BLW for a nervous Mum

[vvviola]

DD2 is 6.5 months and isn't showing a huge interest in purees. Ignores the spoon, or only let's it near her when she has her hand right in it. Some days she gets really excited by the food but doesn't seem to know what to do with it. Kind of laps at the spoon.

I handed her some toast the other day which she happily gummed into submission, until I got too nervous and took it away. Today at dinner she took a quarter of a tomato from DH's hand and played with it & sucked at it quite happily until again I got too nervous (could she choke on it? Possible allergy? Should she be having it raw?) and took it away. Complete & utter meltdown resulted.

I know I'm over cautious about food. I was still mashing stuff for DD1 when she was eating sandwiches at the childminder's house. Thing werent helped by a choking incident one Mother's Day when DD1 was 18 month old - she actually started going blue - I was terrified.

Thing is, I wonder if BLW might just suit DD2. But is it even worth trying when I'm this nervous? Should I just keep going with the purée and hope she gets the hang of it soon?

Go slowly a bit at a time try a bit of both - dunking the toast in the puree . Give the spoon and let her play/dunk wave around! Don't take the complete BLW route IMO ifyou are not 100% happy otherwise dd2 will get confused when you take things away.

I'm nervous about BMW /finger foods too. What size pieces work best?

Safe foods to start are steamed veggies, to the point that gumming them makes them fall apart. Raw tomato and toast are a bit more advanced. You want anything that breaks off to be easy to gum into nothing iyswim.

I found banana caused a lot of gagging issues which I didn't expect.

The prices need to be big enough to hold, like a broccoli floret. Don't give the pieces bitesizes. Baby will hold and suck/ gum on it until bits come off that are manageable.

I know the current vogue is BLW but just a suggestion...

I began weaning with all my three children by preparing a bowl of pureed veg or fruit, or a bowl of baby rice, and putting tiny amounts on a spoon. At first they blew the food, then licked it off their lips then sucked it off the spoon.

Once they had the hang of that I would have two spoons, one of which I held and the other was given to the child. He/she would bang the spoon into the food and splash it about at first but would eventually get the idea and co-ordinate spoon-to-mouth. Then I would introduce lumpier food (mashed instead of pureed) and, gradually, all sorts of finger food - slivers of carrot, avocado etc etc. You need to be patient, not leave the child alone with the food, cover yourself and the child and look forward to a very messy time. If the child doesn't masticate the pieces and begins to splutter just take this food away, go back to purees and try again in, say, a week's time.

All three were weaned without a problem. Some are able to eat lumpy food before others. Everyone I knew did it this way and I cannot remember any child having a problem. I am not sure how anyone knows when to begin BLW - babies cannot say, 'Mummy, enough of my exclusively milk diet, please may I have some of what you are having.'

I pureed food in advance and froze it in the ice cube tray.

My favourite pic of DD2 is of her with her face and hair plastered in yogurt and with two little eyes peeping out.

It's easy to know when a baby is ready to BLW, they can physically pick up the food and put it in their mouth. Not so easy to know when a baby is ready to be spoonfed.

It's not a fashion, it's just what people did before corporations realized they could make money out of baby food. The whole of human existence up until perhaps the 1950s I reckon.

My LO has 2 teeth@6 months which means he's able to bite off chunks, rather than gum things into submission. This is making me nervous and I end up taking things off him too after a few gags and a splutter... How is it best to proceed? Just with soft stuff that will disintegrate as if he didn't have teeth?

I started with soft food like roast veg, steamed broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, plums, stewed apples, burger patties, omelettes, rice cakes. DD doesn't have any teeth until 9 or 10mo. None of the food above will come off in hard chunks and you can make family food from them.

DD started weaning in winter so roast veg and roast potatoes are obvious choices. So is cauliflower cheese. Burger pattie type food are used as meat balls or put into burgers, pittas. Eggs you can make fritattas and omelettes.

Have a look at www.babyledweaning.com

I'm sorry you had such a scare with DD1 - it's very frightening isn't it!

You need to keep in mind that there is a HUGE difference between gagging and choking. Some babies will gag a lot, some hardly at all. Gagging is fine - a normal process.

You should read the Gill Rapley book - it really explains how/why BLW works and how to best do it.

If you haven't already - then you should do a good first aid course - it will give you a lot more confidence in dealing with choking, should it actually occur. (I know you already 'coped' with DD1's incident - but even so).

I am not sure how anyone knows when to begin BLW - babies cannot say, 'Mummy, enough of my exclusively milk diet, please may I have some of what you are having

It is actually very easy to know when they are ready to 'eat' - they show an interest and if sat on your knee when you are eating, will try to help themselves :)

It doesn't matter if they play with it at first and don't get much down - it's all about learning. Milk should be their main source of 'food' anyway.

Can I also suggest taking an infant first aid course if you've not done one already? Our local children's centres offer them for a few pounds, and whilst I was relatively confident about trying BLW, I did feel better knowing that if he choked, I'd know what to do. I did have to sit on my hands the first few times, and it's still hard work with my mum who leaps in the air a lot (and she did the first aid course too!) but knowing that gagging is them "dealing" with the food helped me relax - if he's choking, he wouldn't be dealing with it at all.