Blw help please

[Pantspants]

Apologies if this has been asked before but I've a quick skim through and couldn't find anything. Can anyone recommend a good blw book? Ds is 6.5 mths and we've been puréeing (now moved on to mashing) whatever we have. I do offer finger foods such as toast, dairy lea sandwiches, banana etc at lunchtimes.

Tea time has become quite difficult the last couple of days as ds wants to feed himself and will scream, grunt and keep his mouth closed until you give him the bowl and spoon. Then he's quite happy.

I think blw would suit him better but have no idea where to start what foods to offer and don't know anyone else who has done it . Please help!!

I blw both my dc without a book. Just used soft finger foods!
Cooked veg
Pancakes
Toast - with butter, peanut butter, humous, Philly etc
Ham
Bits of roast meat
Falafel!
At 6 months babies can have pretty much anything...

I used this website. The lady who wrote it is an MNer

River cottage baby book introduction is good. I'd buy a second hand copy or even just read that bit in the bookshop and just alter your own cooking as you need to. The Gill Rapley book is handy but she's a bit militant.

Thank you all very much! Given me some ideas for different meals. That website seems good and will try and track down the relevant bit of the river cottage book.

Giving him roast meat makes me nervous though... He has a tendency to stuff massive bits if bread in his mouth and cough until it comes up. Will just have to take a deep breath and put my big girl pants on

You could try meatballs instead of roast meat.

Think a large part of BLW is putting your big girls pants on and trusting them to get on with it. For ages DS chewed on his meat until he'd got all the flavour out and then after a weird coughing fit spat the stuff out. He never choked on anything though.

On the one hand, BLW books are good for first-time BLWrs add they can provide recipe ideas and support/comfort re the likelihood of gagging and the unlikelihood of actual choking etc. On the other hand, the Gill Rapley book is very much all-or-nothing - it's definitely advocating BLW, as opposed to purees/spoon-feeding mixed with finger foods.

A lot of people will tell you that they were doing BLW 20 years ago before Rapley started cashing in on it etc and that it's nothing new, and people have BLWing since time began. Whilst people might have been doing finger food since time began, the other principles of BLW, such as giving babies the same meals as the rest of the family and putting a selection of foods in front of them for them to choose from (rather then encouraging/bribing/cajoling them to eat something in particular, and trying to get them to finish everything on their plates) are claimed by Rapley as her own.

Whether you agree with that or not, there's no denying that BLW is very entertaining for all involved, and IMO less labour-intensive than pureeing. It's not a walk in the park though - you still need patience and coverall bibs! ;)

"Think a large part of BLW is putting your big girls pants on grin and trusting them to get on with it."

Absolutely!

The baby led weaning cookbook is great. It explains all of the how-to stuff really clearly before getting into the recipes.

Thank you all. Lunch was houmous rice cakes and cucumber and went much better than I thought it would. We did both need a bath at the end though! Just need to convince dh now...

They get better at it with time. Dd used to make an awful mess, but now only needs a bath if it's something really saucy.