Help! DS has decided BLW is the way to go! Am a BLW virgin!

[jaybirdsinginginthedeadofnight]

So I started weaning DS at 51/2 months spoon fed purées etc. After a couple of weeks he started refusing the spoon but would happily grab stuff I or DH were eating and get stuck in. So I'm guessing he likes the concept of feeding himself etc have given him steamed carrot sticks, banana and toast all with great success.

My question is where do I go from here? I'm so clueless, didn't read up on BLW he has just totally taken us by surprise. Oh and also when does the gagging stop?

Just keep at it! Keep offering similar tastes and introducing new ones every so often. When DD started spoon refusing at the same age she wanted to try everything and anything - so we just gave her things we though she could manage. Fruits,veg, toast, different breads (pitta, bagel etc), homemade pizza, pasta, loads of cheese (she loves it) etc. the gagging stopped for us after 3/4 weeks. Once she had got the hang of "bite sized pieces"

Good luck - I loved BLW! So much easier than the spoon feeding!

Avoid salt, honey, shellfish, excess sugar, undercooked foods like runny eggs. Apart from that, just put a bit of whatever is on your plate, on his plate and let him get on with it. It really is that simple.

Eat a rainbow of fairly plainly cooked foods.

Thanks, should I invest in a BLW cookbook? Or just wing it? And what about breakfast? I can't see past toast.......

Ok so he eats what we eat, but what if we are eating something saucy like spaghetti for example?

but what if we are eating something saucy like spaghetti for example

Give him some too!

Though you may want to invest in a shower mat for the floor and a long armed bib.

BLW is not a "thing" it is simply dishing up a portion of whatever you are having (with the caveats mentioned above, no salt etc)

Just brace yourself for mess!

Toast is fine. Porridge is good because it sticks to the spoon.

My dc struggled with spaghetti because they would swallowing while still sucking the spaghetti in, shich would make thrm retch. It wasn't a problem if I broke or cut the spaghetti first. But TBH none of mine liked pasta at all until they were 2 or 3.

If you want to read a book get Gill Rapley's Baby Led Weaning although it's not necessary and is all about common sense. Do try mildly spiced food though, obviously not a madras, but curries and chillies are fine.

I consciously did blw with my first and am now doing it with my second although I doubt she would have lastedlong spoon ffeeding anyway!

Ok so we've been doing not too bad. DS loves cheese and pasta and is definitely happiest when he's feeding himself. However I am looking for tips on what to give him or maybe how to get that balance right of something firm enough for him to hold, but soft enough to eat. Banana for example just squishes through his fingers as he struggles to get it in his mouth, or this morning I toasted a pancake for him but it fell apart and he got really frustrated so I ended up putting bite sized pieces in his mouth for him. Starting to worry he's not actually eating a great quantity!

Just try lots of different foods, tastes, textures. He will eventually get the hang of varying his grip.

I vividly remember dd would grip a fistful of food, eat all around her fist, but not realise that she had to open her fist to get at what was inside it. So she would bury her face in her hand, and in the process shove the food up her nose! The look on her face was priceless

I'm weaning DD2 at the moment. She's 8 mo. We did spaghetti tonight. Mess horrendous but she loved it.

Foods we've had success with include pitta bread strips with humous, wedges of hard boiled egg, breadsticks, strips of omelette, as well as bread dunked into soup.