BLW - doing it right?

[herethereandeverywhere]

I've been a bit lax weaning DD2, half heartedly offering baby rice/a bit of mush when I remember (which hasn't even been every day ) but she hasn't really taken much and definitely disliked the baby rice.

Anyway, thought I might try BLW. Have just chopped some pear and cucumber into batons and she's having the time of her life, mushing it in her hands and trying to shove it in her mouth, sucking on the batons and her fists

It looks brilliant, but is this right? I followed the Annabel Karmel mush/lumpy/food method for DD1 who did it no probs but DD2 is a different kettle of fish!

Sounds good to me!

The idea is for the child to eat what you eat and eat with you but TBH we really struggled to do that and gave DS his own meals because of the timing of his meals as much as anything. We did try to eat with him as much as possible even if only a snack.

Be prepared for lots of mess and for little to be actually consumed at first! IME those on BLW often needs more milk for longer than those being spoon fed mush

Sounds right to me too. My understanding of BLW is that it is basically offering finger food/ anything that they can feed themselves.

With my little one, we used the traditional spoon feeding alongside finger food. I don't think it has to be either BLW or spoon feeding.

Sounds spot on. Your DD2 won't be getting much actual food in for a while, sp keep up her milk and keep going. Eggs bread is a good BLW food for protein and no teeth i've found.

Sounds spot on to me.

Give whatever you are eating
Don't as salt whilst cooking
No honey before 12 months
Avoid 'whole' nuts/grapes/cherry toms OR cut in half

You do realise BLW is really called "the lazy way to wean"

Add not as...

Can't really do blw wrong really, that will eat what they can/like and eat as much as they need. I did the purée thing for a bit as dd was weaned slightly early on medical advice (severe reflux) but as soon as she was 6 months I did blw and gave her everything and anything! Really good eater now, not fussy at all, even the few things she doesn't like she will at least try first before deciding she doesn't like them, and often if I keep giving things to her she will decide she likes them eventually. She will sit there for hours eating peas one by one!

Only thing I avoid is whole nuts and hot chili, though I do make things with other spices like cumin etc. and I think you need to avoid honey until 12 months. Other than that not much you condo wrong, just make sure they are supervised while eating.

Oh yes and I also avoid salt in cooking, me/dp add salt at the table.

I started off on baby porridge but after a couple of weeks moved to finger foods because I'm lazy it seemed easier. Sucesses so far have been breadsticks / melba toast with cream cheese, roast chcken, fish pie, cottage pie, eggy bread, broccoli, sweet potato wedges, banana, pears. I'm amazed how much he eats!

Best buy so far has been wipe clean tablecloth from poundland to go on the floor!

Sounds like you're doing the right thing. We BLW'd DS and it was the best decision we made. Now we have DD I'm really looking forward to doing the same with her. I would suggest buying the Baby Led Weaning Cookbook. The recipes are really straight forward and more often than not in the early days we would cook for the family even if we weren't all eating together. It also points out which recipes can be divided up and frozen in portions. It wasn't long before we were eating Thai Chicken Curry as a family.
As for the mess I've seen kitchens and babies after they'd been spoon fed and it looked like a battle site. I'd say BLW is less messy than that.
I'd definitely recommend buying the cookbook for ideas in the first few weeks tho- we still cook from it nearly 2 yrs later. Good luck.

And we have always given her a spoon/cutlery and just let her eat with her hands if she wants and always eaten with her at the same time. Gradually she just copied us and started to use the cutlery.

Buy a piece of plastic covered tablecloth type fabric and put it under the high hair!

I've done BLW, its brilliant and my DD has been eating the same as us since she was about 8 months. From 6 months, I just gave her stick shaped food that she could hold and she got on famously with that.

If you want some help and advice, get the BLW book by Gill Rapley, it tells you all you need to know about it

There's also a wonderful forum online Baby Led Weaning Website which is run by our very own MN Aitch