!