Baby led weaning equipment recommendations please

[Eminybob]

Can you recommend the best brand of self feeding spoons (7m+) and free flow beaker?

Starting DS on baby led weaning in the new year and although the books recommend the above, I'm struggling to find the right ones in the shops.

Thanks.

1. A baby
2. Food

It will be a fair few months before he gets the hang of spoons but a regular teaspoon is fine! As for a beaker, we initially used the Tommee Tippee one from the pound shop and then we got DD a Doidy cup because it's also useful for eating soup/yoghurt etc as well as drinks. BLW is about lessening the work, kit isn't really necessary. Have fun and keep the camera nearby!

Tommee tippee beaker is the best. They are around a £1. I have munchkin spoons which DS seems to manage ok. Don't like the tommee tippee spoons (the long weaning ones) as he can't manoeuvre them

Tommee tippee cup.
Plastic mat under antilop chair.
long sleeved bib
baby

we got some plastic spoons from supermarket that were short and curved so ergonomically easier to handle but to be honest, she didn't really use a spoon until she started nursery at 12 months.

suspicious? Moi?

Second the cheap and cheerful Tommy tippy ones, the ones with anti leak valves etc just seemed to make it harder for dd to get anything out, small plastic spoons without too deep a bowl were best to us but as pp says they don't always get the hang of spoons for a while and hands are fine. You might also like to get a bib with long arms and a plastic sheet for under the highchair.

Agree, you dont need spoons, dd just chucks them anyway!
Have fun, blw is amazing, my 10 month old eats anything!

Sounds like I need a trip to pound land.

Can I ask this, if I am giving DS something like porridge or weetabix and he can't use the spoon himself, can I feed it to him or is this defeating the point of blw?

You can do whatever you like, but my DD managed porridge and weetabix perfectly well licking it off her fingers and faceplanting into the bowl

I think it depends how frustrated your DS gets really - if my DD had become upset that she couldn't get any then I'd have helped her but as it was she enjoyed figuring out how she could manage it herself.

Also - you can make porridge into fingers - mix 3tsp oats and 3tsp milk, leave to thicken then spread into a microwaveable dish and check it every 30 seconds (90 seconds used to do for us I think). Leave to set and then cut into fingers. You can add raisins etc to these, dd used to like blueberry puree as it made them purple and therefore very exciting

You could load a spoon and hand it to her my daughter soon learnt to hand me back the spoon to re fill but was using a spoon messily but happily buy about 9 months. It's so much fun, enjoy.
I'd definitely go for long sleeve bib and a small mat for under chair, especially when eating out because you can give them back stuff they drop on the floor knowing it's clean.

1. Baby
2. Long sleeved bib
3. Any old plastic spoon to fill and hand to them
4. Mat for table if they are sitting at table rather than in high chair with tray
5. Dog

Agree, tomee tippee cheapy cup. I just got spoons and a splash mat from Poundland while I was there.

Made porridge super thick and pre loaded some spoons and left them on the highchair tray for dd to just suck on (and throw!)

We did blw and spoon feeding, ds has been fab with cutlery since about 13 months.

Careful experimentation will also reveal the magic moment where a Weetabix is soft enough to eat but still relatively solid to hold.

My top tip was to roll banana fingers in Weetabix 'dust' as they were too slimy otherwise and kept shooting out of DS hands!

Ooh and actually from the equipment angle, my mum's old crinkle cutter for chips was really useful for chopping pretty much anything into ridged sticks which are much easier to hold.

We didn't bother with a bib - just stripped him to his nappy!! I got a pack of babysoft flannels from, you've guessed it, the pound shop, and wiped down baby, table, highchair, mat.

I loved baby led weaning and DS eats everything now and I have learnt how to cook from scratch too.

Enjoy!

At first just let them eat with their hands explore textures - also spoons just make you want to try helping them when the whole concept of blw is letting them do it themselves. We bought a splash mat and put food on a kids placemat on our table.

BLW isn't a secret society OP. You can do whatever you want. You don't get marked down for the odd bit of spoon feeding. True blw has particular guidelines but there are no rules - do what works for you and your family.

I did half meals self feeding and half spoon feeding, as we have lunch out a lot and I couldn't cope with the blw mess in public.

I agree with the tommee tippee cups. Cheap and cheerful, easy to use and way to clean.

We bought boots spoons but only because I got a voucher for 25% off tableware at the time I was looking. There's all much of a muchness tbh.

Do they sucked in my the plates/bowls that promise to stick to your highchair. They don't. Nothing is safe from a babies sweeping arm.

Sorry, that should be "Don't be sucked in by ..."

Mustn't type while feeding!

Boots used to do angled spoon / fork sets that were much easier to manipulate and actually resulted in some food actually going in the mouth. Mine mostly used their hands though.

I agree the suction bowls were more than useless!

I had a suction bowl that worked perfectly, think I got it from Mothercare.

Boots do (or did) angled spoons.

I think I'm probably overcomplicating things aren't I?

I'm so excited about weaning but so nervous at the same time in case I do it wrong!

I did get the Antilop high chair as I'd read so many great things and DS does seem to enjoy sitting in it already.

In about six months' time, get

...a few cake forks from your local kitchen shop. Mine cost 84p each. Perfect size for small hands.