BLW - I'm new, a few questions please!

[AmandaNov10]

Hi everyone, my DC2 is 6 mths and we have been weaning about 3/4 wks ( started at 5.5 mths). With DC1 I was Annabel Karmel by the book and all was fine. DC2 however is grabbing the spoons from me, wants to feed herself, and loves to suck, I gave h one of those carrot puff things and she loved the independence so I thought Id give BLW a go for her. But as a previous devotee to Ms Karmel I am a bit confused! What about 'stage 1' weaning then stage 2 and all that where only some foods are allowed at each stage? Right now I honestly think if I gave DC a bit of toast she'd chomp away but is this Ok? Do you literally just give them what you think and see what happens? Clueless! X

Get a copy of the BLW book by Gill Rapley - this explains the ideas behind BLW. It's really well worth reading it, and it will help with explaining the process to anyone who is curious, doubtful etc.

In summary though, with BLW you offer ordinary family food from day 1 (although no salt, no honey, no whole nuts or similar). Baby then learns to pick it up and eventually to eat it. It can be messy to begin with! It can seem like they don't eat much at the start, but keep an eye on nappies and you'll see more goes in than you think!

Thanks so much, so literally spaghetti Bol from day one or an I taking it too far now! What about choking? Thanks x

Yep, you could do spag Bol from day one. I was a bit nervous of that, plus I had to rethink what I cooked for me and DP to make sure it would be ok for ds. I started off doing simple things for ds like steamed/roasted veg, until I was brave enough to give meals that we shared. I found the River Cottage Baby & Toddler cookbook has some great recipes that are suitable for the whole family.

As for choking, that could happen anytime no matter what method of weaning you choose. The key is to know the difference between gagging (a normal noisy thing and not dangerous) and choking - silent and scary. The best thing is to do a baby first aid course so that you know what to do in the unlikely event of choking.

Spag bol might be a bit messy for day 1! But definitely go for it if you want to. Pasta twirls or penne are a bit easier to grab than spaghetti to start with. Mince is tricky until they get the pincer grip but meatballs work a treat.

Re choking - neither of mine have ever choked, granted 2 is rather a small sample though. With BLW the theory is that they handle the food so have an idea what size and texture anything going into their mouth is, so they learn how to deal with it. They also put food into the front of their mouth, so they start by learning how to chew, then how to move food back in a controlled way and swallow. With spoon feeding it's possible to suck smooth purees straight off the spoon into the back of the mouth and swallow - when lumpy food is then presented on a spoon, sucking it straight back will trigger the gag reflex or (infrequently) result in a choke. That's the theory anyway!

I'm not sure how old your DC1 is but it's likely pretty much anything you give her would be suitable for a 6 month baby, the exception being honey. You might like to play around with how it's presented (i.e. large chunks of veg so that baby can grab it instead of little bits that an older one would eat off a spoon) but in terms of the actual food you cook you should be able to feed them the same.

HTH

There are no stages to BLWing. You just put food in front of them and eventually they eat it

Thanks so much everyone! The more I hear about it the more it seems so simple and so right. I just have a real gut feeling my LO will really take to it. She's 6mths and already seems really frustrated by purees and just seems to want to do it herself. I've got the book now so I'm going to try it and read it at the same time and see how we go! Wish me luck! (First time around I had a spoon in one hand a baby wipe in the other! Ha!) xxx

Yeah, so this is messy! And so far I've only tried porridge and toast!

We started with sticks of steamed veg, carrots, broccoli, roasted sweet potato etc. Only for a few weeks really, from then DD ate pretty much whatever we ate (cooked without added salt to the disappointment of poor DH) with the exception of fajitas, just too fiddly for her.

Watch the salt, you can get low salt oxo cubes. They can't have honey till 12mo and take skin of sausages. I also read that, weirdly, white bread or the 50/50 stuff is better for them at first as wholemeal can bung them up a bit.

The BLW cookbook is great, explains the basics of BLW but also some fab recipes. DD loves the baked stuff like muffins and scones, brilliant for snacks!

DD did gag quite a bit at first, which is a little scary but hold your nerve! Try to stay calm and just cough, they'll copy you which helps. Most of my friends did purees and stages etc and I got lots of the 'I couldn't deal with the gagging/choking' comments. Thing is they just put it off really, they're all now dealing with it at 12mo after introducing 'finger foods'.

We had chilli last night, casserole tonight, pasta and pesto tmrw, then pizza after that. Yummy and DD loves it. Will def do BLW with a second.