ok so i just tried blw and im confused!

[JRmumma]

As my 7mo seems intent on feeding himself with a spoon and don't let me fo it, i thought i might as well give blw a go. Id avoided before as in paranoid about choking.

Anyway, i cooked some carrot sticks and broccoli 'trees' until softish and gave them to him to have a go on. The broccoli was ok and id probably do it a bit firmer next time so the bobbly bits were soft but the stalk easier to hold.

BUT the carrots were a nightmare, broke easily but not soft enough to turn to mush in his mouth and whenever he 'but' a piece off i scooped it out of his mouth as it was too big for him. What did o do wrong? Should the carrots be firmer (or even raw) so he can just gnaw? Or softer so that they squish when he holds them?

I'm worrying whether any food i give him to hold will be a choking hazard now!

Stupid phone! Apologies for all of the typos!

I found carrots really difficult and ended up sticking to carrot mash til he was older.

Had more success with roast sweet potato wedges with the skins on - easy to grip and eat off the soft bit.

Good idea! I guess i could do carrots like that too.

How about fruit? Any suggestions?

if he likes feeding himself with a spoon, there's no reason why you can't stick with mashed up food and a spoon - you don't have to go the whole blw hog if you don't want to. I found blw almost impossible and gave up after a month.

I'm not sure what you mean. In what way were the pieces too big? They don't need to become mush, you're not trying to replicate the purée stage. Choking is a rare but possible hazard however you feed, no more likely (in fact some say less likely) with BLW. They'll gag which is different. That's their protective mechanism to stop them choking. Have you had a look at the book/website? Name escapes me at the moment.

I avoided carrots in the early months. brocolli, strawberries, peach, toast all went down well in the early days. If they break a bit off the idea is that they learn to move it around their mouth and spit it out if it goes down their throat in a big lump. There is quite alot of chewing and then spitting out in the early days. Mine have never choked (silent, means the food is stuck in their throat, very dangerous and needs urgent intervention) but did plenty of gaggin (noisy, means the food has hit the back of their mouth/top of their throat in an unexpected way and they are trying to move it, leave them to it and encourage them to chew to move the food back into their mouth).

I also did lots of loaded spoons. So mashed up food or just something sticky, put some on a spoon and hand them the handle end of the spoon. 4/5 they will miss their mouth but they quickyl get the idea!

Please don't scoop things out of his mouth, that is a recipe for choking. Allow gagging to do its job.

Ive been loading his spoon but he doesn't like to give it back to me and screams the house down.

I know i shouldn't scoop the food out of his mouth but I'm so panicky about it that i cant help it. That's the reason in not keen to do blw really. The reason I'm giving it a go is that spoon feeding is so much of a battle that he loses interest very quickly if i keep on taking the spoon from him.

Coming back to gagging/choking, am i right in thinking then that gagging and coughing the food back up is normal? And that i only need to intervene if he cant breathe? Will he gag on everything to start with?

Gagging is totally normal. At first it terrified me, but then it didn't even make me blink! It's a quick learning curve and my two stopped gagging pretty early on, once they figured out more about appropriate bite size, chewing, etc. definitely don't stick your fingers in to try to scoop food out!

Mine like whole apples, pears, etc as well as steamed carrot, broccoli, sliced avocado, banana, etc etc. I stuck to fruit and veg the first couple of months, then moved onto more variety. And of course milk was still the mainstay!

The babyleadweaning website has excellent recipes are support!

Please please please don't put your fingers into his mouth to scoop food out. As PP has said it is a really risky thing to do - you could push food further in by accident and cause choking.

If the carrot was steamed/boiled until floppy then that's fine. Your baby's gag reflex will protect him from choking. Gagging on food is normal whilst they are figuring out how to bite and chew. Any bits that are too large will be spat out or fall out on their own. It's important if you continue to give finger food that you try and relax, and let him figure it out for himself.

If carrot had freaked you out, you could try offering it as finely grated raw carrot instead for a while.

I let my DS wean himself. From 4months I have him a small plate with chopped up food that we were eating and a fork and spoon. He never had a problem. I never mashed anything except when we had mash potatoes. He's now 2.5 yrs and has only looked like he was choking twice. Once last night and a few months back. Just stayed calm. Picked him up and turned him upside down and have him a pat on the back. All children can choke regardless of age so shouldn't panic too much. Baby led weaning is pretty easy and I found it loads less stressful than when I did my DD with the soft mashed stuff

Yes we had lots of gagging and even vomiting a few times when we started BLW, I think it's all very normal.

I found slices of melon, toast fingers, cucumber (with the dark green skin cut off) all worked well in the early days. Also, you may have already tried them but all babies seem to LOVE the carrot puffs from Ella's Kitchen (the ones that look like giant wotsits), they melt in the mouth so might be easier on your nerves in the early days!

Re: spoons and reluctance to give them back - you need several! Load a new one and offer, he will drop the first which you can then re-load and offer on repeat.

Nope, tried that. He wont take the first one out of his mouth!

Kiwi fruit, we started weaning 2 weeks ago and it's a hit every time. Also enjoys banana and mango, strawberries haven't gone down to well they're too hard for dd2 to suck pieces off

I steam carrots like you, dd2 just gums bits off them (no teeth yet) also enjoys broccoli and cauli.

Ok so ive given up on blw. He obviously isn't ready for finger food as he has vomited every time I've tried it. Thanks for all of your advice.

On the plus side he has taken more of an interest in pure the last couple of days and is letting me have the spoon back a bit more!

I would just stick with purees, head on to mashed up stuff and so on, let him have the spoon when we wants (have a spoon each?). He'll be fine. I found it much easier to pre-prepare batches of stuff and freeze it rather than doing something fresh for each and every meal, plus I was still all over the place at 6/7 months and we were eating a lot of ready meals which I wasn't about to share with DD! Don't believe all you read about the 'evils' of traditional weaning either.

Thanks River. No i don't go along with the evils of traditional weaning, i just wanted to try blw to see if it was better for him in terms of actually getting some food in to him! But it failed! He isn't ready for finger/firmer foods clearly so I'm going back to pure only for now.

Ive already got so much in the freezer!

Ive seen a paediatrician today (not about weaning) and he thinks it may be that he is having too much milk so he has less interest in food. I know alot of people would say that i shouldn't restrict his milk at 7m but actually he has about 35oz per day so cutting back a little bit wont go him any harm. Plus the fact that he takes breakfast quite well (which i give him before milk in the morning) makes me think that actually it is probably the quantity of milk that is at least some of the problem.

I just need to have a think about timings now i reckon. As i know if he is too hungry he wont take food either, plus we don't have a nap routine so I'm just going to have to make sure i give him food at the most suitable time to ensure he wants it.

I really didn't want weaning to get so technical but if needs must....